Humorous science fiction

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Okay, so I'm on the prowl for something funny. But, as a long-time SF reader, I am fairly familiar with all the bigger names who've written the funny stuff with rockets and rayguns.

To be clear, I'm not really looking for comic fantasy or novels with some humor in them, rather I'm looking for explicitly comic science fiction novels.

I'm looking for recommendations for funny science fiction writers not on this list:

Eric Idle, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, Harry Harrison, Robert Asprin, Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett, Piers Anthony, Mark E. Rogers, Daniel H. Wilson, Robert Sheckley, A. Lee Martinez, Robert Rankin, Tom Holt, Holly Black, Christopher Moore, John Scalzi, and no Doctor Who or Red Dwarf novels.

Can anyone point out some I've missed? Thanks.

 

[The Judge]

I don't know if it would fit your definition of comic, but there's The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. I couldn't get on with it at all, and gave up not even half-way through (and that on a second attempt) but it's obviously tickling some people's funny bones.

 

[Sourdust]

John Sladek, who came at SF from more of an absurdist literary angle - to my mind the finest comic SF author.

Best known for his robot novels Roderick/Roderick at Random and Tik-Tok, but any of his stuff is worth checking out - I'd recommend the short story collection The Steam-Driven Boy, available as an ebook from Gollancz's SF Gateway.

 

[Brian G Turner]

You've missed out Toby Frost and his Space Captain Smith series.

 

[Gramm838]

You've missed out Toby Frost and his Space Captain Smith series.

Beat me to it, and of course he's our very own Toby Frost.

 

[Rodders]

I'll second Toby Frost and his Space Captain Smith series.

Also, I have a book in my library by Peter Jurasik (of Babylon 5 fame) called Diplomatic Act. It was pretty funny.

 

[iansales]

Bob Shaw's Who Goes Here? and Warren Peace. Mildly amusing.

 

[Ashley R]

Eric Frank Russell.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Spider Robinson -- all of the Callahan books, and a few others along the way. He has actually written some books that weren't funny, but there's generally a good bit of humor in most of his stuff.

Connie Willis -- I've only read a couple of hers, Bellwether and To Say Nothing of the Dog, but I found them both hilarious, though Dog is probably more in your "novels with some humor" list.

Gordon Dickson and Poul Anderson, the Hoka books.

Keith Laumer, the Retief books.

 

[Banshay]

I recall H. Beam Piper's Lone Star Planet as humorous and you can't beat the price: free at Project Gutenberg.

 

[gully_foyle]

Stanislaw Lem who gave us Solaris also wrote some wonderful humourous short stories, look for Tales of Pirx the Pirate, and The Cyberiad, which is outright hilarious. I must find these books again too.

 

[hitmouse]

Jack Vance's work is full of humour (possibly not Emphyrio.) though it is often a comedy of manners rather than slapstick. The Dying Earth stories in particular.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Hi Hitmouse!

Bujold's most recent novel is a comedy.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
Vorkosigan Novel by Lois McMaster Bujold


psik

 

[Montero]

Not read it yet - John Barnes "Losers in Space" might fit the bill. Just adding it on in case you need another one.

 

[Tim_Eagon]

I'd recommend Henry Kuttner's Robots Have No Tails, which is a collection of short stories written in the 1940s about an alcoholic inventor who creates truly remarkable things while on a bender. However, he can't remember what they do when he's sober, which leads him into all sorts of trouble.

 

[clovis-man]

I'm generally not fond of authors whose first mission is to amuse the reader. Eric Frank Russell might be an exception.

Two authors come to mind who have written excellent stories and novels with an overall serious flavor, but which also have a great deal of wit incorporated: Iain M. Banks and Kage Baker. Unfortunately, both have died recently. However, they each leave an impressive body of work.

 

[Pyan]

James Bibby - Ronan the Barbarian and Ronan's Rescue

David Gerrold & Larry Niven - The Flying Sorcerers

Not a novel, more of a guide, but for an excellent send-up of the whole fantasy genre:

Diana Wynne Jones - The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land

(which answers questions like "Why do travellers in the Wild always exist on stew, when it takes about forty times as long to cook as a steak?")

 

[Montero]

If we're doing fantasy as well as science fiction, then I'd say "Dark Lord of Derkholme" by Dianna Wynne Jones - an excellent send-up of classic quest fantasy while also being a story you'd care about in its own right. (Small caveat - its YA, I enjoy it, some folks I've recommended it to have found the tone "not for them".)

Grunts by Mary Gentle - another form of send-up of classic quest fantasy, rather darker in tone than Derkholme (though I'm not sure the body count is all that much higher). Told from the point of view of Orcs - the footsoldiers of the dark.

 

[merritt]

The aluminum man - G.C. Edmondson
Very funny!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The High Crusade by Poul Anderson, in which some medieval humans manage to outwit invading aliens, is amusing.