Those two are my favorite authors, but sadly I’ve read all their work and neither are making any more.
I absolutely love that style of writing and I’d love to know if there’s more like them!
I don’t know you, but I love you already 💖
Neil Gaiman - More on the Fantasy side than irony. His works are still a pleasure. And ofk his collaboration with Terry “Good Omen”. Also check “American Gods” and “Anansi Boys”.
Kurt Vonnegut - Not what you would call “Fun and laugh” works, but his stories are crazy, well written and full of irony and smart social critics.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Craddle is a wonderfully satirical novel.
American Gods is very good as well, I did not try the other books by Neil Gaimlan you mention but will definitely give them a try, thanks for the recommendation.
Good Omens was like my favourite cake spiced with bits of oh-so-ironic-and-absurd British humour.
There’s always Neil Gaiman. His style is definitely different, but you can feel some similarities. He and Pratchett wrote Good Omens together. Check out Stardust, the Graveyard Book, or American Gods. And of course The Sandman, but it is darker.
I’m listening to the audiobook of the graveyard book narrated by him right now and it’s fantastic
Gaiman’s narrations are fantastic. Add Neverwhere to the list above!
Try the stories of Harry Harrison.
I’ll second Harry Harrison, and specifically recommend Bill the Galactic Hero.
Also the Stainless Steel Rat series - it’s not as slapsticky as Bill, but still comedic.
Oh yeah, I remember this one! I remember it being pretty funny, but that must have been 22 years ago, wow.
Definitely read some Wodehouse.
Edit: Stanisław Lem’s Pirx series as well!
Maybe check out Christopher Moore
Phule’s series might tickle your fancy:
Robert Lynn Asprin also wrote the Myth Adventures series. Phule’s Company is sci-fi comedy, Myth Adventures is fantasy.
Haven’t read the Myth Adventures - will go and have a look now! Underrated author.
I think a lot of the comments are focusing on similar subject veins, but for similar writing styles as you asked, I would suggest checking out Christopher Moore or jason pargin( former pen name David Wong)
Yes, great thought! His book “Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” is SO GOOD
This book is on my once-a-year reading list - I also love the Bloodsucking Fiends books.
That book made me laugh out loud on a plane in the middle of turbulence.
The Rivers of London series by Ben Aarronovich; It’s a police procedural set in a world where magic is real, and exploited by dangerous criminal groups. The book’s protagonist is (initially) a trainee magic-cop in a centuries-old division of the Metropolitan Police.
It’s actually a very dark book in some points, but Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is that style of absurdist humor set during World War II. My English teacher assigned that one to me when he found out I loved Hitchhiker’s Guide.
I second (third? fourth?) the Kurt Vonnegut suggestions too. I have never regretted reading anything with his name on it.
Craig Shaw Gardner’s Ebenezum/ Wuntvor trilogies are fantasy comedy.
Philip Jose Farmer (as Kilgore Trout) wrote Venus on the Half Shell as a sci fi comedy.
(On the topic of Kilgore Trout - that pseudonym is actually a character from several of Kurt Vonnegut)'s books - also mentioned in this thread.)
Yahtzee Croshaw (the Zero Punction guy) has also written several fantasy and sci fi comedy books - Jacques McKeown is one series.
Glen Cook, more famous for the Black Company series - also writes a fantasy comedy series - Garrett P.I..
Steven Erikson, more famous for the Malazan books - also writes a sci-fi comedy series - Wilful Child.
I recently read The Stranger Times by Caimh McDonnell, an urban fantasy about a tabloid reporting on supernatural events that’s very tongue in cheek and although the humour doesn’t always hit, it did remind me of Rivers of London by ways of Terry Pratchett. The characters are certainly very Pratchett-ian. The story starts of with the Stranger Times looking for a “new Tina” a.k.a. assistent editor because the editor is insufferably rude and terrible to people. The job description reads: “Publication seeks desperate human being with capability to form sentences, using the English language. No imbeciles, optimists or Simons need apply.”
I’d definitely agree with the people recommending Robert Rankin.
Tom Sharpe is also funny (Wilt, Porterhouse Blue, etc.)
Also (disclaimer that it’s by someone I used to know which may affect my judgement) Go Up by Simon Broadbent is clearly influenced by the Terry Pratchett books set in Ankh Morpork.
I didn’t like it quite as much, and it is more middle grade, but A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking feels kind of Pratchett influenced.
Give Robert Rankin a Google. The Brentford trilogy is amazing.
Those two are hard to top!
You may enjoy ‘Tuf’s Voyaging’. An early G.r.r. Martin novel, about some dude space traveling.
It’s more pulpy, but if you’re fantasy starved, try Jack Vance (especially the Dying Earth series).
He’s a very prolific and inventive writer. DnD pretty much copied his magic system.Jack Handey’s short stuff is probably his most famous work, but he also wrote a novel called The Stench of Honolulu.
John Swartzwelder is another comedy legend, he wrote nearly 60 episodes of The Simpsons, and he has a series of detective-pastiche novels (maybe novellas), starting with The Time Machine Did It.
I like these books and think they’re along the same lines as Pratchett and Adams, but they are distinctly sillier.
