# If I liked the books John Dies at the End and it's sequel, I will like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998 "2014-12-12T04:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KingLupid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/839c29/32.png) [@KingLupid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KingLupid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/1 "2014-12-12T04:01:07Z")
recommend me some books. I really like weird and profound, but will settle for weird and funny, or just weird. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/2 "2014-12-12T04:57:47Z")
Tim Powers is one of my favorites in the “weird but profound” fantasy genre. _Declare_ is probably my favorite, concerning a British spy’s adventures in both 1940 and 1960 to secure the co-operation (or, failing that, prevent the Nazis/Soviets from doing the same) of several supernatural creatures living in and around Mount Ararat. Also works as a good bio of real-life British turn-coat Kim Philby, who serves as one of the book’s villains. _Last Call_ is also good, about a supernatural poker game that’s periodically played to determine who is going to be king of the world. That one has two sequels, one of which features a young boy possessed by the ghost of Thomas Edison, and the other revealing the mystical roots (as it were) of the Californian wine industry. He’s also done pirates (_On Stranger Tides_ - no actual relation to the Johnny Depp movie beyond the title), time travel and Victorian poetry (_The Anubis Gates_), and the role of a particular make of beer in preventing the Ottoman Empire from overrunning Europe (_The Drawing of the Dark_.) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/3 "2014-12-12T06:26:31Z")
I’ve only seen the JDatE movie, but maybe: Christopher Moore Kurt Vonnegut Terry Pratchett (I hear he’s popular around here) Neil Gaiman Maybe some of the other authors at Cracked. Haven’t read any either, but one shilled a brand new one recently. for varying degrees of weird. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/4 "2014-12-12T11:08:30Z")
Try Richard Kadrey’s _Sandman Slim_ series. Smart, funny, hip and nasty filthy urban fantasy noir with a terrifically realised escatology. The Dresden Files with big hairy tattooed balls. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/5 "2014-12-12T15:11:35Z")
Try _Ready Player One_. Not as weird, but just as fun, in my opinion, as _John Dies at the End_. ---
**Author:** ![Osiris\_the\_1st](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de0a6/32.png) [@Osiris\_the\_1st](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osiris_the_1st)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/6 "2014-12-12T15:38:41Z")
_How to Succeed in Evil_ by Patrick McLean _Redshirts_ by John Scalzi _NPCs_ by Drew Hayes ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/7 "2014-12-12T16:14:06Z")
At least some of the suggestions here are pretty good. Here are a few that it’s been a long time since I’ve read, so I don’t remember them real well, but they might be somewhere in the general ballpark of what you’re looking for: [Fool on the Hill](http://www.amazon.com/Fool-Hill-Novel-Matt-Ruff/dp/0802135358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418400257&sr=1-1&keywords=fool+on+the+hill) by Matt Ruff [Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede](http://www.amazon.com/Buddy-Holly-Alive-Well-Ganymede/dp/0380718766) by Bradley Denton ([e-book available free](http://manybooks.net/titles/dentonbother09buddy_holly_is_alive_and_well.html)) and from a hundred years ago, maybe [The Man Who Was Thursday](http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Was-Thursday-nightmare-ebook/dp/B0082S1VDM/ref=sr_1_3_twi_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418400740&sr=1-3&keywords=the+man+who+was+thursday) by G. K. Chesterton ---
**Author:** ![KingLupid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/839c29/32.png) [@KingLupid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KingLupid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/8 "2014-12-13T02:49:01Z")
Thanks for all the replies. Can’t wait to begin reading! Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman I am very, very familiar with and glad to see them mentioned here. I spent several weird, sleep deprived days at a con back in the day, and kept ending up running into Neil in the strangest places, for a total of about 20 times. I am sure he thought we were stalking him, but it was pure coincidence. He is, or at least was then, a really humble, almost self-deprecating personality that is very incredible to his fans. Tim Powers I always describe as the best author no one is reading. He is also super awesome, and I conversed with him by phone and email some time back. I bought a first edition On Stranger Tides, and shipped it to him. He did a very nice personalized signing for a friend, and shipped it back at his own expense. The friend has since passed, and I now have the book again as a memento of our friendship, and of my short relationship with one of my favorite authors. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/9 "2014-12-13T03:29:11Z")
_Soon I will be Invincible_ by Austin Grossman, is a novel told from the POV of a comic book super villain. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/10 "2014-12-14T01:35:20Z")
Another possibility: [14](http://www.amazon.com/14-Peter-Clines/dp/1618684981/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418520782&sr=1-1&keywords=14) by Peter Clines. Less of the exuberant, comic, wall-to-wall weirdness of _John Dies at the End_ and more of a mysterious, slowly building weirdness; but I suspect the Venn diagram of people who like both books has significant overlap. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/11 "2014-12-14T18:03:21Z")
_John Dies at the End_ most reminded me of _[Buckaroo Banzai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Buckaroo_Banzai_Across_the_8th_Dimension)_, so maybe try some of Earl Mac Rauch’s comics. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/12 "2014-12-16T01:54:39Z")
Maybe more of a stretch, but you might be interested in _Fight Club_. Not a ton in common, but my mental library puts them on the same shelf. _Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore_ might be worth a look, too. Quite a bit in common with John Dies, actually. First-person narrative, protagonist meddling with conspiracies, postmodern pop-culture jokes. Much less B-movie inspiration, though. ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-liked-the-books-john-dies-at-the-end-and-its-sequel-i-will-like/706998/13 "2014-12-16T02:15:38Z")
_The Chronicles of Amber_ by Roger Zelazny. One of my favorite series of books, and way way out there. IMHO, vastly underrated.