Funny science fiction Books

The Website at the End of the Universe just pulled this gem from the internet’s discard pile. This list was created for The Guardian eight and a half years ago by Rob Grant (of Red Dwarf fame) and I do believe its worthy of a repost.
Top 10 comedic science fiction novels
1. The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The obvious choice, really. The first three books are the best – bright, witty and chock full of brilliant concepts. Though some of the references (Mr Adams’s irrational loathing of digital watches, for instance) seem dated now, it’s still guaranteed to amuse.
2. The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison’s work spans the whole of SF: comedy, hard SF, fantasy, you name it. All of it is worth reading. The Stainless Steel Rat series is not, on the whole, laugh-out-loud comedy, but it is funny. If you haven’t tried any, ignore the gaudy covers and buy one. They’re all good. Then read Captive Universe which is not a comedy book, but it will make you go out and buy the rest of his work.
3. Discworld by Terry Pratchett
There are dozens of books in the Discworld series. Technically, they’re science fantasy, involving dragons and other mythical creatures. If you’re a fantasy fan, Mr Pratchett certainly delivers a good laugh consistently. If you haven’t read any of them yet, where have you been?
4. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Mr Dick’s work has been the source of a number of major movies: Blade Runner and Total Recall among them. A Scanner Darkly is a bizarre and often hysterically funny novel about an undercover drugs cop who finds himself on his own trail. Compulsory.
5. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr
A unique and original talent, Mr Vonnegut dislikes being pigeon-holed as an SF writer. The fact remains, though, that he’s responsible for a lot of classic and extremely funny writing in this genre. Slaughterhouse Five is his masterpiece, and it veers from incredibly funny to as black as it gets, centred as it is around the firebombing of Dresden (at which the young author was present). Once you’ve read it, you’ll want to rush out and buy Breakfast of Champions and Player Piano and Cat’s Cradle and … well, everything else he’s written.
6. Venus On The Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout
A curiosity, this one. Kilgore Trout is a fictional science fiction writer invented by Kurt Vonnegut jr, who often used him as a way of making personal appearances in his own novels. However this book was written by Philip Jose Farmer, using Vonnegut’s alter-ego character as a nom-de-plume, to break him out of a writer’s block. Interesting.
Source: www.abebooks.com
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Has anybody read a good book lately?
2007-11-30 20:57:13 by iamstumpedI could use some suggestions for books to give as a gift to my mom. I have a hard time picking books for her because whether or not she'll like them is sort of hard to predict, plus I haven't had any time to read fiction lately, so I haven't been able to "pre-screen" any.
She mostly reads classics, but part of the reason she asks for books as a gift is so some one will pick something she wouldn't choose and break her out of her rut, so it wouldn't have to be a classic. Humor is tricky--some things I find funny she finds stupid. :) She likes a "good story"--whatever that means. She tends to complain about movies (somewhat less so about books) being "depressing"--tends not to like stories that are too dreary
Ok.. let try it from the top
2008-06-08 16:20:12 by WulfenYour post
Wow, by that logic, only what you < CameraObscura > 06/08 15:51:01
experience exists, that is so scary and frightening, you sound like George W. Bush.
My advice to you and Mr. Bush is to educate yourselves OUTSIDE your pesonal experience.
we have these things called BOOKS
my response
and what i have read about would be my personal < Wulfen > 06/08 15:56:51
experience with it now wouldn't it?
My god, the typos in that post!
2006-05-25 14:38:34 by MoodIndigoJustine's novel is her first one. I knew her through an online science fiction community. Last year, she was an honerable mention in the first porject queer-lit, and this novel is based on that submission. I boght it but have not read it yet. She says that it is not the typical Bold Strokes book.
Jane Fletcher is English. I also met her at last year's Saints and Sinners and she really impressed me. I bought one of her books but have not read it. It struck me as being Joan of Arc derivative.
Laurie Marks Fire Logic and Earth something or the other are lesbian sword and sorcery tales
You're a joke arangel, but not a funny joke.
2010-07-31 18:07:57 by peachyoneDid you get your PHD from the school of Scientology? Is the doctor you mentioned the science fiction writer Ron Hubbard? You do know that he wrote that book for entertainment purposes only in the 1950's not knowing that people would actually take seriously the sci-fy beliefs he wrote about right?
Most of us in here are pretty well read (I'm not talking about b/s sci-fy books) and resent when jerks make light of the pain we feel.
So back off archangel, go to the phyco forum where you belong.
You'll get no more bananas from me.
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