Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

Here's your opportunity to suggest group reads for June, which is a quarterly themed read. To save time, I thought I would pick the second choice for a themed read from our poll in March, which is comedic science fiction.

So if you want to giggle while visiting some place where no one has gone before, please make your suggestions here. As per usual, all suggestions made in this topic will be listed in a poll in a few days' time so that we can vote on the two books for the group read.

As far as comedic sci-fi, I was amazed at Fuzzy Nation and its humor and high-jinks. John Scalzi was really clever with how things worked out in this book that is not even close to being as serious as his space warfare and military sci-fi.

Another perennial favorite for most folks is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It is also one of the ones with quirky funny business going around all the time while mayhem wreaks havoc everywhere around the cast.

Richard Buro
From the Great Lone Star State

Scalzi's "Red Shirts" or "Agent to the Stars" are hilarious, yet not goofy.

I've always found Kurt Vonnegut's sci-fi novels to be really funny as well as amazingly thought provoking, so I will nominate The Sirens of Titan.

That's a good one too.

Galactic Pot Healer by Philip K Dick 👍

Richard wrote: "As far as comedic sci-fi, I was amazed at Fuzzy Nation and its humor and high-jinks. John Scalzi was really clever with how things worked out in this book that is not e..."

I read the first two books in the Hitchhiker's Guide series way back when the British TV series first ran (in the early '80s). I didn't get around to the third book because I'd seen the full series and therefore the spoilers. I also went to the cinema to see the movie a few years ago but I didn't enjoy it so much. In terms of special effects and sets, the movie was superb but the comedy seemed rather flat compared with the old TV series. Nevertheless I might be into re-reading the first book if it gets selected for one of the group reads.

Incidentally, Adams wrote the preface for a book to which I'd contributed a chapter and I was hoping that if there had been a launch of the book, he would have come to it, giving the other contributors and myself a chance to meet him. Sadly, he died before the book (Digging Holes in Popular Culture: Archaeology and Science Fiction) was published, making the preface one of his last publications.

And I've yet to read anything by Scalzi or Vonnegut yet so the suggestions regarding these two authors do look interesting.

I came here to suggest Hitchiker's Guide but someone beat me to it!

How about Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, considering it's now a TV show?

Cosmic Banditos by A.C. Weisbecker.

Dirk gently gets my vote.

One book I've been interested in reading for a while is Willful Child so I'll suggest it here (though I still have to find a copy!).

And the poll will open at 12:01 a.m. GMT tonight! Here is the link to the poll: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1.... If you don't see a book that you like there (or changed your mind about a suggestion you made) you can always write-in another title. Happy voting!