"Funniest fantasy novels / stories?" Topic

So what are your votes for funniest fantasy books? List as many of you want, and they can be game-based, artsy, literature, whatever.

This is books that are intended to be humorous, not books that are so bad they make you laugh!

Please include specific titles and author's names if possible. This'll help me go to the library for some laughs.

Villains By Necessity, by Eve Forward. Long OOP and rather hard to find. Wiki listing here, but beware, the entire plot is essentially spoiled there:

link

Craig Shaw Gardener had a series of books. Two that I recall were " A Night in the Netherhells" and "A Malady of Magics"

I havent read them for many years but I do remember having a laugh or two.

Chuck

I find that a lot of fantasy stories that go for the laughs suffer from trying too hard.

All of Terry Prattchett..

Case in point. I can't stand the Rincewind stories. He tries too hard there.
The most humorous Prachett stories come from the plots and characters. For instance, he does not go for the laughs in the Granny Weatherwax stories, but I found them laugh out loud.
Don't get me started with Piers Anthony. "Hey, if one book of stupid puns sells for big bucks, let's beat that dead horse with 20 more!"

YMMV

There is a lot of humor in Heinlein's "Glory Road", yet he is not going for laughs.
Ditto Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series.

Avram Davidson's two part Peregrine trilogy (I wish that man had FINISHED his trilogies! Just one!) was hilarious, and again he did not swing for the yucks.
His Doctor Eszterhazy stories are brilliant and funny, yet no clown shoes or cow farts.

Terry Prattchett is funny for a couple of books, but jokes recycled in story after story really kill the funny.

Sirens of Titan is probably at the top of my list.

The early Piers Anthony 'Xanth' series…..the first few…after that the puns get too much to handle. Robert Aspryn 'Myth' series…again the first few.

Another Day, Another Dungeon by Greg Costikyan.

Another Day, Another Dungeon by Greg Costikyan.

Oh yeah, forgot that gem. Seconded.

Man, I miss Roger Zelazny. He'd spend two-thirds a novel setting you up for a joke that would just … well it left me floored.

The funniest fantasy story I've ever read is Fritz Leiber's "Lean Times in Lankhmar," in which Fafhrd gets religion and becomes a god, sort of, and Mouser becomes a gray demon, sort of.

There's also a lot of humor in Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories.

"Good Omens" by Pratchett and Gaiman is probably one of the funniest books I've read (maybe not strictly fantasy). Also agree that the first couple of "Myth" books by Aspryn were great.

To my humor, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy (well, the first two books anyway) was terribly funny- in a dry, weird, sometimes unsettling way. The third book is just bleak, but it was patched together to tie up loose ends by somebody or other after the author's death.

I've really never read anything like it. You should look into it, Grandviewroad; the first book is Titus Groan.

I loved Piers Anthony when I was in my early teens. It seemed to wear a little juvenile after that.

I liked:
Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game
By Shelly Mazzanoble.

Ditto on the 'Good Omens' btw.

Myth Adventures
Robert Lynn Asprin

link

The Unbeheaded King and other books in the series by LSdC.

Bored of the Rings by Harvard Lampoon.
Hilarious, except some of the jokes are a bit dated.

The Garrett files by Glen Cook. Well written and funny.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, just for the Nac Mac Feegle. Imagine tiny, blue parodies of Mel Gibson's William Wallace, with all sorts of Scots humor thrown in.
Who can forget the battle cry, "We've got a cheap lawyer, and we're no afrai' ta' use him!"

Grunts by Mary Gentle

Dan Abnett's "Triumff"

The Fallible Fiend by L. Sprague de Camp – it's funny, but not dumb funny if you see what I mean.

Oh man, second on "Bored of the Rings". I was (much) younger when I read it, sure, but I've never had a book that left me laughing so hard I had to put it down to regain my focus.

Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson made me laugh back in the day. Not read any of the sequel though.

Bored of the Rings made the rounds in high school. We of course thought it hysterical. I would still probably find it terribly amusing, despite the pubescent sexual humor.

I can still remember lines like Goodgulf drew his weapon that the high elves call the Thompson sub-machine gun… and even the ending was brilliantly done in tune with the book.

A few of the others I've heard of – hey it's the library, so it can't hurt to check them out (pun intended).

Love all of Pratchett's books I have had strange looks after laughing out loud while reading them on the bus etc. I think guards guards is my favorite.

I remember Jason Cosmo by Dan McGirt being funny but it probably 15years since I read it.

Seconding Glen Cook -- the Garrett series is very entertaining, though the last few have gotten tired.

thosmoss, I swear I've read everything Zelazny wrote, and I'm failing to come up with the novel you're referring to. Though there were moments in _A Night in the Lonesome October_ … which novel did you mean?

Edited to add: oh, and please add Barry Hughart's _Bridge of Birds_ to the list. I can't help but laugh out loud through large chunks of it.

Jack Vance – parts of the Lyonesse Trilogy and the Cugel books are comedy genius.

Doug

Grunts by Mary Gentle

Couldn't remember her name – but yes, that. Very funny indeed. Pass another halfling….

another vote for Bored of the Rings

laughed so hard that I attracted a crowd

Perry

It's been years since I've read them, but I enjoyed the following at the time:-
C Dale Brittain's "A Bad Spell In Yurt" (& sequels).
Piers Anthony's original Xanth trilogy
Dan McGirt's Jason Cosmo trilogy
Elizabeth H Boyer's various Skipling books such as "The Sword & the Satchel"
Jasper Fforde's "The Big Over Easy" etc
Nicholas Seare "Rude Tales & Glorious"

Myth Adventures.

In the same vein as the Garrett Files by Cook you could say the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. Not written as comedy but they are first person and Vlad is an irrepressable smart ###.

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar.

This book had me laughing out loud in the first 2 chapters. I've read so much that most books are "seen that before", but this one was totally refreshing..

p.s. It's a little raunchy ;-)

"Thr Princess Bride". Perhaps not fantasy per say but very funny.

If a TV show can be listed then "Wizards and Warriors" is good as well.

Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart.

The next two couldn't quite match it although the third (Eight Skilled Gentlemen) improved on the second (Story of the Stone).

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez is pretty ok. True it takes place in modern times but it has vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, and zombies

Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart.

I can't believe I forgot that one. It manages to be both very funny and very moving at the same time. Caveat: It does have some strong sexual elements, though played for laughs, if you're at all bothered by that sort of thing.

I agree on goragrad's assessment of the other two books in the series.

All three are set in a fantasy version of ancient China.

You might also give a try to In the Company of Ogres by A Lee Martinez, which features the hapless officer Never Dead Ned— a soldier who keeps being mysteriously resurrected every time he dies (and he dies a lot). Ned is put in command of the worst outfit in the Legion— a company made up of monsters and other ne'er-do-wells, whose commanders have a habit of dying in "unlucky accidents," and chaos ensues (or fails to…)

Not bad. Has a bit of the feel of Pratchett's city watch books, though it is certainly different from these.

I loved the first two Hughart books. I'm glad I read this thread because I didn't know there was a third. Time to find Eight Skilled Gentlemen.

I second the Cugel the Clever Dying Earth stories. Vance just has a way with the English Language whether dialogue or description always a perfect pitch.

I concur with all that appreciate Barry Hughart's trilogy.

Zephyr1 mentions Martin Millar, and I can recommend his Thraxas series of books written under his pseudonym Martin Scott
thraxas.com

Terry Pratchett

I'm not keen on spoofs/parodies that operate ONLY on that level. The earlier Pratchetts in particular poke fun at the usual Fantasy tropes but in the context of a fictional world that stands on its own two feet.

[actually 16 feet, with the elephants]

That's why I didn't like Bored of the Rings… much of it depends on constantly throwing in jarring anachronisms and drugs jokes. A whole book of it gets tiresome.

Barry Hughart: Bridge of Birds, 195 reviews and 5 stars at Amazon!

A. Lee Martinez: Company of ogres, 41 / 4.5 stars

Eve Forward: Villains… 69 reviews 4.5 stars
Greg Costikyan: Another Day, Another Dungeon, 14 / 4.5

Mary Gentle: Grunts 77/4 stars

Dan Abnett: Triumff 10/4

L. Sprague De Camp: Fallible Fiend 6/4

Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson, 37/4.5

Pratchett; Guards Guards, 155 / 4.5

Anthony: A Spell for Chameleon, 223 / 4.5

Lots of good books to try – hope this list is helpful to others, also!

Martin Millar! I had somehow never heard of The Runaways before reading his Lonely Werewolf Girl. Good Fairies of New York was good too – I need to read more of him. Huscarle has just informed me of more books I need to read!

Vance (especially the Dying Earth), Pratchett (for everything, with such variety that even if one book is merely funny, the next could be entirely different and make you sick with laughter), and Gaiman (for Good Omens).

Honorable mention to John M Ford for How Much For Just The Planet?, which is sf rather than fantasy, and single-handedly makes all of Star Trek worthwhile. It's a musical comedy, with golf and pies and a Klingon with a fondness for early 20th Century Earth cinema.

I lovd Grunts, but was (and still am) a little put off that everyone else seems to find the rape joke the funniest thing ever, to the point where I knew someone would quote it in this thread. Seriously, how is that funnier than the bit with the Gandalf stand-in trying to sneak his perfectly innocent old man's staff into a courtroom?

I never finished Bridge of Birds, and this makes me a bad person.

Jenna Katerin Moran, PKA Rebecca Borgstrom, is a wonderful writer. She has a long-running fiction blog called Hitherby Dragons, some published books, and some of the best RPG books around. She wrote the rules for the Fair Folk and Sidereals in Exalted 1st Edition, and it's incredible how much there is in what amounts to a list of powers. She also wrote a ton of fluff for Weapons of the Gods, IIRC, and blends mechanical crunch with setting information and often hilarious microfiction. Her illustrated short story Invasion is on the kindle store, as well – it's allegedly a children's story book. Still worth a read.

Her best-known work is Nobilis, an RPG about playing Powers – once-mortals dragged into a war to save Creation and given dominion over an aspect of it. It's a bit like Sandman, if you were playing the Endless. There's a new edition now, and a variant setting that I still need to get a copy of.

Edit: Looks like there's a third Lonely Werewolf Girl book in August. Sweet. The second wasn't quite as good as the first, but I'll be buying it on day one.

"Venus on the Half-shell" by Kilgore Trout
"Lyonesse" and "Cugel's Saga" by Jack Vance

dittos to Vance
also partial to Poul Anderson's "the valor of Cappan Varra"

True, Mike, I'd forgotten that some of the "Thieves' Guild" stories were very funny.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

The story is unpredictable and filled with unforgettable characters that are both compelling and complex. While humor is not the main focus of the book, it is filled with clever dialogue and dark humor, and I have actually laughed out loud more than once when reading the series. IMO, he also writes some of the best cinematic action/fight scenes in fantasy lit.