# Comic Fantasy Novels: Know Any Good Ones? I Do. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2005, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298 "2005-03-19T10:43:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/1 "2005-03-19T10:43:52Z")
I’ve just started working my way through Martin Scott’s _Thraxas_ series, and they’re that rare thing, genuinely funny comic fantasy. He manages to avoid Douglas Adams-ish whimsy, by also making them a send-up of hard-boiled PI novels: Thraxas is a drunken, overweight ex-army Investigator, who was kicked off the official force for being a drunken boor, and now runs a decepit investigating practice above a tavern in the sleaziest part of a corrupt city. He’s equally abetted and hindered by Makri, his part-Orc female sidekick who escaped from the Orcish gladiator pits and now makes a living tending bar {wearing a chainmail bikini only in order to increase her tips} while agitating for women’s rights and pursuing her university studies in philosophy, mathematics and architecture. She is also, handily, the finest hand-to-hand fighter there is. The great thing is that such a clash of genres ought to be an embarrassing trainwreck, but Scott manages to playfully subvert the usual fantasy cliches of Orcs, Elves and Sorcerers _and_ interweave them with the standard “kicked off the force” detective story tropes to make the books original and very funny. Very highly recommended for fantasy {and crime fiction, and strong female character} fans. Anyone else got any good comic fantasy recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/2 "2005-03-19T16:09:39Z")
I didn’t like Thraxas, really. I found them a bland shade of Rick Cook’s Garret, PI series. (Deadly Lead Skies, Stone Silver whatever) If you like Thraxxas, try them. E. Freisner’s Chicks in Chainmail series is getting a new addition, it’s a series of shorts. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/3 "2005-03-19T17:39:19Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > I’ve just started working my way through Martin Scott’s _Thraxas_ series, and they’re that rare thing, genuinely funny comic fantasy. > > He manages to avoid Douglas Adams-ish whimsy, by also making them a send-up of hard-boiled PI novels: Thraxas is a drunken, overweight ex-army Investigator, who was kicked off the official force for being a drunken boor, and now runs a decepit investigating practice above a tavern in the sleaziest part of a corrupt city. > > He’s equally abetted and hindered by Makri, his part-Orc female sidekick who escaped from the Orcish gladiator pits and now makes a living tending bar {wearing a chainmail bikini only in order to increase her tips} while agitating for women’s rights and pursuing her university studies in philosophy, mathematics and architecture. She is also, handily, the finest hand-to-hand fighter there is. > > The great thing is that such a clash of genres ought to be an embarrassing trainwreck, but Scott manages to playfully subvert the usual fantasy cliches of Orcs, Elves and Sorcerers _and_ interweave them with the standard “kicked off the force” detective story tropes to make the books original and very funny. Very highly recommended for fantasy {and crime fiction, and strong female character} fans. > > Anyone else got any good comic fantasy recommendations? Jack Vance’s Cugels Saga / eyes of the overworld books are the funniest fantasy books I ever read, laugh-out-loud funny. I don’t know if I’d call them “comic” novels for some reason, maybe because the comedy is not front and centre, it comes from the way Vance writes. Either way, they’re side-splitters. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/4 "2005-03-19T18:10:39Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > I’ve just started working my way through Martin Scott’s _Thraxas_ series, and they’re that rare thing, genuinely funny comic fantasy. > > He manages to avoid Douglas Adams-ish whimsy, by also making them a send-up of hard-boiled PI novels: Thraxas is a drunken, overweight ex-army Investigator, who was kicked off the official force for being a drunken boor, and now runs a decepit investigating practice above a tavern in the sleaziest part of a corrupt city. > > He’s equally abetted and hindered by Makri, his part-Orc female sidekick who escaped from the Orcish gladiator pits and now makes a living tending bar {wearing a chainmail bikini only in order to increase her tips} while agitating for women’s rights and pursuing her university studies in philosophy, mathematics and architecture. She is also, handily, the finest hand-to-hand fighter there is. > > The great thing is that such a clash of genres ought to be an embarrassing trainwreck, but Scott manages to playfully subvert the usual fantasy cliches of Orcs, Elves and Sorcerers _and_ interweave them with the standard “kicked off the force” detective story tropes to make the books original and very funny. Very highly recommended for fantasy {and crime fiction, and strong female character} fans. > > Anyone else got any good comic fantasy recommendations? A list o titles, please? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/5 "2005-03-19T19:40:12Z")
Well, Terry Pratchett immediately springs to mind, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/6 "2005-03-19T21:41:55Z")
Speaking of comics, **The Order of the Stick** is now in print. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/7 "2005-03-19T23:06:50Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > A list o titles, please? > 😕 _Thraxas, Thraxas And The Warrior Monks, Thraxas At The Races, Thraxas And The Elvish Isles, Thraxas And The Sorcerors, Thraxas And The Dance Of Death, Thraxas At War_. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/8 "2005-03-20T03:45:56Z")
Neil Barrett, Jr., has two great ones called \*The Prophecy Machine \*and _The Treachery of Kings_, which are funny in a “Frank Kafka meets talking animals” type of way. And also Tery Pratchett, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/9 "2005-03-20T06:22:07Z")
James P. Blaylock’s novels often have humorous elements. James Branch Cabell, if you’re into sardonic humor. A number of novels by Thorne Smith (_Topper_ is the best known). The _Kai Lung_ stories by Ernest Bramah are great. The _Compleat Enchanter_ stories by de Camp and Pratt. _Orlando Furioso_ is a hoot (bits of it, anyway). Charles G. Finney. And I’ll enthusiastically second the Vance recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/10 "2005-03-20T08:05:12Z")
There are two short story collections I enjoyed a few years ago: _The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy I and II_. Some good stories in them. I also like Esther Friesner’s stuff, including the _Chicks in Chainmail_ series. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/11 "2005-03-20T10:42:19Z")
I could never get into Pratchett, for some reason: too heavy on the whimsy. Everyone tells me they get better further on in the series - mind you, they say that about Harry Potter - but that middle-class English tweeness gets on my nerves. _Chicks In Chainmail_ sounds interesting - what’s the premise {apart from the obvious}? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/12 "2005-03-20T12:39:51Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > I didn’t like Thraxas, really. I found them a bland shade of Rick Cook’s Garret, PI series. (Deadly Lead Skies, Stone Silver whatever) If you like Thraxxas, try them. That’s Glen Cook’s Garrett series. A totally different kind of fantasy is in Mel Gilden’s Zoot Marlowe series. Zoot is an alien who learned about private eyes by watching tv signals. He comes to earth and gets accepted by the Malibu surfer crowd. Unless you absolutely require fantasy to have a medieval setting the books are really more fantasy than sf, but wildly funny. Three of them, _Surfing Samurai Robots_, _Tubular Android Superheroes_, and _Hawaiian U.F.O. Aliens_. Here’s one that’s been largely forgotten: _The Flying Sorcerers_, by David Gerrold and Larry Niven. Lots of sf authors are spoofed as characters. BTW, everybody’s right about Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/13 "2005-03-20T13:34:26Z")
Very interesting! Several months ago I picked _Thraxas_ as the first book for our budding book club, based solely on its win of the World Fantasy Award. I have never been so thoroughly mocked for my reading tastes. Every single one of us hated it, and we spent a fair amount of time speculating on who Martin Scott had to screw to win the award (it’s a classy book club). But your description makes it sound good, and so I guess it really is just a matter of taste. Most comic fantasy doesn’t do a lot for me: I read Piers Anthony as a kid, but couldn’t read him now, and while I enjoy burning through a Ptratchett novel now and then, I can’t remember a thing about them when I’ve finished. But recently I read _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_, and I haven’t laughed as hard at a book in a long time. Its humor is dust-dry and completely hilarious to me. I loved it. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/14 "2005-03-20T19:16:43Z")
Whoops, I forgot to mention the “Nifft” books by Michael Shea. Shea’s writing style is similar to Vance’s. I picked up _Thraxas_ a couple weeks ago, again only because of the World Fantasy Award. It’s a pleasant-enough book, but definitely not world-class. In retrospect, it’s one of those books that I’d happily buy used, but probably wouldn’t buy new. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/15 "2005-03-20T20:57:49Z")
How about short stories? [The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy II (Mammoth Book)](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786706945/qid=1111353322/sr=8-7/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i7_xgl14/103-8241848-0825462?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/16 "2005-03-20T21:28:40Z")
I also should have mentioned George Alec Effinger’s Marid Audran books. _When Gravity Fails_, _A Fair in the Sun_, and _The Exile Kiss_. There’s also a collection of short stories that I haven’t read, _Budayeen Nights_. The setting is a Muslim cyberpunkish future like nothing else, with Audran as the only private eye working some very mean streets, all tinged with Effinger’s skewed sense of humor. It’s interesting that most sf writers who have tackled the private eye genre - and there have been dozens - played it for laughs to varying extents. About the only one who didn’t is Richard Bowker’s excellent postacopalyptic _Dover Beach_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/17 "2005-03-20T21:29:55Z")
Post-apoc-alyptic, but the other way makes for a good Freudian slip. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/18 "2005-03-20T23:05:49Z")
Daughter Two has just finished the first two books of Aspirin’s **Myth Adventures** series and she liked them as much as I did back in the day. If I can find my Leiber (two moves since I’ve unpacked all my old paperbacks) I think she’ll get a few laughs from Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. They are some of the best parodies of Swords & Sorcery stories ever done, a remarkable feat given that they were inventing the genre. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/19 "2005-03-21T16:29:52Z")
I read a book called “Waiting for Godalming” by a fantasy author named Robert Rankin. I thought it was pretty funny, and have been told by friends that he has written numerous other funnier books, but alas they are not at my local library. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298/20 "2005-03-21T16:34:34Z")
> [@well he's back](#): > > I read a book called “Waiting for Godalming” by a fantasy author named Robert Rankin. I thought it was pretty funny, and have been told by friends that he has written numerous other funnier books, but alas they are not at my local library. Ask your Librarian about the Interlibrary Loan Service. Through this service, you can borrow books from all over the US & Canada. And it’s totally free, in most places! 🆒🆒🆒 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-fantasy-novels-know-any-good-ones-i-do/295298.md?page=2)