If You Like Douglas Adams

“Science fiction with a sense of humor summarizes Douglas Adams’s well-known Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a satire which follows a human and his alien friend through a series of misadventures. That work and its sequels comically skewer the conventions of science fiction. Adams brings his adoit sense of humor to other genres as well, tackling detective fiction with Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and non-fiction. More than just a satirist, Adams presents well rounded comic characters, not just cardboard cutouts designed for laughs.”*

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If You Like Douglas Adams, You Might Like…

A Spell for Chameleon

Piers Anthony

Until Good Magician Humphrey lends a hand, Bink is the only inhabitant of Xanth who has no magic.

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Good on Paper

Rachel Cantor

THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SECOND NOVEL FROM THE WRITER EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL (STATION ELEVEN) CALLS “SHARP, WITTY, AND IMMENSELY ENTERTAINING” Is a new life possible? Because Shira Greene’s life hasn’t quite turned out as planned. She’s a sing le mom living with her daughter and her gay friend, Ahmad. Her PhD on Dante’s Vita Nuova hasn’t gotten her a job, and her career as a translator hasn’t exactly taken off either. But then she gets a call from a Nobel Prize-winning Italian poet who insists she’s the only one who can translate his newest book. Stunned, Shira realizes that—just like that— her life can change. She sees a new beginning beckoning: academic glory, demand for her translations, and even love (her good luck has made her feel more open to the entreaties of a neighborhood indie bookstore owner). There’s only one problem: It all hinges on the translation, and as Shira starts working on the exquisitely intricate passages of the poet’s book, she realizes that it may in fact be, well ... impossible to translate. A deft, funny, and big-hearted novel about second chances, Good on Paper is a grand novel of family, friendship, and possibility.

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The Big Over Easy

Jasper Fforde

When D-class nursery celebrity Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III, is found shattered to death, all the evidence points to his ex-wife, who has conveniently shot herself. But Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant Mary Mary remain unconvince d.

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The Eyre Affair

Jasper Fforde

In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.

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The Good, The Bad and The Smug

Tom Holt

A new novel from a master of comic fantasy, Tom Holt. New Evil. Same as the Old Evil, but with better PR. Mordak isn't bad, as far as goblin kings go, but when someone, or something, starts pumping gold into the human kingdoms it puts his rule i nto serious jeopardy. Suddenly he's locked in an arms race with a species whose arms he once considered merely part of a calorie-controlled diet. Helped by an elf with a background in journalism and a masters degree in being really pleased with herself, Mordak sets out to discover what on earth (if indeed, that's where he is) is going on. He knows that the truth is out there. If only he could remember where he put it.

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Bimbos of the Death Sun

Sharyn McCrumb

Ostensibly a mystery novel, Bimbos of the Death Sun won an Edgar Award in 1988 for Best Original Paperback Mystery. While we follow the plot eagerly, the fact is that what happens in this novel is in some ways much less important than where it happen s. Bimbos of the Death Sun is not a mystery that just so happens to also be science fiction and fantasy; it's a novel about a particular American subculture as well in which Trekkies and Dungeon Masters convene--complete with their hobbit costumes and the like--to buy and sell memorabilia. It could be said that Jay Omega and his girlfriend, Dr. Marion Farley, represent two different approaches to the pageantry and obsession that swirl around them. Omega, as guest author and conference V.I.P., tries to tread lightly around the customs and peculiarities of the sci-fi aficionados in an effort not to offend but also to avoid becoming too involved. Marion, the professor of comparative literature, casts a more critical eye on the proceedings, giving the touted big-shots and the aspiring authors little in the way of credibility. McCrumb tempers the satire with her choice of protagonists; by informing us that Marion actually teaches a course on science fiction and fantasy at the local university, McCrumb is sure to acknowledge that science fiction is a legitimate literary genre in her eyes. Like any other legitimate literary genre then, it has its noteworthy practitioners (Tolkein, Asimov) as well as its charlatans (Appin, Dungannon). Her target, McCrumb wants us to know, is not the works themselves but rather the obsessive culture that springs up around the works. By making the shy, bookish Jay Omega her sympathetic protagonist, McCrumb is also making it clear that her target is not simply the socially maladroit. The whole satire is directed at those who have made these escapist fantasies a true-to-life obsession.

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The Color of Magic

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen. The Color of MagicM is Terry Pratchett' s maiden voyage through the now-legendary land of Discworld. This is where it all begins -- with the tourist Twoflower and his wizard guide, Rincewind.

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Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Tom Robbins

After the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, an ambitious but ineffectual young stockbroker faces a mind-blowing, destiny-altering weekend of scheming to escape blame and coping with a mysterious stranger

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Space Opera

Catherynne M. Valente

IN SPACE EVERYONE CAN HEAR YOU SING A century ago, intelligent space-faring life was nearly destroyed during the Sentience Wars. To bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity and understanding, the Metagalactic Grand Prix was c reated. Part concert, part contest, all extravaganza, species far and wide gather to compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes or faces. This year, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. They expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes and stoic councils. Instead found glitter, lipstick and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny - instead, they must sing, and Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes have been chosen to represent humanity on the greatest stage in the galaxy. The fate of Earth lies in their ability to ROCK.

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Bluebeard

Kurt Vonnegut

An autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, an abstract expressionist artist, who acquired the largest collection of abstract expressionist paintings in private hands.

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God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

Kurt Vonnegut

'Vonnegut is our strongest writer...the most stubbornly imaginative' - John Irving Setting himself up as a 'reporter on the afterlife,' Vonnegut bravely allows himself to be dispatched on a round-trip to the Pearly Gates - or at l east that's what he claims - in these 30-odd comic and irreverent 'interviews' with the likes of William Shakespeare, Adolf Hitler and Clarence Darrow. A delight for all Vonnegut devotees, it will appeal to just about anyone with a sense of humour.

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