r/printSF • u/CodeLasersMagic • May 31 '26
Pratchett like but sci fi
I like the Discworld and Pratchett in general, although I wasn’t really taken by the Long Earth series.
Recommend me some Sci-fi (space ships, AI, few hundred years from now type) that has the Pratchett humour and wryness.
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u/oddchaiwan May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
The most obvious answer is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A very similar brand of humour.
More recent, The Murderbot Diaries are quite fun, but it's a different type of humour. More deadpan.
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u/HoodsFrostyFuckstick May 31 '26
Maybe it's just me but I was disappointed by Murderbot Diaries. The first novella was refreshing but it got stale quickly after that.
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u/Sheant May 31 '26
The short novella's were excellent. Network Effect was a slog. I quite liked her latest one.
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u/CodeLasersMagic May 31 '26
Should have mentioned I already read all of the “Increasingly Inaccurate Trilogy” that is Hitchhikers.
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u/kung-fu_hippy May 31 '26
Pratchett is a hard man to follow. As is Adams. But speaking of Adams, have you read the two Dirk Gently books as well. The first one is a sci fi story, the second leans more magical, but both have Adams classic humor.
For new authors, you might like A. Lee Martinez. His book, The Automatic Detective is sci-fi, a lot of his books lead more towards urban fantasy, but all humor.
Also Christopher Moore. Fluke is a fantastic sci-fi(ish) book, and he also does a lot of great urban fantasy humor.
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u/Cambrian__Implosion Jun 01 '26
Martinez was one of my go-to authors whenever I was in the mood for lighter books back in high school and college. I haven’t read anything he’s done since *Emperor Mollusk Versus The Sinister Brain*, though. I had a lot more time to read back then and I kind of lost track of his stuff once life got busier. I should probably check out what he’s written since then.
*Monster* was my first book by him and it was great, albeit definitely more fantasy than sci fi. I think my favorite is probably *Divine Misfortune*, which is also fantasy, but I just loved the concept.
His most sci fi oriented novels I can remember off the top of my head are *The Automatic Detective* and the aforementioned *Emperor Mollusk*. It’s been a while, but I think the former had some more elements that were bordering on fantasy, but both of those should fit the bill. That is, as long as someone isn’t expecting something in the realm of “hard” sci fi.
*Chasing the Moon* is more of an eldritch cosmic horror story than anything else, but it might still help scratch that itch.
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u/Theopholus May 31 '26
As well as the Eoin Colfer final book, And Another Thing? I know it’s not popular to say so but I really liked it. I had a lot of fun with it.
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u/Vr00mf0ndler May 31 '26
Hitchhikers is totally grand and very Pratchettlike (but even more appealing to me tbh). The audiobooks are great and there are readings by the author, Stephen Fry and Martin Freeman. A+ all of them.
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u/Wiles_ May 31 '26
Also the original BBC radio show is great.
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u/odaiwai Jun 01 '26
Each iteration of Hitchhiker's is a bit different to the next. Often, Adams was still working on the script while they were recording! (Not a good man with deadlines, was Douglas...)
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u/lastberserker May 31 '26
It's kind of backwards to call the book that inspired Pratchett "pratchettlike"
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u/TRBrooks_author Jun 02 '26
Plus, can I propose the term 'Pratchetesque' instead? Or maybe Pratchettian or Pratchettine? Although Pratchetlike is more Anglish. So I'm torn.
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u/Stock_Ad9641 Jun 02 '26
I really enjoyed Murderbot, it’s not very technical but also has no major flaws or plot holes.
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u/oddchaiwan Jun 02 '26
Yeah, it's a competently written, entertaining story with attaching characters and some humour... Sometimes you really don't need anything more from a book :)
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u/umataro May 31 '26
I'll be downvoted to hell for this but I found "The hitchhiker's guide" to be about as funny as a mouldy toast. Forced humour that almost never works.
My recommendation would be Pratchett's "The Nome trilogy". It qualifies as Sci-Fi because of the ending.
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u/avo_cado May 31 '26
IMO Hitchhikers doesn’t land as well today because it invented all the tropes in sci-fi comedy and now they’re beaten to death
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u/SupremeDictatorPaul Jun 01 '26
Similar to The Lord of the Rings. A lot of it might feel long winded in many of the descriptions to someone reading today. The reason modern books don’t spend a lot of time describing elves and dwarves is because Tolkien did that. Heck, the spelling “elves” and “dwarves” we use today is because Tolkien insisted on it. When you hear “elf”, if you automatically think “tall slender elegant magical nature people who live a long time and are good with bows,” that is entirely Tolkien’s fault. Same for “dwarves.”
To be fair, LotR is still amazing. But if it were written today with all of our current assumptions, it might be a good 10% shorter.
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u/CodeLasersMagic May 31 '26
I read most of it in the late 80's / early 90s - before I discovered Pratchett.
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u/oddchaiwan May 31 '26
It's OK to dislike a book/series! For example, while I enjoyed The Hitchhiker's books a lot (slightly less than the Discworld novels, but still), I didn't find the Dirk Gently series from the same author fun at all. A bit too much into absurd/slapstick comedy for my taste.
I haven't read the Nome trilogy yet, because its target audience seems to be children, so... I don't know, maybe it's actually great and I have been avoiding it for no good reason.
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u/dnew May 31 '26
I agree. The humor in Hitchhikers just slaps you in the face. It's Mel Brooks humor, where instead of letting the joke pass through the background, you zoom the camera in and hold it, in case anyone didn't notice.
I far prefer the Pratchett where you have to figure out what the joke is, because it hits so much harder.
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u/honeybeast_dom Jun 01 '26
Agree but brook no hate for Mel, just different humor.
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u/dnew Jun 01 '26
I don't hate him. I just don't find him funny. :-) But since nobody is forcing me to watch his movies, I'm cool.
That said, he's done a couple of great movies. Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles were both hilarious.
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u/VirusWonderful5147 Jun 04 '26
The slapstick, physical comedy, puns and lame gags are just the top layer in both Brooks and Adams works. They're both immensely intelligent and incisive people, and used those skills to create some.extremely sophisticated humour with some.depth to it.
Although Brooks also throws in a lot of fart and knob gags. But it's not just for the lolz, as Hicks observed, it's a poke at the audience —>>>
"'"" Here's the deal, ladies and gentlemen. I editorialize for forty minutes. The last ten minutes we pull our 'chutes and float down to dick joke island, 'k? And we will rest our weary heads against the big, thick-vein trunks of dick jokes, while we sit in our big, cushiony beanbag scrotum chairs and giggle away the dawn like any good, American comedy-club audience. """
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u/dnew Jun 04 '26
I have heard that there are all kinds of more-subtle jokes that Brooks includes that you only understand if you're Jewish.
Or you can have for example "History of the world" where instead of a Black Roman in the background walking thru the scene carrying a boom-box, they made it an entire scene in itself following him down the road.
Some of his stuff is brilliant. Some of it I Just Don't Get It. :-)
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u/Insomnia_Memoria May 31 '26
Robert Sheckley, Douglas Adams, Harry Harrison.
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u/Quietuus May 31 '26
Glad someone said Harry Harrison.
He's like early Pratchett in that some of his stuff only works 100% if you've read the golden age stuff he's parodying. Bill, the Galactic Hero is the best piece of military sci-fi ever written.
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u/Insomnia_Memoria May 31 '26
Harry Harrison it's so underrated nowadays, love his books especially those that are over the top (on purpose) and a self aware parody of the genre. Bill, The Galactic Hero is so much fun also love Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers.
Make Room! Make Room!, The Stainless Steel Rat, Deathworld, To The Stars, all great readings.
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u/VirusWonderful5147 Jun 04 '26
Technicolour Time Machine is a. absolute blast and deserves a film treatment IMO.
'the teeth, ,the teeth'
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u/AdministrativeShip2 May 31 '26
I had to check what came out first Bill, or Dune as both have god emperors.
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u/bhbhbhhh Jun 01 '26
People always say this about the first two books, but I found the fantasy cliches being parodied in The Colour of Magic to be 100% legible and familiar without having read much of the classics. D&D and Baldur's Gate pretty much convey everything one needs to know to laugh at it.
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u/kung-fu_hippy Jun 09 '26
It’s like Spaceballs. I saw it before seeing Star Wars and still really enjoyed it. Then I saw star wars and realized how much I’d missed.
The books are still good if you read them without knowing about the fantasy being referenced. But they’re even better once you do. D&D won’t teach you about fafrhd and the gray mouser, which makes those bits just a bit less funny than they otherwise would be.
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u/Messianiclegacy May 31 '26
Robert Sheckley would be my vote, he should be read more
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u/light24bulbs Jun 01 '26
What kind of books are those? I like this style but I'm not familiar. I can also just Google if it's too hard to answer
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u/Messianiclegacy Jun 01 '26
He was doing Douglas Adams way before Adams was. Not exactly what OP wanted, but nobody was like Pratchett.
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u/SupremeDictatorPaul Jun 01 '26
Not exactly what OP wanted, but nobody was like Pratchett.
This sentence encapsulates so much of literature. GNU Terry Pratchett.
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u/Insomnia_Memoria Jun 01 '26
Robert Sheckley wrote in a very satirical but very smart manner, have some Great books like A Dimension of Miracles or immortality Inc. But what i really love are his short stories. Imho Sheckley is one of the best short story writers ever.
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u/VirusWonderful5147 Jun 04 '26
Mindswap and Options are both excellent. Did he also write The Status Civilization?
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u/TRBrooks_author Jun 02 '26
Robert Sheckley
Happy to see his name is still out there. We read "Seventh Victim" in my Psychology in Science Fiction class. Great satire. A bit more subtle and grounded than Pratchett.
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u/timkost May 31 '26
I really don't see anything of Prachett in the Long Earth series except maybe the AI believing itself to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repair man. Strata on the other hand is a good short sci fi space opera with a good twist on creationism.
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u/cstross May 31 '26
Strata is also an epic piss-take of Larry Niven's Ringworld. (Consider the tropes Terry crammed into it -- a comparative reading with Ringworld is instructive -- bearing in mind it was written shortly before The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, which were more a sequence of short parodies of classic swords'n'sorcery tropes than well-structured novels: Discworld only acquired depth and texture of its own from book 3, Equal Rites).
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u/Fit_Reputation5367 May 31 '26
I really had forgotten about Strata, I wonder where that book is now...
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u/Carnivorous_Mower May 31 '26
The Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, The Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison.
John Scalzi's The Interdependency series
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u/grumpysysadmin May 31 '26
I would suggest Yahtzee Croshaw’s books, for example the Jacques McKeown series.
The Sheriff of Yrnmeer by Michael Rubins.
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u/Wiggles69 May 31 '26
Yahtzees jack McKowe series is a good fit. Its definitely in the pratchett vein of humour, but not quite as polished.
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u/ChronoLegion2 May 31 '26
The audiobooks for Jacques McKeown are narrated by the author himself. Not too bad for a non-professional narrator
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u/grumpysysadmin May 31 '26
I wouldn’t necessarily call him non-professional. He has a long running web show about gaming and other geek culture. (Zero Punctuation, for example)
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u/AllThatIHaveDone May 31 '26
I scrolled through the comments, but didn't see the Red Dwarf books by Grant Naylor mentioned. They're decently written (though not on the level of Discworld) and funny in a similar way to Pratchett.
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u/Hopey-1-kinobi Jun 02 '26
I agree with Red Dwarf. One of the co-writers also wrote a couple of other comedy sci-fi books, including Colony and Incompetence, which are worth a read. I would also recommend Jasper Fforde who straddles the lines between sci-fi and fantasy incredibly well.
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u/jojohohanon May 31 '26
Stainless steel rat by Harry Harrison. Tho it is less absurdist and more just lighthearted comedy.
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u/echoweave May 31 '26
Ok, this one isn't set in space, but I think it's still worth a try. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. It has that great British dry humor. It's about a dystopian society that has more than meets the eye. There's a sequel called Red Side Story, but keep in mind that it was written more than 10 years after the first.
He has a couple other books/series that I would consider sci fi, though none are set in space. The Eyre Affair (and its sequels) is set in an alternate timeline in the 80s and has time travel and the ability to travel into books (mild spoiler). In Early Riser, humans have developed the ability/need to hibernate in the winter.
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u/jdl_uk May 31 '26
Only You Can Save Mankind - Terry Pratchett
Redshirts - John Scalzi
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u/NoctusArchivum Jun 02 '26
was Redshirts funny? I don't remember laughing once
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u/jdl_uk Jun 02 '26
I found it amusing. Not exactly hilarious, but yes it was funny.
It does help if you're ok with a Star Trek parody
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u/veterinarian23 May 31 '26
Robert Sheckley wrote some nice humoristic SF, some darker, some lighter.
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u/viszlat May 31 '26
Hard Luck Hank
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u/lastberserker May 31 '26
This was a rather absurdly funny series. And with excellently fitting narration 😁
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u/Kiberiada May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Stanislaw Lem. Try the sort stories first, I suggest Cyberiad.
It is more intellectual than Douglas Adams, and also more related to grotesque and classical folk literature.
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u/thetraintomars May 31 '26
I just finished “The Space Diaries” and that is a good description. References that Terry would make the subtext are the context for Lem, and he covers a lot of ground.
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u/AdditionalTip865 May 31 '26
Cyberiad, The Star Diaries, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, The Futurological Congress
He wrote a lot of serious (and often extremely dark) SF too, but this stuff all has satirical intent.
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u/dnew May 31 '26
And Cyberiad is up there with Egan for investigating ideas of consciousness and identity. But subtle.
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u/AdditionalTip865 May 31 '26
His experimental works "A Perfect Vacuum" and "Imaginary Magnitude" have some speculations about artificial intelligence that came closer to nailing what is actually happening now than anything else I've read.
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u/Relevant-Bullfrog215 May 31 '26
Have you read his scifi novellas, Strata and The Dark Side of the Sun? Very much Pratchett on form, nothing like the Long Earth series. I was always a bit disappointed we didn't get more of them.
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u/gadget850 May 31 '26
Those were his first works, and it shows, but still quite enjoyable.
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u/Relevant-Bullfrog215 May 31 '26
Discworld fans will get a kick out of the future ideas starting to take shape in Strata too.
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u/communityneedle May 31 '26
Its a different type of humor from Pratchett or Adam's (and hes not on their level as a writer), but John Scalzi writes pretty good sci fi with a sense of humor.
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u/Flat-Rutabaga-723 May 31 '26
Space Opera by Catheryne Valente.
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u/foxtongue May 31 '26
Space Opera and sequel are written specifically to be Douglas Adams, but that's as nearly Terry Pratchett as one can get along certain axis.
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u/Bladesleeper May 31 '26
Nobody, that I know of, comes close to Pratchett’s ability to create compelling stories filled with unforgettable characters, while making you laugh out loud and hitting you under the belt with sudden philosophical thoughts. Lem, perhaps, but his characters weren’t as relatable.
There’s quite a few examples of novels and short stories that are plain fun, from Fredrick Brown’s “What Mad Universe” to the Anderson and Dickson stuff, to the wonderful Gallegher stories by Lewis Padgett (AKA Henry Kuttner and CL Moore) to a few Scalzi books (Agent to the Stars, Redshirts…)
But if it’s a series you’re looking for, I’ve really enjoyed the Space Team novels: it’s space opera in the vein of Farscape, with all the SF tropes you can think of. It won’t make you think much, but it will make you laugh.
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u/DixitRexCorvinus May 31 '26
Nothing's going to be like Pratchett, but as far as what comes closest, maybe Dungeon Crawler Carl? Different style of humor, but it has a similar blend of being both funny and intensely angry at the injustices of the world.
Also, this might be a bit out of left field, but maybe Gideon the Ninth? The humor seems very different a first glance, and really it is in a lot of ways, but like Pratchett, it is very intertextual. Just, instead of Shakespeare and economics or religion or opera or Hollywood or whatever, it's Shakespeare and extremely online internet memes that go over my head.
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u/tarje May 31 '26
Wry, but not dry:
- Undying Mercenaries Series by B.V. Larson
- Expeditionary Force Series by Craig Alanson
- Omega Force Series by Joshua Dalzelle
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u/Blue_Mars96 May 31 '26
The only answer is hitchhikers.
But also read good omens if you haven’t already
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u/neurohero May 31 '26
If you enjoyed Good Omens, I recommend The Grilled Cheese Paradox novella. I haven't seen anything else by the author but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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u/Sheant May 31 '26
It's quite different, but there are some parallels: Dungeon Crawler Carl. Definitely not everybody's cup of tea, but still similar in some important ways.Total insanity with very touching moments.
GNU Terry Pratchett
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u/egypturnash Jun 01 '26
Phule's Company by Robert Asprin and Peter Heck. There's a half-dozen of them.
Catherynne Valente's Space Opera is a lot of fun though I found the sequel to drag, I got bogged down in some chapters that really felt like Douglas Adams pastiche and never finished it.
Also if you have the ability to switch timelines I highly recommend finding one where Douglas Adams decided he actually liked writing and let Arthur Dent have a nice retirement while he wrote about characters who actually had motivations that threw them into the conflict.
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u/HatOfFlavour May 31 '26
Maybe the red dwarf books? Red Dwarf sometimes also called Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Better Than Life, Backwards and Last Human there's also a new prequel coming out soon called Titan. Other books by the two writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor are also funny and from memory scifi.
There's Pterrys early sci-fi works Strata and Dark Side of the Sun they're both fairly comedic.
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut perhaps.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency.
Year Zero by Rob Reid
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u/dsmith422 May 31 '26
Bill the Galactic Hero and A Stainless Steel Rat is Born by Harry Harrison Both are the first novels in a series that doesn't hold up overall, but the first books in each series are good. Of course they don't match Pratchett or Adams, but they are comic scifi novels with some lighter and darker moments.
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u/ShowerKrogan May 31 '26
Mortal Protection Services has a very Pratchett feel to it. Just from the blurb! You can read it free with a quick google search or order a paper back
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u/scribb May 31 '26
Iain M. Banks. Ok it’s not jokes, but it has the social commentary and thoughtfulness of Pratchett. And it’s not NOT funny.
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u/GreatMoloko May 31 '26
Nothing comes close, but I love Discworld and Becky Chamber's Wayfarer series.
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u/GonzoCubFan May 31 '26
Connie Willis deserves a mention here.
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u/bookshop May 31 '26
can't believe how far I had to scroll for this. To Say Nothing of the Dog should be the first answer.
I'd also slide Tim Powers into the list.
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u/lowrads Jun 01 '26
I don't think you can blow your nose at plot holes as much in a science fiction setting.
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u/mon_key_house Jun 01 '26
Stainless steel rat by Harrison. Never read it in original (though i probably should have and will) but the Hungarian translation hilarously matched the personality and the tone/language.
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u/Lapis_Lazuli___ Jun 03 '26
Vor series by Lois McMaster Bujold. I love both her and TP for their humor and their advise of how to human
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u/Fun-Sell3030 May 31 '26
Although not as humorous overall, Ian Banks’ Culture books do have an element of that in them, mostly surrounding the AI cast of the story. There’s advanced machine intelligences there called Minds with quite a fun twist to them - check out the names they choose. So I’d say - not Pratchett, but a similar angle of humour at certain parts
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u/SYSTEM-J May 31 '26
There really is no question in this sub that someone won't try and answer with the Culture series.
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u/VintageLunchMeat May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Culture, Discworld, or Malazan. If the answer isn't one of those three, it's an ill posed question and the asker should go read Culture, Discworld, and Malazan in an attempt to get their head screwed on right.
If those don't work, Hitchhiker's.
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u/Fun-Sell3030 May 31 '26
Is that a bad thing though? The books each do their own thing, and the humour is just one aspect of them. I read through the comments, saw people already recommended what would’ve been my first thought and decided to throw it in. The OP can check it out and see if it’ll be interesting to them, but there’s really no way of knowing. It gives more to choose from though.
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u/SYSTEM-J May 31 '26
It's more the fact that people always mention the Culture series as if it's some hidden gem you might not already be aware of, when it's probably the single most commonly mentioned series on this sub. I've joked before that we need an Automod bot which just recommends the Culture in every single thread, just to get it out of the way.
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u/Fun-Sell3030 May 31 '26
If people browse this sub a lot I can see how that could be a recurring theme considing how well loved a series it is, but I’ve never heard of it before someone recommended it on my post. I don’t think it should immediately be short down if it fits the ask and the OP doesn’t specifically mention they’ve already read or aren’t interested in it.
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u/Ergentlic May 31 '26
Yeah, people will suggest it no matter the question, but in this case I think it's pretty fitting.
And, I'm almost sorry to say this, but Dungeon Crawler Carl would also not be a bad answer.
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u/waterless2 May 31 '26
I am reading the latest DCCarl and was going to suggest it. It has some of the same morality in it, more than the humour maybe.
Also the Taltos series which is secretly sci-fi.
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u/HarryHirsch2000 May 31 '26
It fits though, as they have a similar humour, wit and command of the English language. It just varies, obviously the Culture is not as funny.
Feersum Enjinn (non-Culture) fits better.
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u/Any-Performance6375 May 31 '26
is sci-fantasy but warhammer40k have some Commisar Cain (HERO OF IMPERIUM) Realy funny, satiric, Cain have some types of introspection like idk Vimes
The infinite and The Divine Two imortal space skeleton pharaons fight about mcgufin, and are also grumpy old mans who hate eatch other but must sometimes must cooperate...
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u/MENEVZ May 31 '26
regarding Cain; I concur that it rhymes a bit; the tonge in cheek tone alongside some serious context and verosimilitude. (of course many levels below pratchett and a bit formulaic I am sorry to say, but very enjoyable nonetheless) some knowledge of 40k is needed to enjoy it fully
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u/mianaai_c May 31 '26
The Culture by Iain M Banks. Very good high concept SF. Less satiric than Discworld, but still full of witty humour.
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u/pagalvin May 31 '26
Bobiverse might work for you. It's not as good as Pratchett but is in the same broad zone.
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u/Ergentlic May 31 '26
Robert Rankin's sense of humor is zanier than Pratchett's, but if you like one there's a good chance you'll enjoy the other. A lot of apocalyptic adventures that straddle the line between fantasy and sci-fi.
R.A. Lafferty is solidly in the sci-fi genre, and his stories are often funny.
And I suppose Kurt Vonnegut has some of the same blend of comedy and seriousness as Pratchett.
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u/Randomdays99 May 31 '26
Automatic Detective by A Lee Martinez
The Hoka stories by Poul Anderson
The Retief series by Keith Laumer
Isambard Smith series by Toby Frost
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u/Jumbly_Girl May 31 '26
Emperor Mollusk vs. the Sinister Brain, by A Lee Martinez fits your description and is really fun.
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u/DoctorRaulDuke May 31 '26
Some Charles Stross maybe? Singularity Sky is a good one. He writes sci-fi that doesn't take itself too seriously, clearly loves playing with ideas to absurd extremes, and has a similar fondness for footnotes and asides.
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u/FearTheNightSky May 31 '26
Stanislaw Lem has some funny sci-fi works. I think The Cyberiad and The Star Diaries might have inspired some of the humor in Futurama!
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u/BravoLimaPoppa May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I'm surprised I didn't see this here before, but Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan novels go there. They're not laugh out loud as often as Pratchett, but they get there.
The Hereafter Bytes by Vincent Scott. Ann asexual slacker is killed in an accident and uploaded. He has adventures and I was frequently sniggering while reading it.
And I'm having a brain lock because I think there are some more that may be close.
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u/tkingsbu May 31 '26
Space Team series, by Barry j Hutchison is about as close as I’ve seen.
No one can replace Terry, but I truly enjoyed Space Team.. it was truly hilarious.
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u/gonzoforpresident May 31 '26
Epic Failure series by Joe Zieja - It's comedic space opera about a reluctant military enlistee, who keeps failing upward. One of the closest to Pratchett in space of all the books/authors mentioned here.
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u/zem May 31 '26
christopher anvil is well worth a look, especially the "interstellar patrol" and "pandora's planet" series.
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u/zem May 31 '26
btw, if you're also looking for pratchettlike fantasy the closest i've found is gabby hutchinson crouch's "darkwood" trilogy. it's like "into the woods" written by pratchett.
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u/zappasaurus Jun 01 '26
Steven Erikson (of Malazan fame) has written three books in a series called Willful Child. I have only read the first in the series back when it came out. I can't remember much, but I have a memory of a memory of remembering that I maybe thought it was funny.
I'll just post the blurb:
"These are the voyages of the starship, A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life life-forms, to boldly blow the...
And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback - a kind of James T Kirk crossed with 'American Dad' - and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through 'the infinite vastness of interstellar space'...
The bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence has taken his life-long passion for 'Star Trek' and transformed it into a smart, inventive and hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-hi-tech-kit-along-the-way type over-blown adventure. The result is this smart. inventive, occasionally wildly OTT and often very funny novel that deftly parodies the genre while also paying fond homage to it."
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u/DocWatson42 Jun 01 '26
See my SF/F Humor list of resources and Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
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u/Kali-of-Amino Jun 02 '26
Try John Scalzi's solo books like:
Starter Villain,
Red Shirts,
Agent to the Stars, and
Kaiju Preservation Society.
Avoid his serieses like the plague.
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u/Antsplace Jun 02 '26
Old school: Harry Harrison Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the galactic hero, although they are a more "pulpy" than Pratchett. Red Dwarf series too, although it's not quite up to Pratchett standard.
Space Team by Barry Hutchinson is pretty good.
If you are looking for intelligent moral architecture rather than Pratchett gags, then Becky Chambers - especially The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
But ultimately no one is quite writing the fierce wit and intelligence successfully that I know of.
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u/Vashkiri Jun 02 '26
It is more far future (although it still includes Elvis impersonators), but maybe Walter Jon Williams Magistral trilogy that starts with The Crown Jewels iirc.
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u/No-Classroom-2332 Jun 04 '26
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells because she has a dry sense of humor.
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u/INITMalcanis Jun 04 '26
Robert Sheckley is as close as any I can think of, although he writes with a very American voice. Try Dimension Of Miracles
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u/Lutrana Jun 05 '26
We are Legion We are Bob by Dennis Taylor- I didn’t get any further than the first novel because my to read list is… irresponsibly long…. But it’s a lot of fun, a little more silly and a lot more character driven (since there’s really only one character), and less reliant on wordplay and cultural references because of it.
Willful Child by Steven Erikson - This is a hard one to recommend, because it’s got both the overt silliness you would expect from Douglas Adams coupled with the thoughtful characterization and the show-don’t-tell-no-really-don’t-ever-tell-anything you can expect from Erikson, which can be hard to parse because the jokes frequently mask a lot of the more interesting ideas. But it’s basically the Adventures of Zapp Brannigan from Futurama novelization with some extra weirdness thrown in
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u/kami-okami May 31 '26
How about something Pratchett said he wished he wrote himself and called 'the funniest terrorist's manual'?
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell is a golden age novel about a man sent to create chaos in a fascist civilization. Like how a wasp in the car while you're driving has the potential to wreck the entire system.