TORONTO - Bestselling Irish author Eoin Colfer knew he'd been handed the opportunity of a lifetime when he was asked to write a novel for the cult-classic "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" comic sci-fi series, penned by the late Douglas Adams.

But it wasn't immediately apparent to him that the project had its risks. If he couldn't satisfy the series' rabid fan base -- of which he considers himself a member -- the outcome could be ugly.

"After much deliberation -- because I initially said it wasn't a great idea -- I decided I really couldn't pass it up, an opportunity like this never comes along. It's not that it rarely comes along -- for someone like me it would never come along," Colfer said in an interview this week during the International Festival of Authors in Toronto.

"But the day before it came out I really started to realize what I had done and how much was riding on this, for me.

"I started to realize this could kill me, I might never write for adults again."

Colfer, 44, was hand-picked to write the sixth novel in the series by Adams's wife, who knew him from his "Artemis Fowl" books, which are targeted at teens and younger readers.

She wanted to have the new novel -- titled "And Another Thing" -- released to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original "Hitchhiker's" story, and to honour Adams's wish that the series be wrapped up with one final book.

Colfer was a teenager when he picked up the original "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" novel in the early 1980s. The story had been released as a radio play on the BBC before being turned into a book, a theatrical production, a TV series and, in 2005, a film.

"When you're a teenager you tend to adopt five or six things -- be they movies, music or books, and they kind of become your badges --and for us it was 'Hitchhiker's,' 'Monty Python,' Rush, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd," he said.

The original novel's witty dialogue, storylines and memorable characters inspired countless fans, including some prominent admirers in the entertainment world who have paid tribute to Adams by sprinkling "Hitchhiker's" references into their own material.

Perhaps the book's most oft-quoted reference relates to a supercomputer's effort to solve one of the world's most frustrating mysteries.

The computer is programmed to find the "answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything." About 7.5 million years later, the computer returns the answer: 42. Alas, the computer couldn't determine the proper question to make sense of the answer.

The number has been slipped as an inside joke into TV shows like "Lost" and "Stargate Atlantis," and fans of Coldplay have speculated that the band's song "42" is a nod to Adams. If you search Google for "the answer to life, the universe, and everything," the first thing displayed is another homage to Adams.

The title of Radiohead's song "Paranoid Android" refers to the novel's character Marvin, a depressed robot, and the name of Yahoo's online translation service, Babelfish, is a reference to a creature that acts as a universal translator in the book.

Colfer said he never considered that he could write the "Hitchhiker's" story as well as Adams but was worried that his version wouldn't do the series justice, and that some fans might not give it a proper chance.

He remembered the backlash when it was announced that respected author Sebastian Faulks would write a new James Bond novel, and when Daniel Craig was cast to play Bond on screen.

"It was ridiculous that when Daniel Craig was announced as James Bond people had the energy to be annoyed about that. But when he's great, then it's all forgiven, and I thought the ('Hitchhiker's') book would be like that," Colfer said.

"If the book is good and people laugh, remember their youth, then I would be forgiven and that's what's happened, I think. I hope. So far."

He's also made a point of avoiding fan forums online but says he's heard nothing but positive feedback at book signings and events.

"A few times you've got guys there staring lasers at you, but nobody has come to me and said anything negative, not one person, whereas beforehand everything was negative, everything," he said.

"I had this idea of the 'Hitchhiker's' fans being these nasty evil bloggers, and there are sections of those, but I think they're just kind of nasty evil bloggers anyway and they just happen to read 'Hitchhiker's."'