Recommend a series for me to read

Cafe Society
1

What I’d most like to find is another 40 Discworld novels. Since that’s probably not going to happen, maybe my fellow Dopers can help me find the next best thing.

Most of you know the joy of reading Discworld: funny, clever stories, with interesting characters and plots, meaningful ideas, sly references to other works, and on and on. I’ve read every one of them at least three times, and several four or five times. Is there anything else out there in the world of fiction to match it?

Here’s what I’ve read and liked, aside from Discworld.

Mysteries:

[ul]
[li]Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout. Probably my next favorite series after Discworld. I’m about halfway through my second reading of all 37 books.[/li]
[li]Bernie Rhodenbarr, by Lawrence Block. I like others of Block’s novels, too, but the Burglar series has the light humorous touch I’m looking for. [/li]
[li]Philo Vance by S.S. Van Dine. Not as good as the two above, but interesting. I’ve read most of them.[/li]
[li]Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton. I’ve read maybe half. Pleasant, beautiful writing style, not incredibly engrossing stories.[/ul][/li]I read quite a bit of Agatha Christie many years ago, and recently started up again with a couple of Hercule Poirot stories and one Tommy and Tuppence, but especially when compared to Nero and Archie, Christie’s lead characters are tedious and unpleasant to be around.
Sci-fi:

I’ve read some, but far from all, of these masters:
[ul]
[li]Isaac Asimov[/li][li]Robert Heinlein[/li][li]Arthur C. Clarke[/li][li]Ray Bradbury[/li][li]Stanislaw Lem[/li][/ul]

Classics:

[ul]
[li]Jane Austen. All six novels (multiple times) and some of the juvenalia.[/li]
[li]Anthony Trollope. Barchester Towers, and most of the other Barchester stories[/li]
[li]W. M. Thackeray. Vanity Fair.[/li]
[li]Charles Dickens, I’ve read a handful, and might be persuaded to go back and read more.[/ul][/li]
So this gives you an idea of my tastes. My top priorities are a good run of consistently interesting stories with some humor. I don’t necessarily mind dark, as long as it has some humor to it. (E.g., I like Elmore Leonard, but Tolkein is out!)

What do you recommend?

2

Just throwing out some of my favorites:

Anything by Tim Dorsey. Probably best to start with Florida Roadkill and just enjoy the ride. 21 novels and counting. Funny, deranged mayhem.

If you are into historical fiction of the alt-history kind, there is always the 163x shared universe of Eric Flint., which is up to fifty bajillion books by now. Of varying quality and interest, but the mainstream novels are pretty good.

3

I highly (and frequently) recommend Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean le Flambeur trilogy

The Quantum Thief
The Fractal Prince
The Causal Angel

The narrative is obtuse, employing a strict “show-don’t-tell” style that forces the reader to stretch their imagination and constantly redefine it as new information comes forth. Very imaginative, very complex story arc. And best of all, a very tight resolution at the end of the the books. Without a doubt the very best science fiction series I’ve read of the past 20 years.

The basic plot of the first book is that Jean le Flambeur, a thief, is imprisoned in a quantum virtual prison where is replicated many times. He escapes, with aid, and sets about trying to find the memories he hid from himself on Mars, so that he can complete the mission he was broken out of prison for. Ultimately he hopes to confront his nemesis who had him placed in prison, but he cannot do so without his memories intact, so he agrees to the mission.

That covers about 1/10 of the book’s events. The rest is subplots (some relevant to the story arc, some not) & world-building that I still find jaw-dropping every time I think about this book. 5 stars. 10/10.

Difficult but worth it, IMO.

4

Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series might fit this description. It’s not exactly the same genre as Descworld—more “meta,” and less about the characterization—but I think it has some of the same appeal.

This and some of the others you mentioned make me think it would be worth trying Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. They’re not comic per se, and some of them are fairly dark, but there’s definitely humor in the snappy dialogue and narration, and they’re quick, easy reads.

5

Christopher Moore. He would fit your requirements perfectly. Very funny, cleverly plotted, and some wild speculation. Some of his best are *Fluke, or Now I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings; Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal; *, and Sacre Bleu.

There’s also A. Lee Martinez. There’s Gil’s All Fright Diner, Monster, Divine Misfortune, Chasing the Moon and the great The Last Adventure of Constance Verity Most of his books are stand alone, though there is a Constance Verity sequel.

Along with jasper fforde (and you should also read his Shades of Grey* for humor and great SF speculation), these three are the most Pratchett-like authors writing today.

Tom Holt may also strike your fancy as a writer of funny fantasy.

*Not to be confused with anything else, and it was written first anyway.

6

I love the mysteries of Ed McBain and Andrew Vachss’s Burke.

7

Robert Zelazny’s Amber stories. The first five from the Seventies are better than the second five from the Eighties/Nineties.

8

Emile Zola’s Rougon Macquart novels. 20 books covering virtually the whole society of the Second Empire. An astounding range of styles and several outright masterpieces.

9

I’ve enjoyed Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels. The protagonist is complex and interesting, and it definitely has the humor you’re looking for. Butcher has created a fairly extensive universe that reveals itself little by little, so each book is not too dense with world-building. IMO there were a few missteps and a bit of unevenness, but it’s mostly a solid and satisfying read.

10

Likewise Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. As with the above, there are definitely some missteps (Foxglove Summer would have been vastly improved by the author owning a goddamn calendar) but the characters and world-building are deeply compelling. Apparently Pegg and Frost’s production company is going to be making this into a television series.

I’ll also second (or third) the various Jasper Fforde books. Incredibly clever, funny and well-plotted stuff (apart from the Nursery Crime books which are a bit rough).

11

The Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser

Brilliantly funny, historically pretty accurate.

The original Flashman character was the villain in the novel Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes (1857). In that book, Flashman is a bully, a coward, and a liar. In the end he is expelled from Rugby School, and the virtuous Tom Brown lives happily ever after.

In 1969 George MacDonald Fraser revived the character as an anti-hero in his own novels, and took up the story after Flashman’s expulsion.

Flashman tells the reader his own story in the first person, looking back at his life from the age of 80. He has been extremely successful (far more so than Tom Brown). He is now General Sir Henry Flashman, VC, KCB, KCIE, Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur, U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor, San Serafino Order of Purity and Truth, 4th Class - and a member of the Board of Governors of Rugby School. He is extremely wealthy, a personal friend of the royal family, and esteemed by one and all as a perfect English gentleman.

However… in reality his character has remained unchanged from his schooldays with Tom Brown. He is, as he tells the reader, “a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward - and, oh yes, a toady.” He’s simply been exceptionally good at it. The humour is often laugh-out-loud, and the books are highly readable, as well as being unusually historically accurate.

Read the ‘Look Inside’ on Amazon to get a taste of it.

12

I was going to suggest this series, as well, at least in part because the OP has familiarity with some classic English literature, as well as an appreciation for humor.

13

If you’re up for some adventure (plus classic), try some of H. Ryder Haggard’s novels such as Allan Quatermain, She, and King Solomon’s Mines. Quatermain was quite likely the inspiration for Indiana Jones. Ryder was fairly prolific, and you can get everything he ever wrote for $0.99 on Kindle.

14

Seconded. A warning, Aaronovitch seems to get better as he goes, with the first book being kind of so-so. It took a while for Aaronovitch to get into the groove.

15

The Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - clever mysteries and great period detail.

The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian - high-seas Napoleonic adventure and exploration, focusing on the enduring friendship of a Royal Navy officer and a surgeon.

The Spenser series by Robert B. Parker - the many and challenging cases of a tough, smartass Boston private investigator.

16

I’d second this with the caveat that the first couple of books aren’t that great. If you can make it through them the rest of the series gets a lot better quickly.

17

I’ll add:

The Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi - military sf, thought-provoking, funny and thrilling in all the right places.

18

OP – with your liking some detective-novel series, there’s a favourite one of such of mine, which I’d tentatively recommend: the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries by Carola Dunn (there are twenty-odd in the series, which the author is still adding to). These are set in England in the decade or so following from 1923 – they are mysteries of the “cozy”-ish sort; but saved for me from excruciating and cloying cozyness, by the author’s inclusion in them of the pervading, brooding presence of the recent First World War, which has to some extent cast a blight over the lives of nearly all the characters.

Otherwise, I find them agreeable and ingenious murder mysteries, with the time and place well conveyed – with a wide array of characters, displaying a variety of quirks / oddities / failings. Daisy, the heroine, is an agreeably un-stuffy scion of the English aristocracy – one of those detective-story protagonists who, going about their life’s occasions, “keep tripping over dead bodies”. Things come about that she works in a sort of detecting-wise uneasy partnership with Alec, a police detective, whom she marries in the course of the series. No doubt, not everyone’s cup of tea; but they’re novels which I greatly like.

19

Another vote for Jasper Fforde. Plenty of chuckles, tons of literary references (more than half, I’m sure, went completely over my head), very entertaining. I still can’t help but giggle every time I see a “TJ Maxx” store. :smiley:

One note of caution: you definitely want to read them in order. A friend of mine gave me a copy of “The Eyre Affair” (the first in the series) and then I just read the others whenever I could find one at the local library. Several plot points made no sense until I read an earlier book that I had skipped.

20

The Laundry Files books by Charles Stross. Revolves around the British government agency that deals with occult threats. But it’s still a government agency, with all that it entails.