Backlist Love | Not-So-Serious Sci-Fi

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The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (2001)

Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë’s novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have,”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers….

Why I liked them

I enjoy somewhat silly books that make healthy use of puns, literary and film references, and, well, general silliness. Neither of these books are particularly heavy on character development or world-building or even particularly serious philosophy — they’re just good fun romps through quirky imaginary settings. Also, both of these books are the first of series, so if you do enjoy them the fun doesn’t have to end when you turn the last page.

The Eyre Affair mashes up a retro detective story with a book nerd portal fantasy in the best possible way.

As one of the biggest fun sci-fi books every published, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is well-known for its off-the-wall humor and wild ride of a plotline.

Who I’d recommend them to

To be entirely honest, these books are not for everyone. They both involve heaping helpings of British humor, geek humor, and just plain absurd humor — on top of deliberate, liberal use of just about every trope you can think of. If you need your spec fic to involve dragons or rebel princesses or epic space battles, these books might not be not for you.

If you’re intrigued by Shakespeare authorship gang wars or the doings of a top-secret department of hardboiled book detectives, The Eyre Affair is worth a try.

And, if the idea of depressed androids or interstellar bulldozers really tickles, spare some time for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Links

The Eyre Affair

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy