Best SF&F humorists

[BAYLOR]

The Caiphis Cane series by Sandy Mitchell . Its set in the Warhammer 40 k universe , its basically Flashamn in outer space. Its hilariously funny.

 

[BAYLOR]

A little digging has produced my copy of MARTIANS, GO HOME!, Fred Brown's story of the Earth invaded by little green men.
My memory seems to have selectively brought up F.B.'s funny science fiction, but I forgot about all of his mysteries, which included THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT.
Brown specialized in very short shorts, though, and that's what I was remembering. Specifically, the collections ANGELS AND SPACESHIPS, HONEYMOON IN HELL, and NIGHTMARES AND GEEZENSTACKS.

Above all, I remember the story about the man who discovered that human history was being written as it went, by a divine typesetting machine -- and that the machine was malfunctioning, periodically misplacing an "e" -- and so the hero used that information, properly timing his movements to end up in Heaven...

Geezentacks was adapted for the horror Antony series Tales from the Darkside

He penned the script Arena for Star Trek

I have a story collection of his by titled Honeymoon in Hell.

 

[Rodders]

One of my favourite pieces of Sci Fi Humour was the collected 2000AD stories of DR and Quinch's Guide to life by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.

D.R. & Quinch - Wikipedia

 

[hitmouse]

One of my favourite pieces of Sci Fi Humour was the collected 2000AD stories of DR and Quinch's Guide to life by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.

D.R. & Quinch - Wikipedia

I have the originaledition of that. Brilliant.

 

[Al Jackson]

A little digging has produced my copy of MARTIANS, GO HOME!, Fred Brown's story of the Earth invaded by little green men.
My memory seems to have selectively brought up F.B.'s funny science fiction, but I forgot about all of his mysteries, which included THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT.
Brown specialized in very short shorts, though, and that's what I was remembering. Specifically, the collections ANGELS AND SPACESHIPS, HONEYMOON IN HELL, and NIGHTMARES AND GEEZENSTACKS.

Above all, I remember the story about the man who discovered that human history was being written as it went, by a divine typesetting machine -- and that the machine was malfunctioning, periodically misplacing an "e" -- and so the hero used that information, properly timing his movements to end up in Heaven...

Martians Go Home is a unique piece of SF humor , actually a unique piece of science fiction!
Brown had as clever a sense of humor as any writer.
I guess is has been noted that Douglas Adams borrowed from both Fred Brown and Robert Sheckley??

 

[Guttersnipe]

William Tenn often wrote humorous speculative fiction, as did Nelson S. Bond and William P. McGivern. "Author!Author!" and "Rain, Rain, Go Away" by Isaac Asimov seem humorous. Of course, you can't forget Douglas Adams.

 

[Pyan]

Three books in particular from my own collection:

David Gerrold & Larry Niven - The Flying Sorcerers
Harry Harrison - Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers
James Bibby - Ronan the Barbarian

Of course, you can't forget Douglas Adams.

Well, no - he was tagged in the first post of the thread, but then we haven't actually seen the OP since May 2017...

 

[hitmouse]

Looking back over this old thread, it is surprising that we haven't yet mentioned Kurt Vonnegut. The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, amd Slaughterhouse 5 are all notable humorous SF.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

And I can't believe that no one's mentioned Lem's Cyberiad. No other SF I've read, not even Adams, is as laugh-out-loud hilarious.

 

[Vince W]

Looking back over this old thread, it is surprising that we haven't yet mentioned Kurt Vonnegut. The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, amd Slaughterhouse 5 are all notable humorous SF.

Vonnegut should have been mentioned on the first page. What were we thinking?

 

[tinkerdan]

I think that humor is quite subjective and though I recognize a lot of the mentioned works as being humorous--I'm not all that sure that everyone will see them that way.

That much said there are some publishers who seem to try to avoid too much overt humor in some genre.

I seem to recall Dean Koontz mentioning that his publisher/agent was a bit put off when he injected humor into his Odd Thomas novel. He however stuck to his guns on that one and it must have worked because that grew into a seven book series.

So Dean Koontz 7 book series for Odd Thomas is my addition to this--though it technically is more horror or occult than Sci-Fi.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I'm going to throw in what might be an unexpected entry: Michael Moorcock's The Chinese Agent

The Chinese Agent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I lent it to my mother once, and she enjoyed it so much she thought she'd like to read another Moorcock, so she helped herself to one off my bookshelf (I was still living at home) I can't remember which one she chose (something like The Mad God's Amulet because of the title), but needless to say she never finished it

 

[hitmouse]

I'm going to throw in what might be an unexpected entry: Michael Moorcock's The Chinese Agent

The Chinese Agent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I lent it to my mother once, and she enjoyed it so much she thought she'd like to read another Moorcock, so she helped herself to one off my bookshelf (I was still living at home) I can't remember which one she chose (something like The Mad God's Amulet because of the title), but needless to say she never finished it

I read that in late 1986 and really enjoyed it. Doesn't it have some awful character who is a romantic novelist who drinks creme de menthe?
I must dig out the book. I think there was a sequel but I havent ever seen a copy.

 

[tinkerdan]

that would be The Russian Intelligence.

I read that in late 1986 and really enjoyed it. Doesn't it have some awful character who is a romantic novelist who drinks creme de menthe?
I must dig out the book. I think there was a sequel but I havent ever seen a copy.

However the whole thing gets muddied up trying to figure it out because they were put together as...
Jerry Cornell's Comic Capers Paperback – January 30, 2005
by Michael Moorcock (Author), Strange Gabriel (Author), Lydia Wood (Editor), Wood Lydia (Editor)

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Wot, no PKD! Always managed to get some good laffs into even his bleakest work - eg the stoner banter in "A Scanner Darkly"