Ok, so it's a lousy name, but I couldn't think of a better one.
The Genre I'm trying to talk about here is a Genre of crazy, funny books, that are always a pleasure to read, but don't always have a very deep meaning. These are the books you can die laughing from, because you never know where they're going to hit from next. The kind of books where heroes fall off the edge of the world, ballistic missiles turn into petunias, and Biro pens have a life of their own.
| Douglas Adams | is the famous writer of the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, now spanning a whopping five parts. The "trilogy" portrays the incredible adventures of Arthur Dent, Earthling on his long travels through the quirky paths of the Universe, and has given popular literature - towels, the answer to life, the Universe and everything (42), and the immortal phrase - Don't Panic... Adams has since written two magnificent books called - "Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency" and "The long dark tea-time of the soul" - both, standing true to Adams' style, portray the work of one Dirk Gently, detective, and his red leather hat, while they chase their own tail only to find that everything in the Universe is fundamentally attached. |
| From the blurb of the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy": Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way far 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: Zaphod Beeblebrox - the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years. Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel! | |
| my favourite passage from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is HERE | |
| Terry Prachett | Author of the never-ending Discworld series, Terry Pratchett's outright off-the-wall craziness, creates hilarious books which are just plain fun. Revolving loosely around the life of Rincewind, an enormously successful survivor, but not a very competent wizard as wizards go, these books are sort of a ongoing parody on fantasy stories. Spanning a dazzling number of books the Discworld series (trilogy?) has brought us a huge range of hilarious characters, it's got to the point that Pratchett is turning out books faster than I can read them! |
| From the blurb of "The Colour of Magic": "On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet..." | |
| Robert Rankin | Robert Rankin, Is a whole world to himself. While stylistically similar to Prachett's work his books are even further over the edge, practically begging to be kicked off... Demented is truly a fitting adjective to Rankin's work - and that is what makes it so much fun. |
| From the blurb of "the Book of Ultimate Truths": "He had walked the Earth as Nostradamus, Uther Pendragon, Count Cagliostro and Rodrigo Borgia. He could open a tin of sardines with his teeth, strike a Swan Vestas on his chin, rope steers, drive a steam locomotive and hum all the works of Gilbert & Sullivan without becoming confused or breaking down in tears. He died, penniless, at a Hastings boarding house, in his ninetieth year. His name was Hugo Artemis Solon Saturnicus Reginald Arthur Rune. And he was never bored. Hailed as the 'guru's guru', Rune penned more than eight million words of genius including his greatest work The Book of Ultimate Truths. But vital chapters of The Book were suppressed, chapters which could have changed the whole course of human history. Now, seventeen-year-old Cornelius Murphy, together with his best friend Tuppe, sets out on an epic quest. their mission - recover the missing chapters. Re-publish The Book of Ultimate Truths. And save the world. Naturally." |
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