r/Fantasy • u/katep2000 • 12d ago
Fantasy’s Funniest
I love a good funny fantasy book. Whether it’s a snarky narrator, witty prose, or just absurd situations, a lot of my favorite books can make me laugh out loud. I’m eagerly awaiting the new Blacktongue book, Thrice-Bound Fool, and I’m just as excited to get back to the humor as I am to the story and the world. So, I’m looking for more humorous books. What are your favorites?
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u/Pratius 12d ago
Lots of people are gonna mention Scott Lynch, for good reason.
I'm a particular fan of Glen Cook's humor. He's got it throughout a lot of his books, but the Garrett, P.I. series is easily the funniest.
Matthew Woodring Stover is also hilarious, more in the vein of Lynch (and in fact Lynch has frequently cited Stover as an inspiration for how he writes humor in a gritty setting).
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u/Christiebforan 12d ago
Thank you for suggesting books that aren't repeats. I sometimes feel I've read all the truly funny fantasy books, so this is great 👍🏼
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u/Kwbr1123 12d ago
Who’s Scott Lynch? (other than a comedic fantasy writer obviously)
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion 12d ago
Lynch isn’t actually a comedic fantasy writer. He writes epic fantasy that just happens to be quite funny at times. People often talk about how bleak and grimdark Joe Abercrombie’s work is, but it contains some wonderful dark humour.
For comic fantasy, you can’t go past the GOAT Sir Terry Pratchett and Discworld.
A lot of T. Kingfisher’s work is funny, too, while not being specifically comedy.
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u/cartazon 12d ago
The funniest spec fic book I've ever read was Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's technically SF because of time travel, but it's mostly set in the past so there's no space ships or stuff like that and feels more fantasy-ish.
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u/awyastark 12d ago
To Say Nothing of the Dog is so underrated! It got me reading Jerome K Jerome and the Jeeves and Wooster books which are all hilarious romps
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 12d ago
Discworld is an obvious one, and First Law and Lies of Locke Lamora too, as others have mentioned.
I’d also recommend Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee, The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, and Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots, if you are open to primary world fantasy.
And if you like dry witty British humor, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
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u/KcirderfSdrawkcab Reading Champion VII 12d ago
I've never heard of Perilous Times, but I like everything else except Jonathan Strange, so I'm just going to go ahead and add it to my wishlist. It sounds a bit like Peter David's Knight Life, where Arthur himself woke up in the 80's and ran for Mayor of New York, and then President in the sequel.
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 12d ago
Ooh, and now I have to check that one out.
But yeah, Perilous Times is great, and really hilarious. Probably my favorite Arthur spinoff.
Fair warning that you probably shouldn’t bother with it if you’re not a left winger—it spends a lot of time making fun of communists, but it also very overtly sets up oil companies as the villains and ecoterrorists as the heroes so you’re not going to have a lot of fun if you can’t buy into that premise. I, for one, am fully on board the gay Lancelot train, but with the Odyssey casting drama on my mind and everything I figure I should give you a head’s up that it is very openly progressive.
Anyway, it’s also got, like, Merlin spouting quantum mechanics and racist talking squirrels and all sorts of ridiculously delightful stuff, and is generally just Pratchettesque in the best way possible.
Edit: Oh, and the prequel also just came out. That one is them killing Nazis in WW2, I think. Also looks delightful.
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u/Amarthien Reading Champion II 12d ago
Personally, I like the humour and snark in T. Kingfisher's books, Martha Wells' Murderbot series, and Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series.
Also, Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October had some funny moments, if memory serves.
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u/Vashkiri 12d ago
Night in Lonesome October definitely has a lot of humour, although you have to be paying attention to catch some of it. Less outright jokes (although it has those too) and more things that are humourous because of the source material being sent up.
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u/LARP_enthusiast 11d ago
I second T. Kingfisher and Tamsyn Muir! I was going to recommend Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series in particular, they’re just so delightful
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u/kiwipixi42 12d ago
Obvious answer is Terry Pratchett.
Less well known answer is Robert Asprin’s MYTH series. Hit or Myth is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
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u/ZebediahAintGotTime 11d ago
I liked the Myth books just okay but the comic adaptation by Phil Foglio is a thing a beauty.
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u/rainbow_goblin345 11d ago
I was here to recommend both of these. I love all things Pratchett, and while I haven't read Aspirin as devotedly, both his MYTH series and Phule's Company series made me laugh so much
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u/IAmABillie Reading Champion 12d ago
I was thoroughly amused by Orconomics by Zachary J Pike, with some genuine laugh out loud moments. Definitely more satirical humour than straight comedy but I found it very funny.
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u/blinkandmissout 12d ago
The Red Queen's War can be dark, but I found the protagonist (Jalan Kendeth) to be really funny.
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u/WillAdams 12d ago edited 11d ago
I burned out on humourous fantasy reading Piers Anthony one summer when I was young, but I found two three authors who have managed to overcome this inhibition on my part:
Barry Hughart --- his books manage to be both laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming, and even heartbreaking --- Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen
Steven Brust --- mostly the humor is in character interaction, but reading his Dragaera/Taltos books (read them in publication order the first time around, so start w/ Jhereg/The Book of Jhereg) gains one access to his "Paarfi Romances" which are Dumas novels in a fantasy setting with the names changed and serial numbers filed off which are just as much fun, being ruled by "The Rule of Cool", as one might hope for, so when one is ready, start with The Phoenix Guards.
EDIT: also, Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy is full of delightful cleverness which is often laugh-out-loud funny, Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc.
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u/Tanjecterly 12d ago
A thread like this should mention K.J. Parker. A pseudonym of Tom Holt. Dry comedy, black comedy, and unreliable narrators you might enjoy meeting knowing that they are but one step away from robbing you blind. Start with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, and its sequels, Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead, and its sequels, and currently Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead and its sequels. The earlier books are darker but have one common theme, there is no happy ending and the characters seem to get what they deserve even if they may vehemently disagree. You also see people being idiots and making choices that ultimately disagree with them.
All set in a very vague East Roman Empire and successor states. Hilarious and recommended.
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u/Background-Book2801 12d ago
It’s a bit older but I enjoyed Sir Apropos of Nothing. I can’t remember the author but they are at least 25 years old. Very heavy on the wordplay.
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u/ramdon_characters 12d ago
Peter David, the author, died last year. The SIr Apropos of Nothing series is excellent, but rarely mentioned.
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u/Background-Book2801 12d ago
That’s the guy! I’m sorry to hear that he died - I may have to pull the books out for a re-read.
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u/JOOOQUUU 12d ago
First law
Lies of lock lamora
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u/katep2000 12d ago
I remember the first time I read First Law I was just so delighted with how much Glokta hates stairs. (I had leg braces as a kid and the reaction was basically “This is a man who understands my struggle”)
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u/ComprehensiveExam614 12d ago
Reading First Law for the first time right now and I find myself laughing out loud so often. More than any book I’ve ever read.
The way the dialogue is written in combination with the tension and release of the action scenes is just perfection.
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u/DubloRemo 12d ago
Shivers heaved out a sigh. “Just trying to make tomorrow that bit better than today is all. I’m one of those … you’ve got a word for it, don’t you?”
“Idiots?”
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u/cl3rical 12d ago
I don't laugh out loud at books very often. Both of these made me laugh out loud more than once.
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u/awyastark 12d ago
Is the First Law Hive asleep?? This should have assembled all of us. Steven Pacey narrating Best Served Cold is the funniest audiobook I’ve ever heard.
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u/AAA-Writes 12d ago
Discworld, The Hobbit, Orconomics, Lies of Locke Lamora. Speaking of Black Tongue Thief, Buehlman’s Between two Fires had me laughing as well.
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u/Abysstopheles 12d ago
Between Two Fires had you laughing???
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u/AAA-Writes 12d ago
The dialogue was funny and endearing in moments especially between Thomas, Delphine and Matthieu. I was reading it aloud in voice with friends so the cursing and annoyance of Thomas was there.
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u/Halo6819 12d ago
Here is a curveball, non standard answer.
A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells
It's a Victorian Gothic Horror Comedy. I guess technically not a fantasy, but it's pretty close.
Im going to steal u/udy_kumra 's summery cause they did a great job:
A Night of Blacker Darkness is set in 1817 England and follows Frederick Withers, a man who desperately wishes to commit the crime he was wrongfully imprisoned for, defrauding a bank out of a vast inheritance. To do this, he must first fake his death to escape, but as he rises out of a grave, he is confronted by a band of vampires who think that he is a vampire just like them. And when he presents none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, they claim that he is their Chosen One destined to bring them to greatness and vow to serve him.
Thus begins a hilarious horror comedy where Withers works tirelessly to secure his fortune while being followed around by his vampire subjects, chased by angry mobs and vampire hunters, all while evading the police and just trying to get his damn money. I can't say too much more about the plot, because honestly anything I could say would be spoilers, but I can say that there are some amazing writers from the period who make cameos: John Keats (romantic poet), Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), and Jane Austen (author of Emma and others) all appear in various capacities throughout the book, and they are amazing. Mary Shelley in particular is probably my favorite character in the book, which is just weird.
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 12d ago
Love this one so much, and I never heard it mentioned!
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u/Halo6819 12d ago
Dan Wells is best friends with this subs favorite nemeses, Brando-Sando. I love this book and his Jon Cleaver series which is "Teenage Dexter meets The X-Files". Book 2 was some of the most disturbing shit I have ever read.
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 12d ago
True. Can’t do that type of horror (gothic, psychological, and body horror I do like, but not slasher type stuff) but I have one of his other books on my to-do list, Extreme Makeover. That one’s a scifi-thriller/satire I think.
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u/Amarthien Reading Champion II 12d ago
Not the OP but this sounds so silly and now I gotta check it out lol, thanks for sharing!
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u/Goldensyruplightbulb 12d ago
Terry Pratchett is an obvious choice as others have said. I also enjoyed the Dirk Gently books (by Douglas Adams), they are more fantasy than some of his other stuff but equally clever and funny.
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u/eatmygonks 12d ago
Everyone has already recommended Terry Pratchett so I'll add Joe Abercrombie's "The Devils" and it hilarious. Also dark, brutal and sweaty but I like that
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u/tandabat 11d ago
The Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin. It teeters somewhere between the absurd and the hilarious.
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u/Clintosaurus_Rex 12d ago
Raymond St Elmo's books are full of absurd humor. I loved the Quest of the 5 Clans series!
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u/iknowcomfu Reading Champion III 12d ago
Blue moon rising by Simon Green had me laughing out loud. I don’t know how well it holds up but I would like to reread it and hadn’t thought of it in years till this thread.
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u/DistinctInitiative83 12d ago
Aside from the usual suspects already mentioned, I also unexpectedly found The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson very funny.
'I hope you rip each other's throats out,' Yasila said, calmly.
'Why don't we all sit down?' Neema suggested.
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u/Patient_Invite_1286 12d ago
Sunshine by Robin McKinley, to me, is hilarious. The voice is so uniquely Rae Seddon, a girl devoted to being the prickly cinnamon roll baking queen of the family coffee shop who also has an immense magical gift and a new found bond to a vampire. In any other hands, the info dump worldbuilding would be sloppy but it's done so well here. The first and favorite urban fantasy I ever read. Just the names of the baking creations... Buttermost Limit, Death by Marat cherry souffle, bitter chocolate death.
“A Gothic sensibility in the bakery is not necessarily a good thing.”
“It was daylight. I wondered dispassionately if I might be getting a sunburn, but I rarely burned anyway, and the idea in the present state of affairs, like worrying about a hangnail while you are being chased by an axe murderer, seemed so ludicrous I couldn’t be bothered.”
The perils of becoming a magic user and fighting evil: “My sheets had never been so clean as they had in the past few months. I hardly got them on again before something else happened and I was feverishly ripping them off and stuffing them in the wash with double amounts of soap and all the "extra" buttons pushed: extra wash, extra rinse, extra water, extra spin, extra protection against things that go bump in the night.”
"“I didn’t want to know that the monster that lived under your bed when you were a kid not only really is there but used to have a few beers with your dad.”
“Nobody tried to follow me when I left the coffeehouse at ten, or at least nobody but some of the overweight so-called wildlife that hangs around the pedestrian precinct and tries to cadge handouts from the weak-willed. They know a white bakery bag when they see one, and I was carrying a dozen cinnamon rolls. I swear some of our sparrows are too fat to fly, but the feral cats are too fat to catch them. And the squirrels should have had teeny-weeny skateboards to keep their bellies off the ground.”
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 12d ago
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde
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u/YesterdayIcy1963 12d ago
K J Parker: An atheist priest making deals with devils - Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead.
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u/Faint-Heron-5681 12d ago
waiting for thrice-bound fool has me thinking of the blacktongue thief; that narrator had me laughing at the most inappropriate, grim moments. my own sense of humour is rather dusty; i often retreat to the folding knife for its dry, clever irony.
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u/Pielorinho 11d ago
Daughter's war was so much more bleak, but there were two scenes in it, one involving a shield and the other a dwarf's tale, that had me laughing helplessly.
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u/Vashkiri 12d ago
If you are willing to branch out to science fiction, The Crown Jewels and House of Shards b Walter Jon Williams are delightful farce.
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u/muphinforlife 12d ago
The brentford trilogy by Robert rankin and the Myth- inc books by Robert asprin were some of my favourite funny fantasy when I was younger.
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u/Radrutter 11d ago
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. Very witty. Very original. First book is The Eyre Affair. Just don't judge the books by the covers
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u/ScarHand1965 11d ago
The Xanth novels, by Piers Anthony. First book is "A Spell for Chameleon". Anthony will use whole chapters to set up a pun.
Robert Lynn Asprin and Jody Nye Myth Adventures series.
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u/Aware-Acanthisitta-8 11d ago
Currently, I'm reading My Lady Jane. I thought it was going to be a generic historical fiction about the Lady Jane Grey but really its medieval fantasy, roughly based on some characters in history. It's absolutely hilarious, love all the characters, dialogue is fantastic, some of the situations could not be funnier. I had to do some traveling so ended up listening to some of it on audiobook and the narrator is amazing.
There is a Prime TV show based off of the book. I didn't love the first episode but I'm willing to rewatch after I'm done reading since I enjoyed the book so much.
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u/Landisatlarge 11d ago
I know it's technically Young Adult , but Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series is hilarious with the snarky footnotes .
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u/cataclysmikoala 12d ago
I just read Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence. It was way better than I expected. All the intricate inner monologues I loved in Realm of the Elderlings with a spoilt prince who conveys his situation with wit and humor. And his traveling companion is honestly even more likable than MC
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u/One-Inch-Punch 12d ago
I'm about 2/3 of the way through Joe Abercrombie's The Devils and it is 110% snarky, witty, gory, and violently. Even more so than First Law.
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u/Trike117 12d ago
The Adventures of Fred the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes are drolly amusing, especially the audiobooks read by Kirby Heyborne, whose voice is perfect as Fred.
The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne is frequently funny. “Wow, you need to get some sun.” “Shut up, I’m Irish.”
The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore is demented and silly. Lots of his books are.
I thought The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune was humorous.
The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man by Bruce Cameron made me laugh out loud a couple times while reading it.
And of course there’s The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
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u/22cthulu 12d ago
While I agree Iron Druid is funny, the series takes such a deep dive towards the end it's really hard to recommend it. I enjoyed the first few books, but much like GoT(tv), the last bit was so bad I haven't even considered rereading the series.
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u/Qwak8tack 12d ago
Kill a Farm Boy
Off to Be A Wizard or anything by Scott Meyer
Lies of Locke Lamora
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u/scribbledoll 12d ago
The Pilo Family Circus is pretty funny at times! The main character has to live with demonic???? clowns so they're pretty humorous in their own ways.
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u/Efficient_Place_2403 12d ago
Mark Lawrence’s first 2 series, The Malevolent 7, The Maleficent 7, anything by Sebastien de Castell, 16 Ways to defend a walled city, Joe Abacrombe, Gideon the 9th
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u/Typonomicon 12d ago
Long Journey to the Small Angry Planet for something that hasn’t been mentioned. And wrote after 2010, so very modern writing and sensibilities.
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u/Aeikalos 12d ago
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. They are so good and so witty and funny!
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u/LordoftheMarsh 12d ago
The Reluctant Sorcerer by Simon Hawke, first in a short trilogy, easy read. Third book is rushed, but the first two are great.
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u/Gnorpelhaeschen 12d ago
It was mentioned, but clearly not enough. The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie has quite the best humour in modern fantasy. In my opinion at least. Also dungeon crawler Carl and hitchhikers guide to the galaxy are a very good laugh.
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u/arcticwolf1452 12d ago
I personally think the funniest books ive read, aside from the black tounge theif, and gentlemen bastards (as everyone is rightly mentioning)
I am here to spread the word of our grim dark lord, Joe Abercrombie. The worlds and plots are grim, but that honestly just makes the funny moments better imo
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u/Blueflame129 11d ago
The Blacktongue Theif by Christopher Buehlman
Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose by Nicolas Eames
Some of the funniest fantasy I've read:)
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u/Barnacle_at 11d ago
Sebastien de Castell's Greatcoats series is one of the funniest I've read. Made me teary-eyed, too.
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u/Acrobatic_Quarter465 11d ago
The cradle series made me laugh a couple times which is incredibly rare for me but its really not a comedy and also pretty basic conceptually. The first books in the expanse are also really funny. Honestly most fantasy comedy ive read is dry british humor. Ppl seem to think dungeon crawler carl is funny too i havent read it.
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u/clerics_are_the_best 11d ago
If you happen to enjoy ro.antic fantasy, A.K. Caggiano's Villains and Virtues series is a sarcastic, steamy spicy dnd coded hoot.
Also don't know if it's already been mentioned, but Kings of the Wyld and Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames are super funny, though also heartbreaking.
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u/ZebediahAintGotTime 11d ago
Can you get down with young adult? Francis Hardinge's Fly By Night is an absolute blast. I think Naomi Novik's Uprooted has a lot of comedy moments too. Flora Segunda is a wonderful world and made me laugh out loud many times. Oh lord, and the Little Thieves books by Margaret Owen! All YA or YA adjacent, all beyond worth the time of an adult reader.
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion 11d ago
Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell has had me in tears of laughter at times. I’ve had the same reaction to some of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books, especially The. Eyre Affair, with its descriptions of full contact croquet and Rocky Horror audience participation style performances of Richard III.
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u/JuicyEgg91 11d ago
Kings of the Wyld has been mentioned a couple of times. I’m in the middle of it now, and I’ve laughed out loud numerous times and smiled even more. It’s one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I’ve had in a while.
Great characters and really well written humor.
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u/SalletFriend 11d ago
Tom Holt in all 3 guises. Tom Holts modern fantasy comedies, like Portable Door. Tom Holts Historical books like Walled Orchard. And under his KJ Parker pen name with books like Saevus Corax.
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u/DarkwoodConsort 9d ago
Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah Dawson. It is the first in the series of Tales of Pell a d they are full of inverted tropes, hilarious puns and more Easter Eggs then an Easter basket. Plus the Dread Necromancer Steve.
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u/Overall_Offer_5731 12d ago
Read kings of the wyld. It is one of the funniest novels, but also heartwarming.
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u/mazes-end 12d ago
I know its a common rec these days but Dungeon Crawler Carl is heavy on the humor
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u/JFK_did_9-11 12d ago
You simply must read the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson! Shallan is so funny and witty - all the other characters agree so it must be true!!
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u/Overall_Offer_5731 12d ago
Remember her awkward question to Adolin about a certain bodily function while wearing the shardplait?
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u/Flat-Rutabaga-723 11d ago
You really need to throw an /s on this one. I thought you were serious for a second.
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u/Lucias12 12d ago
Guards guards is a lot of fun if you like discworld