July 2026 SFFKit: Humorous SFF

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Lots of great reads to look forward to this month:
The Road to Mars by Eric Idle (1999)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (1987)
To Say Nothing of the Dog: How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis (1998)
Redshirts by John Scalzi (2012)
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson (1960)
The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway (2008)
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (2001)
The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies by Martin Millar (2015) & Lonely Werewolf Girl trilogy, Supercute Futures, Thraxas series under pen name Martin Scott,
Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones (1998)
The Portable Door by Tim Holt (2003)
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M T Anderson (2018)
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien (1967)

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We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor (2016)
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (1973)
The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison (1961)
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (1999)
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (1993)
The Radleys by Matt Haig (2010)
The Reformed Vampire Support Group (2009) & The abused werewolf rescue group (2010) by Catherine Jinks
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor (1989, Red Dwarf)
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (2012)
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart (1984)

I'll be reading The Portable Door by Tim Holt to start.

I may read Relight My Fire by C. K. McDonnell

Oh, how I love The Rook! It’s like a James Bond novel co-written by Douglas Adams and H. P. Lovecraft.

>5 KeithChaffee: Oh that's good to know. I'll have to get hold of a copy.

>4 Robertgreaves: The Stranger Times looks good too.

Lots of inspiration here! I’ve ordered quite a few of the suggested at the library - we’ll see what arrives in time.

I might use this opportunity to revisit Asterix, and learn what Goscinny and Uderzos successors have made of their inheritance.

I am hoping to finally get around to Red Shirts by John Scalzi.

I love this category.

Depending on what I can locate, I may do one of these:
What Ho, Automaton! by Chris Dolley
Codgerspace by Alan Dean Foster
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
Heroics for Beginners by John Moore
Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne & Delilah S. Dawson

Or just re-read something from Spider Robinson's Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.

>7 amberwitch: Asterix is always a good choice. I went to a talk by Daniel Hahn at my local writer's festival last month. It was about translating Shakespeare but as Hahn's first love is children's books he spent some time raving about the English translations of Asterix. He grew up loving Asterix and had much love for the English translator, Anthea Bell.
Here's a link to an interview with Bell, about translating Asterix: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/16/anthea-bell-asterix-translator-int...

Though now I see from your profile that you are in Denmark, so probably reading Asterix in the original or Danish.

I'm planning to read John Scalzi's The Shadow War of the Night Dragon: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue, which is quite short, but it's been published as an independent e-book, so I figure it counts.

>10 avatiakh: I do read Asterix in translation - except for a few pages assigned in french classes back in secondary school:)
Thanks for sharing the interview with Anthea Bell, which I think covers some of the same themes as the Danish translations. In Denmark I believe the most generally recognized translators are for graphic novels; The translators of Tintin, Asterix and Donald Duck are all widely known as almost co-creators, and credited with a lot of impact - renaming is a particular issue that often come up.
The translator of Tintin actually sued the publishing company for royalties when they re-issued the series.

>10 avatiakh: how fun! I did a project for my Master's on translating the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes (English to French). It was easily one of the most challenging and fun projects I've ever done (certainly more so than all the telecomms manuals I ended up translating for a living!).

This really is a bit of a challenge to me because I do not naturally gravitate towards humorous book, however, I have A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher on my kindle, so I might finally read that one. I had planned to read it earlier this year for HomeCAT but didn't get to it.

My husband also recommended Roverpowered by Drew Hayes, although he hasn't read it yet.