SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Looks like the winning Theme is "Laugh out Loud Funny... for Science!"

So, feel free to nominate any suitably humorous SciFi work you know of. I'm thinking something along the lines of say, Hitchhikers Guide for example.

Rules:

*One nomination and one 'second'/vote per member.

*Include link to the book here on Goodreads

*Include a blurb about the book and why you think it fits the theme

*Make sure the book is readily available in several formats

Nominations will remain open until Thursday February 9th at 11:59pm pacific.

I'm going to take the Douglas Adams suggestion to a slightly different series... Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Its Douglas Adams... so its funny and SF and awesome... any more blurb needed?

Ben wrote: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency."

I'll second that. I've been looking for an excuse to re-read that one.

Anne wrote: "Ben wrote: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency."

I'll second that. I've been looking for an excuse to re-read that one."

I'll also second that. Love that book!

I will nominate The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison. It's the first installment in a classic sf humor series chronicling the (largely self-contained) adventures of James "Slippery Jim" Bolivar diGriz, inter-stellar con-man-reluctantly-turned-cop, and Angelina, a female criminal mastermind. (If you've ever watched the show "Burn Notice," Angelina reminds me a bit of Fiona in her over-the-top tendencies. Especially for being published in 1961, it's surprisingly free of misogyny, for those to whom this is an issue.)

The author is a designee of the SF Grand Master award.

(Note: This series has nothing to do with the recent stage play called "The Stainless Steel Rat" which covers a portion of the life of Wikileaks' Julian Assange. Well, other than the playwright chose to use the same name.)

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (Callahan's Place Trilogy, #1)

"Callahan's Place is the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space, where the regulars are anything but. Pull up a chair, grab a glass of your favorite, and listen to the stories spun by time travelers, cybernetic aliens, telepaths...and a bunch of regular folks on a mission to save the world, one customer at a time."

Because I feel like I should nominate something and this has been on my tbr for a long time.

I will second , and I will nominate

I will second both of the Kurt Vonnegut books, I was going to nominate Cat's Cradle myself.

Rules:

*One nomination and one 'second'/vote per member.

Oh, and I checked the bookshelf. We read To Say Nothing of the Dog in May of 2009. (Not sure if we allow repeats or not).

Bellwether by Connie Willis

Sheep, chaos theory, romance, and fads collide in this story about scientists who work for a research corporation.

The Sirens of Titan is supposed to be funny? Like, laugh aloud funny? Huh.

I'll second Bellwether and nominate ... How about a Bujold? I found them laugh-out-loud funny, especially the early Miles ones. The Warrior's Apprentice would be my choice.

@Justin - Pick one, man.

@Zulfiya - Sirens of Titan isn't really funny though.

@Chris - Nope, we don't do repeats. Too many books out there to read for us to be doing repeats :)

@Everyone - Remember the rules.

I'm going to second Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I own it and have it on a list of must-read series to read this year.

I am nominating The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
From the blurb on the GR page for the book: "Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality, (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously... When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday Next, Special Operative in Literary Detection, must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide."

Near the top of Listopia Best Comedic Sci-Fi books (just after almost all of Douglas Adams), and on other lists for humorous books; one reviewer describes it as hilarious.

I'll second Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. Has to be thirty years since I read it, so everything old will be new again.

I will second Bellwether. One of my favorites from our newest Grand Master. I've been meaning to reread this one.

I'll nominate Smith by Mike Devlin. It's the closest thing to Hitchhiker's Guide I've ever read.

I nominate Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas. This was a riot.

I'll second Stainless Steel Rat, my dad keeps trying to get me to read the new books that came out recently, but I want to re-read the old books first. And Callahan is a great choice as well, that's one of my absolute favorite series, so funny and smart.

I will second The Warrior's Apprentice

I will second the Eyre Affair

*snaps fingers and bemoans* Someone should nominate The Practice Effect.

I'll also second The Eyre Affair.

I thoroughly love the Vorkosigan books, so no hating at all, but I gotta say that I don't think that 'the warrior's apprentice' counts as a comedic novel. it's got some smiles & chuckles, sure, and it's a grand adventure space opera tale, but it's not hilarity.

I'll second 'dirk gently'. I bounced off of 'the long dark tea-time of the soul' when I was a kiddo, only to find out when I gave up 1/4 through that it was a sequel to 'dirk'. never got around to giving the first one a try, and it's about time.

I've been trying to justify nominating something by Christopher Moore, but can't make the final stretch to calling any of his books science fiction. No author makes me laugh the way he does.

The sci-fi novel that made me laugh out loud most *ever* was "The Tin Men" by Michael Frayn. I read it when I was a kid and I recently re-read it (and it's still funny). I've read everything by Douglas Adams and Harry Harrison and others who are very funny writers, but none of them came close to this one. So that's my nomination.

Dirk Gently would be great; I'd like to recommend 'Dimension of Miracles' by Robert Sheckley. If that's not funny, I don't know what is!

I loved How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.It was very funny.

Krishna wrote: "I loved How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. It was very funny."
My goodness. I hated that book. Really, really hated it. Can I anti-second a book?

I interrupt this program to announce the presence our Random Fantasy Poll for March. Click here, please.

Graham wrote: "The sci-fi novel that made me laugh out loud most *ever* was "The Tin Men" by Michael Frayn. I read it when I was a kid and I recently re-read it (and it's still funny). I've read everything by Dou..."

It sounds interesting but it looks like it is out of print.

"Out of print" is such an old-fashioned concept ;-)

You can get the Kindle edition here: http://www.amazon.com/Tin-Men-The-ebo...

Graham wrote: ""Out of print" is such an old-fashioned concept ;-)

You can get the Kindle edition here: http://www.amazon.com/Tin-Men-The-ebo..."

This title is not available for customers from:
United States

That's appalling, Ala. And it's Amazon.com too, not .co.uk! Why would any publisher these days put an ebook up for sale that is not available globally? Where is the logic?

Maybe we need to replace the idea of "out of print" with "out of reach".

There's tons of ebooks that are geo-locked for some reason. Way too many old-school laws/rules from publishers and whatnot, I believe, are the cause.

Sorry Graham, it looked interesting too.

Poll will be up shortly.

Top 5 nominations.

Warrior's Apprentice, sadly, didn't make it due to being number three in a series.

Graham wrote: "That's appalling, Ala. And it's Amazon.com too, not .co.uk! Why would any publisher these days put an ebook up for sale that is not available globally? Where is the logic?

Maybe we need to replac..."

Amazon does that often to me, (infuriating, isn't it?) though one sees it with a few other vendors and gateways as well. Sadly, it seems that globalization is a thing of the past, now that publishers have decided that they can make more money with regionalizing the world.

I'm, not quite sure I follow the logic either, but the marketers seem to think that it makes sense somehow...

You find the same thing with films and video games, and I won't be surprised if it's spread to the music industry as well.