8 Books Like Star Warped

I first encountered Douglas Adams when I caught The Hitchhiker’s Guide on late-night radio, and I was hooked. The novel is slightly different, with Adams giving a bit more consideration to plot and logic, but it has the same wonderful, rapid-fire dialogue style, which has seldom been replicated.

I absolutely love Arthur Dent’s ludicrous accidental odyssey, meeting characters like Zaphod Beeblebrox and the wonderfully named Slartibartfast. The Guide sits in the background, popping up to provide superbly funny explanations of the history of the universe, humanity’s obsession with money, and a lot more.

For me, the thing that sets this apart from a lot of SFF humor is its ‘Britishness’—there’s a distinct feel of the surreal comic legacy of, for example, Monty Python and The Goon Show.

I fell in love with Terry Pratchett’s writing style with the first Discworld novel I read—they’re all great, and could fill a ‘best of’ list by themselves. But if I’m forced to pick a single favorite, it’s this one. I love the witches (and Nanny’s cat, Greebo), and can’t help but grin at the conversations between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.

The highlight of this particular book is Nanny Ogg’s rather rude ‘cookbook.’ Oh, and Greebo in human form. And Henry Slug pretending to be Enrico Basilica, while wanting nothing more than wholesome Ankh-Morpork cuisine, not to mention… I could go on for ages: I love everything about this book.

One warning, though: don’t listen to the audiobook in public. When among strangers, it’s embarrassing to burst out laughing for no readily apparent reason.

This is the most Terry Pratchett-y book I’ve come across that wasn’t written by Terry Pratchett! It’s often hilarious, but also hides a deeper commentary on war, selfishness, and human nature. This is a short, quick read, but well-told and engaging—once I started, I couldn’t put it down until I finished it.

T. Kingfisher writes in a number of different styles, and this is the funniest of her books that I’ve read, just beating Swordheart.

I loved the Red Dwarf TV series (at least, the early ones), and this book captures the spirit of the show, no question. It expands the world and characters, and provides a giggle a chapter, if not per page. I found I couldn’t help but ‘hear’ the dialogue being spoken in the voices of the TV characters.

The TV series is perhaps losing its luster (it has been going for a looong time), but the books still rock it for me.

Given the circumstances, returning to the Star Wars universe feels natural! As a historian, I have spent much time looking at recruitment, public information, and propaganda posters from the 20th century.

These items, regardless of their overt content, always provide great insight into the wider context of their creation. This is something that Pablo Hidalgo reproduces to a remarkable level in this book. With images that bear many of the hallmarks and visual cues of our own world and then placed within a fictional context, this book ticks all of my boxes and is an absolute treat.

Stepping out of the theme of fantasy, I have to say I am a huge fan of science fiction, nearly as much as fantasy. One of the first books/series that springs to mind when speaking of this genre is the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois Mcmaster Bujold. I’d read a lot of Sci-Fi prior to this series, but mostly the Battletech books. If Battletech was my favorite fast-food books, then The Vorkosigan Saga was an 8-course meal at a 5-star restaurant. While it did not delve into the intricacies of space travel and technology to the point I felt like I was taking an advanced college course, she does create a living galaxy and intricate characters you can’t help but chase after like a starstruck fan seeing Mark Hamill at a Star Wars convention. While there is an overall theme to the large series, each book is unique to itself, so… show more.

No one plans a school field trip like Miss Frizzle! In The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, her students ride their amazing, magical bus to a cloud in the sky, where they experience the path of a drop of water, first as rain, then through a purification system, then through underground pipes all the way back to the school bathroom. There’s a lot more that happens along the way and the illustrations are really helpful at showing this complex process. It’s fun and it’s educational. A win for both parents and kids!

Kid books are the most important books. They hook deep into the gray matter right as it’s branching off in all directions, and set the course for a whole new crop of writers. The imagery in this companion to the long-running Animorphs series was off the charts – for example, a moon-spanning hivemind organism that keeps thousands of victims tethered underwater, trepanned by tendrils that let it access their decaying brains. This one is dark, vivid, and capped off by a beautifully understated death.