Growing up, Iâd always been fascinated by science fiction narratives, having been suckered in by Star Warsat a very young age. But it wasnât until I stumbled upon The Hitchhikerâs GuideTo The Galaxy that I realized stories didnât have to take everything so seriously. This pivoted to an obsession with comedy, leading me to write skits for the stage and screen in my late 20s as a fun side-gig along with my own comedic sci-fi novel series. Iâve always appreciated stories that lean into the lighter side of things. Reality is grim and dark enough as it is, our escapism doesnât need to double down on that.
Carmen Loup's The Audacity is the successor to The Hitchhikerâs Guide to the Galaxy that I've been looking for for a long time. Loup takes strands of Hitchhiker's Guide DNA lovingly engineers it into its own unique tale filled with bright, colorful, and snarky characters and a fun, insightful (and, indeed, inciteful) voice that rings incredibly true to an Americanized Douglas Adams (that is, lacking in British poise and restraint). The Audacity is simply an amazing sci-fi comedy from start to finish and feels like a love letter to The Hitchhiker's Guide and, indeed, to all its fans. Plus, the entire first trilogy is available now (with more to come!).
Rocket racing can be deadly, but working in food service is worse.
Mayâs humdrum life is flung into hyperdrive when sheâs abducted, but not all aliens are out to probe her. Sheâs inadvertently rescued by Xan, an âI Love Lucyâ obsessed alien with the orangest rocket ship in the universe.
But you still have to eat in space, and rocket racing is a quick, if life-threatening, way to make a living.
Finally, May has a career she loves and a friend to share her winnings with. Until a Chaos goddess possessing Xanâs ex decides to start a cult on EarthâŚ
The Hike is a completely bizarre, surrealist masterpiece by former Deadspin Columnist Drew Magary. While itâs impossible to describe the plot, I personally recommend this book if you donât mind being taken on a strange, strange journey filled with fantastical creatures, a bit of horror, and some mind-bending introspection. You might not know where youâre going to end up, but part of the fun is strapping in and enjoying the crazy ride. Fans of animation like Infinity Trainor Adventure Timemight enjoy this if theyâre looking for something with a grittier, adult edge to it.
âThe Hike just works. Itâs like early, good Chuck Palahniuk. . . . Magary underhands a twist in at the end that hits you like a sharp jab at the bell. . . . Itâs just that good.â âNPR.org
From the author of The Night the Lights Went Out and The Postmortal, a fantasy saga unlike any youâve read before, weaving elements of folk tales and video games into a riveting, unforgettable adventure of what a man will endure to return to his family
The Strange Case of Guaritori Diolco
by
Bill Hiatt,
Guaritori awakens from a coma to find that he's lost twenty years--and his entire world.
FiancĂŠe, family, and friends are all missing, perhaps dead. Technology has failed, and magic has risen, leaving society in ruins. Most survivors are at the mercy of anyone who has strong enough magic. Guaritori hasâŚ
Lingeriais a sarcastic, humor-infused take on the portal fantasy, which forces the author of a beloved fantasy series into the world that he's written - and come to despise.
It's a solidly entertaining book that appropriately skewers a lot of the tropes of fantasy fiction and the associated fandom.
I enjoyed the world of Lingeria and it's definitely a fun read for people seeking to scratch that Discworlditch.
LINGERIA: A wondrous world of centaurs, goblins, elves, knights, bounty hunters, giant centipedes, angry bookies, four-armed Yetis, and a single wizard. There is just one problem â Lingeria shouldnât exist. It is the product of acclaimed, and depressed, author Norman Halliday
So, how did Norman come to be sleeping on the couch of one of his fiction characters? And why are Normanâs novels revered as Lingerian scripture? Also, why does all of Lingeria believe Norman to be God? Actually, a better question is ⌠Who s this cruel wizard, about whom Norman never wrote, that seized power over the land?âŚ
Old Cold Cannibalis a bit of an outlier in this list, as it doesnât fully conform to the Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett style of humor/narration or plotting. But itâs a unique book with an amazing voice. I have a soft spot for harsh 1800s white narrators whose doubling down on arrogance and (historically accurate) racism wrap around from being awful to weirdly and unsettlingly charming. Old Cold Cannibal delivers on that 100% and allows it to infuse some humor into what is otherwise a very dark and disturbing narrative that follows a journey across the pre-Civil War U.S. to find and slay a dragon. Itâs a rough, but entertaining read.
1849. Two men âprofessional con artists on the runâ cross the dangerous deserts and plains of Texas and New Mexico, on a quest to find and slay a Dragon that has laid waste to the countryside.
Heâs looking for the one thing sheâs done with: family.
Brade Oliver arrives in Grand, Montana, looking for bloodâand answers. Genetic tests reveal that his biological family may reside in the small, western town, and heâs on a mission to finally discover the one thing his adoptive family couldnât giveâŚ
World Enough (And Time)is an absolute gem of a book that reads like Fawlty Towers set on Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic (if youâre old enough to remember that game!). It reads like a drawn-out comedy of errors that balances madcap situations and multiple outlandish characters into a brilliant narrative that â albeit a bit long at times â dovetails nicely with the protagonist's emotional journey. This is one to pick up if you enjoy character-driven stories told with wit and a bit of poignancy.
In the 24th century, companies offer deep-space cruises on luxury ships, but no one takes a deep-space cruise for pleasure. Because the ships travel at nearly the speed of light, 20 years pass on Earth during a standard cruise, while the passengers age only two years. Most passengers are sufferers of degenerative diseases who hope that, during those extra Earth years, medical science will catch up with their maladies. Many of these passengers are elderly; nearly all are fantastically rich. And then there's Jeremiah Brown. 31 years old and in the pink of health, Jeremiah is "rich" only through hisâŚ
Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his best friend, Stephanie Dyer, only makes him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things get worse when they get evicted from their 5th-floor walk-up and find ads for their Detective Agency plastered all over the city. The only problem is: Michael and Stephanie donât have one of those.
Despite their incompetence, Stephanie pursues this crazy scheme and they stumble upon a web of missing people linked by a sexually audacious theoretical physicist and his experiments with space-time. And unless Michael and Stephanie can put their personal issues aside and fix the hole they tore in the multi-verse, the concept of existence itself may, ironically, cease to exist.
Secrets, misunderstandings, and a plethora of family conflicts abound in this historical novel set along the Brazos River in antebellum Washington County, East Texas.
It is a compelling story of two neighboring plantation families and a few of the enslaved people who serve them. These two plantations are a microcosmâŚ