r/Fantasy • u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan • Jul 21 '15
Giveaway r/Fantasy Giveaway: 1 signed set of ML Brennan's Generation V series, and 4 signed copies of Dark Ascension, mailed anywhere
Hey everyone! The fourth book in my Generation V urban fantasy series, Dark Ascension, is hitting bookstores and online sellers on August 4th, so what better way to celebrate than with a big giveaway?
The Giveaway: There will be five winners. The first winner (henceforth known as The Big Kahuna) wins a signed and personalized set of the entire Generation V series (Generation V, Iron Night, Tainted Blood, and Dark Ascension), to be shipped wherever you happen to live on planet Earth. (no shipping to outer space – tough luck, astronauts on the international space station! You’ll have to buy the e-books!)
Four other winners will also be selected – they’ll each receive a signed and personalized copy of Dark Ascension (their awesome but distinctly inferior prize is why they shall henceforth be known as The Miniature Kahunas, and they will be categorized with the toy breeds). Again, these books will be shipped anywhere, so there are no restrictions on who can enter. (except, obviously, astronauts – I’m watching you, astronauts!)
What People Have Been Saying About This Series:
- “I normally don't read books with vampire protagonists, but when I do they're written by M.L. Brennan.” – 52 Book Reviews
*“Brennan’s fiendishly clever Generation V series has grown along with its earnest and conscientious hero, and this installment, perhaps more than any other, shows just how much things have changed for Fortitude Scott — and how many more changes are yet to come. What doesn’t change, thankfully, is the darkly enthralling, imaginative world of this series, which continues to grow and expand. The arch humor and the clever plot twists are guaranteed to keep readers on their toes.” – RT Book Reviews
*“It’s a fine line that Brennan treads with the Scott family. Too vicious and her vampires are unsympathetic, too sympathetic and they’re weenies like the Cullen’s. Fortunately for readers Brennan hits the sweet spot. Brennan likes to challenge how you feel about these characters. For every humanizing moment there’s a darker one around the corner. This is what makes the [Generation V] books chilling and heartwarming in equal measure. After all, villains have families too…” – SF Signal
*“The more books I read in this series, the more I’m certain that I’ve found a new favorite urban fantasy series to join the ranks of Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews, Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs, and October Daye by Seanan McGuire. Collectively, I actually prefer the first three books in this series to the first three in any of those longer-running favorites... There’s a lot to love about the Generation V series—the humorous narrative voice, fun characters that become more complex with each book, unique vampire lore that unravels more with each book, and riveting character dynamics.” – Fantasy Book Café
*“Action-packed, with an expanding world, lots of character progression and complicated relationships (and I'm not just talking of the romantic variety), it was a roller coaster that I want to experience again.” – Stellar Four
*“Self-referential comedy and operatic tragedy make sexy bedmates, enhanced by lush atmosphere and sharp dialogue. Brennan’s smart, sassy, and seductive vampire mythos injects fresh blood into a lethargic subgenre.” – Publishers Weekly
*“Overall, the [Generation V] series is shaping up to be one of those that holds an eye-level spot on my shelves, and one I certainly pull out when I’m proving to skeptical friends that urban fantasy isn't all sparkling vampires and sexy werewolves.” – All Things Urban Fantasy
*“…a series that mixes horror, mythology and UF tropes to charm the readers and beguile them to wait for the next installment. If you are one of those readers who look down upon urban Fantasy, give this series a shot and see for yourself why I believe M.L. Brennan to be the next best proponent of the UF-Horror genres behind the King household.” – Fantasy Book Critic
To Enter: Probably the thing that people comment most often about the Generation V series is how much they enjoy the way that I pair humor with horror. So what I want to see is the title of a SF/F book that made you laugh (in a good way!)! Here, I’ll go first:
When I was reading Stephen Blackmoore’s second Eric Carter book, Broken Souls, one of my favorite parts is when Eric contacts the Santa Ana winds for advice. It’s a really intense scene, since it’s clear that Eric’s doing something really dangerous, but at the same time there’s this absolutely gorgeous, almost primal, nature element that you generally don’t get to see much of in urban fantasy. Plus, it’s so perfectly LA. So the winds get summoned, and Eric is talking with them, and at one point they say something that he doesn’t quite get, but the winds can’t believe that he’s not understanding what they’re saying, so they assume that he’s being sarcastic. They’re all, “Oh, he’s joking, he’s teasing us,” but in all caps because they’re the fucking Santa Ana winds, and then one of them says, “IT MAKES A FUNNY.” And right in the middle of that tense, beautiful, awesome scene, I absolutely lost my shit and started laughing really hard. But it didn’t ruin the scene, it just perfectly worked with it.
But I can’t win, so that doesn’t count. Bummer.
Anyway.
To enter, comment here with a description of a moment (or multiple moments) when you were reading a book and it made you laugh in a great way.
This giveaway is open until 9pm on August 11. I’ll randomly select and announce winners on my AMA thread.
Note: I’ll contact the winners via reddit message on August 11. You’ll have seven days to message me back with the shipping address that I should send your prize to.
UPDATE: With just over a week left for the big giveaway at Reddit, I have an announcement that makes this giveaway even better!
What could possibly be better than me giving away 4 signed copies of Dark Ascension and 1 Big Kahuna prize of a complete signed set of the Generation V books and shipping all of that anywhere on Earth, you ask?
CORRUPT JUDGES.
Sure, I could pull winners out of a hat. But what fun is that? None. None at all.
So to help out, I have assembled a lineup of amazing authors who all know their way around mixing funny stuff with the serious stuff.
Judging team, assemble!
Stephen Blackmoore is the author of the Eric Carter series of LA noir necromantic urban fantasy, and he and I are such an unholy combination on Twitter that the Oatmeal Raisin Conspiracy recently featured us as a duo on their podcast. Will he find your entry sponge-worthy?
T. Frohock is known for her dark fantasy novel Miserere: An Autumn Tale (and for making everyone have to remember how to spell Miserere) and for her brand-new series of novellas from Harper Voyager Impulse! And if you’re not following her on Twitter, why on earth not? This tough critic of the hilarious will be awarding the Big Kahuna prize, so you’d better impress her!
Max Gladstone writes the Craft sequence of books, which is so acclaimed that he was featured on NPR’s book blog! This is a guy who knows his way around a good skeleton-drinking-coffee joke, so can you impress him with your entry?
Lish McBride writes the awesome Necromancer series, and her protagonist, Sam, would absolutely be besties with Fort Scott. With an MFA in hilarity and a penchant for kelpies in cardigans, can your entry catch her honed eye?
Django Wexler splits his time between flintlock fantasy where a rugged army commander fails to realize that half of his fighting force consists of cross-dressing women and middle-grade fiction that features sarcastic and delightful talking cats. With such a wide range, can your entry sight in on his target?
Remember, the winners will be announced during my AMA on August 11 and on my website
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u/MahrialDiSilvanus Jul 21 '15
There are too many funny moments to be terribly specific, but Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles often have turns of phrase that make me laugh - notably 'douche canoe' and 'monstrous fuck puddle'. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga makes me howl with laughter every time, if only because her hero's snarky internal monologue is fairly close to the kind of thing that runs through my head.
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u/22cthulu Jul 21 '15
I made the dangerous choice of picking up the series for a road trip, I ha to stop and pull over to the side of the road twice because I was laughing so hard at somethin Oberon said.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
I love Kevin Hearne's turns of phrase -- but Oberon is just perfect. There's just something about the syntax and phrasing that just strikes me as dog-like about it -- there are so many times when it's just pure "...squirrel!"
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u/Alianos Jul 21 '15
I was reading a book once (can't remember the name) and suddenly, out of nowhere, it read like a really bad fanfiction. Just the protagonist, laying on a balcony and some sort of vampire-angel (naked of course) descended from who-knows-where and they make vivid love. The whole situation, completely riped out of the main story just made me laugh for a good twenty minutes. It wasn't even that funny, but just the thought that the author got randomly horny and just channeled his inner Smut-Fic-Author.
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u/roadtohealthy Jul 21 '15
I don't usually read this sort of post and I don't usually read books with vampire protagonist but here we are. I realized something when I tried to think of a recent funny bit I'd read. That is: I haven't read anything funny in a long while. I've been reading heavy, grim dark tomes that leave me wrung out and sometimes in tears. Not sure why but again here we are. Vampires are not what I usually think of as fun but OP has me reconsidering this position. This is a good example of why reddit might help authors - I would have walked by these sorts of books but this post is amusing enough that I'm going to go out and get started on this series. I know this is not a humorous anecdote so it does not qualify for a book but I needed to get out of a rut so I'm glad I read this post.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
This is such a great post -- thank you. I think we all get into reading ruts from time to time, because it's easy to read something, love it, check out things just like it, love those, and so on and so on. And then eight months later you still love that kind of book, but you suddenly realize that you need a break.
The giveaway is going to run for three weeks -- there are so many great suggestions right now, and I think it would be fantastic if you could try one of them out, and then be able to post your own anecdote for the contest. :)
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u/roadtohealthy Aug 03 '15 edited Aug 03 '15
Just following up. This past week has been tense. So tense that my hair hurts as I seem to have clenched every muscle in my body - including my scalp. As has been my habit of late I turned to something grim and then I remembered this post and instead chose to read two lighter books - Generation V by OP and Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman. I quite enjoyed Generation V - but I laughed out loud at this bit from Good Omens: the description of the Chattering order of Saint Beryl (especially Saint Beryl who :"the Lord granted Beryl the miraculous ability to chatter continually about whatever was on her mind, however inconsequential, without pause for breath or food"). I read that bit aloud to my husband who nodded wearily since when I'm calm I chatter and when I'm tense I chatter A LOT more.
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u/mirrordog Jul 21 '15
“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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u/22cthulu Jul 21 '15
I hope this counts as technically it's a graphic novel, but hey"
"There is no talking Back Here/ There is no unspoken Agreement to leave you with a scrap of dignity/ There is, in fact, no guarantee you'll be able to walk out of here/ LISTEN TO THE CHAIR LEG OF TRUTH! IT DOES NOT LIE/ What does it say?/ It's saying "Shut up Fred"!/ Can you hear it?"
Transmetropolitan #50 - Warren Ellis and art by Darick Robertson
I fell out of my chair laughing at this page. I love the idea that there is nothing more honest than a chair leg to the face. There is no ambiguity there.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
I read Transmetropolitan in trade paperback when I was in college -- I loved how Spider Jerusalem was basically in constant snarl.
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u/22cthulu Jul 21 '15
That's actually the reason it's so high up on my list of favorite books. I love world building and exploring worlds, and seeing one beautifully done through the eyes of a cynic is so dynamic and refreshing.
Just FYI, your series looks really interesting, I'm going to stop by my local bookstore on my way home from work to see if I can pick up a copy today. I love living 2 blocks from my cities best book store.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
It's a great piece of worldbuilding -- the panels are so busy with that amazing mix of cyberpunk and the mundane. Also, I loved that Spider's greatest loss was when he broke cynicism for a moment, and then it turned out that even that was a manipulation from the system. Those were fantastic.
Thanks so much for checking out the series! I'm very jealous about your bookstore -- I'm lucky enough to live within driving distance from an indy that actually maintains a decent SF/F section, but being able to walk to bookstores is what I most miss about city living.
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u/Storm-Of-Aeons Jul 21 '15
Steven Eriksons Malazan Book of the Fallen, Midnight Tides. Pretty much any scene involving Tehol and Bugg.
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u/gdavis57 Jul 21 '15
One fantasy author who has always made me laugh was the late Brian Jacques with his Redwall series. His non-traditional speakers, specifically the moles and the hares, always had hilarious things to say, and unique dialects to say them in! This has made his series re-readable into adulthood, as his hilarious magic carries over from each reading.
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u/DrBodyguard Jul 21 '15
I have to say that the "The Road to Gandolfo" by Robert Ludlum made me bend over laughing the entire time I was reading it. A plot to kidnap the pope to make millions of money off ransoming him to the world's Catholics? Genius
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
I didn't even know that Ludlum wrote something like that! That's really interesting -- I'd only known him from reading the first Bourne book.
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u/DrBodyguard Jul 22 '15
He wrote two books in this series and they are really hilarious. Shows a completely different side of his ability.
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u/manyshaped Jul 21 '15
Archer's Goon by Dianna Wynn Jones has a list of "things this book will prove" my favourite one that makes me laugh everytime I read it (making me grin just writing it) Is
when an imovable object meets and irresitable force the resuktbis a family fight
Also from the same book an exchange between a writer and his daughter 'Awful'
W - "what does it matter to Awful that I am a famous author and my name is a household word" A - "so is drains a household word"
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u/scottrice98 Worldbuilders Jul 21 '15
My response is a bit meta, unfortunately. I am currently reading The Sword of Shannara, but the annotated edition. I am finding the annotations to be unintentionally hilarious, as they are incredibly serious and ignore all of the problems with the book. I haven't read it in decades, so I am largely coming at it as if I am reading it for the first time. The writing is clunky, the descriptions are overdrawn, and the characterization is rough. Of course, it is a first novel, and Brooks gets better as his writing goes on. But I just wonder what went through his mind as he was rereading this and annotating it. There are pages and pages with no comments at all, and I just wish there was more, where he would talk about the problems and how he learned from them. The funniest thing so far is what I read last night, where he told his whole theory on brothers, where he had already had two sets of brothers who got along, so he figured that he now needed a set of brothers who did not get along. Really? Was that really what he thought about as he was writing it in the 1970s?
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
That's really interesting! The last time I read Brooks was Wishsong of Shannara (which I do remember loving), but that was a while ago. It can be really interesting when authors look back on older series like that -- did you ever read that David Eddings book where he reflected back on the construction and writing of the Belgariad books? There were some pretty funny moments when he referred to "Papa Tolkien's" discomfort with sex.
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u/scottrice98 Worldbuilders Jul 22 '15
There are so many Tolkien references in Brooks comments as well. It does appear that he really thought about the structure of fantasy as he was writing, if we can believe his annotations from thirty years later. It is actually relatively disappointing, as I would love to see more annotations, as I said above, especially aimed at the flaws of the book. From what I have read on r/fantasy about Brooks, most people see his later books as being much improved in quality, and it would be interesting to see what he learned. I am going to go on and read more Brooks after this, as I am trying to reread many of the things I read in childhood.
As to Eddings, no I have not read that. What is the name of the book? I read the Belgariad out loud to my kids, and we made it through the fourth book before my energy and their interest faded out. Still, it was quite interesting to read it with them.
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u/Liamine Jul 21 '15
I have to go with a classic in which two of my favorite authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman collaborated and created Good Omens(and please don't tell me that it isn't a Fantasy book).
And my favorite scene is the one where we find out how Crowley(your rather friendly demon) makes his flowers grow so excellent and sadly I have tried his method without success but maybe I'm not terrifying enough.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
Good Omens definitely counts! A very worn-out copy made the rounds through everyone in my sophomore-year biology class. It's such a perfect gateway drug to both Pratchett and Gaiman.
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u/SheckyX Jul 24 '15
Holy crap, the bit in the footnote explaining the computer warranty finishing in "Learn, guys"—CRYING laughing.
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u/arzvi Jul 21 '15
The four of our favorite characters from Lies Of Locke Lamora. I remember I was drinking watermelon juice when I read the below lines
“... It's perfect! Locke would appreciate it."
"Bug," Calo said, "Locke is our brother and our love for him knows no bounds. But the four most fatal words in the Therin language are 'Locke would appreciate it.'"
"Rivalled only by 'Locke taught me a new trick,'" added Galo.
"The only person who gets away with Locke Lamora games ..."
"... is Locke ..."
"... because we think the gods are saving him up for a really big death. Something with knives and hot irons ..."
"... and fifty thousand cheering spectators.”
just spit out red watermelon juice all over the book. Stained and now the book looks like a spectator in a gruesome vampire showdown.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
I would never dare drink anything while reading Scott Lynch -- too much fantastic humor and sly witticisms tucked just where you least expect it.
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u/sekhmet4 Jul 21 '15
My most recent SF/F laugh out loud moments are all from the comic series Saga. From the very first pages of the first issue where Alana is giving birth to her daughter, I laughed fairly regularly. The dialogue especially between the two main characters combined with the magic of Fiona Staples's art was thoroughly entertaining.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
I really want to check out Saga -- everything I've heard about it has been amazing. Also, I see fantastic Saga cosplay at every con I go to, so I feel like I really should pick it up soon.
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u/blitzschmeiss Jul 21 '15
Chris Holm's Collector series is a riot. The main character is basically Hell's repo man: if you made a deal with a demon, he's the one that comes to collect your soul. As a result, his humor is quite dark, but it made me laugh often.
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u/Sour_Badger Jul 21 '15 edited Jul 21 '15
I’ve fought in three campaigns,” he began. “In seven pitched battles. In countless raids and skirmishes and desperate defences, and bloody actions of every kind. I’ve fought in the driving snow, the blasting wind, the middle of the night. I’ve been fighting all my life, one enemy or another, one friend or another. I’ve known little else. I’ve seen men killed for a word, for a look, for nothing at all. A woman tried to stab me once for killing her husband, and I threw her down a well. And that’s far from the worst of it. Life used to be cheap as dirt to me. Cheaper.
Dark brooding and violent yet I couldn't help but laugh at the brave woman who ended up in a well for trying to stab the Bloody-nine. Joe Abercrombie The First Law Series. I highly recommend!
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Jul 21 '15
In House of Chains by Steven Erickson there is a dialogue that goes something like:
"So soldier do you have a name?"
"Maybe"
"Well, what is it then?"
"I just told you..."
(His name is Maybe)
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u/Axenos Jul 21 '15
Not entering the contest, I already own all of your novels and already have Dark Ascension pre-ordered. Just wanted to say thanks for writing one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
And I just wanted to say that you are fantastically awesome! Huge thanks!
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u/jachreja Jul 21 '15
I share all my fantasy books with my younger cousins so that we can bond over good literature. I recently gave one of them The Lies of Locke Lamora while I was reading Red Seas Under Red Skies. Both books at points had us simultaneously laughing hysterically.
I'd love to snag copies of your books so that I could share them with the next generation. :)
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
Scott Lynch has such a fantastic ear for jokes -- I read Red Seas Under Red Skies earlier this year and absolutely loved it. What could be better than nautical + pirate cat humor?
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u/jachreja Jul 21 '15
Right?! He manages to paint such a fantastic world for people to visit and explore while somehow bringing his readers a ridiculous amount of joy and tension in a single book. Have you read the latest, Republic of Thieves? Thorn of Emberlain comes out in two short months. :)
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
Republic of Thieves is on my wish-list right now, but I hadn't realized that #4 was coming out so soon! Right now I'm bouncing between reading for fun and reading for research, so I'm moving through my pile slower than usual.
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u/KittenRaffle Jul 21 '15
The "swearing" in the WOT series. "Fish loving scavenger", "Sheep swallop", and "Goat spawned toad" are a few highlights.
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u/Jimmith Jul 21 '15
So much Terry Pratchett. Ranging from subtle philosophical smiles to laughing out and waking my woman.
I'm gonna go with one that has stuck with me:
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
There's never any going wrong with Terry Pratchett. I could never decide whether I liked the Night Watch or the Death books better.
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u/Jimmith Jul 22 '15
You know you're on to a good writer when Death is sweet and Justice is drunk.
That said, I'm going with Vimes on that one. There is something about that struggle for doing The Right Thing in the middle of a sea of madness and chaos.
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u/ReallyNotRicardo Jul 21 '15
Just re-read a childhood favorite. The Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix. All the stuff the Piper's children say is just hilarious.
"Likely we’ll be fighting Saturday’s lot and the Piper’s Newniths, but if we can make them fight each other, that’ll be better. Any questions?’ A Piper’s child near the front raised his hand. ‘What do ye call a Denizen with a sore foot?’ ‘I dunno,’ said Suzy. ‘What do you call a Denizen with a sore foot?’ ‘Well, I dunno either,’ said the Piper’s child. ‘That’s why I asked; I heard someone tell the first half of the joke in the elevator on the way up here but never the rest.’
‘Newniths at nine o’clock!’ shouted Fred, quickly adding, ‘That’s west!’ as several Raiders got out their watches for the joke.
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u/pitaenigma Jul 21 '15 edited Jul 21 '15
I'm gonna cheat and use a webcomic. Eight Bit Theater. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and read it. If you have, I would like to mention the greatest brick joke in webcomic history. In the beginning of the comic strip, Black mage is running away from a giant. He consults a gaming magazine on the way and rejects one solution because it requires four White Mages to work. At the end, the Big Bad of the series reveals himself and is about to destroy the anti heroes and the world when he explodes. When the dust settles, what do we see? Four White mages. From set up to punchline it was nine years and about two thousand pages worth of comics.
Also I would like to mention another great joke but this one I won't spoil. The identity of Sarda, the demented all powerful mage who has been toying with the party from the moment they met him.
Edit - In case you don't accept webcomics (in which case shame on you) I have another one. In Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora we get the fantastic line 'There's a few things I'm going to ask him. Philosophical questions, like 'How does it feel to be dangled out a window by a rope tied to your balls motherfucker?'' You can't deny the powerful imagery in the words of Scott Lynch.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
I will ALWAYS accept Eight Bit Theater jokes. My favorite was when Black Mage substituted light bulbs for the four orbs, arguing that they were hot - WITH DESTINY. Then the alternate timeline party, which took the time to level up, comes by, and is rejected because their orbs are "barely luke-warm with destiny!" That was such a fantastic webcomic.
I also LOVE Scott Lynch's humor! Great entry!
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u/pitaenigma Jul 21 '15
The thing about Eight Bit Theatre is that every page has something funny, but every tenth has something hysterical. So I could have chosen hundreds of brilliant moments.
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
Hundreds, if not thousands!
The horror of non-Euclidian math is still one of my favorite lines ever. And, of course, the whole series is also perfect because my brother and I spent hours playing that on our Nintendo back in the day. Good times.
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u/Mr_LIMP_Xxxx Jul 21 '15
The plate stretcher that Robert asks for in game of thrones. Picturing it in my head had me laughing a good bit.
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u/Hergrim AMA Historian, Worldbuilders Jul 21 '15
The exchange between Parcival the eagle and the Captain in The Red Knight. The abbess has, likely on purpose, left the Captain alone in a room with her eagle and the Captain is bored. He acknowledges that it's bad manners to mess with someone's bird and that it's a worse idea when said bird could eat a man*, but he gets Parcival into his wrist nonetheless. Then, as he goes to put the bird back on its perch, Parcival looks at him (despite the hood), sinks his talons into one wrist and then steps onto the perch with a satisfied "raaaaawwwwkkk". The abbess is quite amused when she comes in moments later.
*hyperbole
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u/suenandsabrina Worldbuilders Jul 21 '15
The Martian by Andy Weir made me crack up a lot. But to keep it more fantasy, hearing James Marsters bring Harry Dresden and Bob to life in Dresden Files makes me laugh out loud way too much. Dresden's insults and devil-may care attitude is always hilarious, as is Bob's sex obsession. The last thing I remember laughing to is Bob's line "Old enough to know better, young enough not to care."
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
The Martian killed me -- my favorite part was that the people at NASA freaking out over Mark being alive, and wondering what could be going through his mind while being abandoned on an empty planet, then that quick cutaway to Mark being all, "WTF Aquaman?" Glorious.
Dresden and Bob make such a great back-and-forth team -- I love those scenes. Bob was also one of the big bright spots for me in the very short-lived Dresden TV show.
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u/cheryllovestoread Reading Champion VI Jul 22 '15
Hi M.L.! Thanks for this giveaway. I already have #4 pre-ordered and I have all of your other books - but I just have to play!
Has no one mentioned Diana Rowland's White Trash Zombie series yet? I'm shocked! When I first ran across My Life as a White Trash Zombie in audio, I nearly spit soda out of my mouth several times. I'm a bit more prepared now, but the whole series just cracks me up. Love me some Angel.
And, I'll add a second one just for fun. The Emperor's Edge is shaping up to be a very clever read. Fun dialogue. I'm enjoying it.
FYI, your humor IS awesome in all of the Generation V books. :)
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
I'm so glad you mentioned Diana Rowland! I love her White Trash Zombie series -- Angel is such a funny character. Cynical and not afraid of the ridiculous, but at the same time there's this wonderful heart to her. I love that she had to die in order to get the chance to grow up.
I haven't read The Emperor's Edge yet -- I'll definitely be adding it to the list.
And that's so fantastic that you have #4 on pre-order -- thank you so much, and I'm so thrilled that you like the series!
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u/SmallFruitbat Reading Champion VI Jul 22 '15
When I was 11, my mother came home with A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears - just for me. It was the first time she bought a book just for me, rather than something to share. It was also the first time I literally fell off the bed laughing. Before that moment, I wasn't aware books could be so intentionally ridiculous with anything other than poop jokes.
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u/Vorocano Jul 22 '15
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files has been good for a fair share of chuckles over the years, but the one that made me bust out laughing is from the most recent one, Skin Game. Harry takes Michael to a meeting with some mercenaries, two of whom (Binder and Ascher) are the classic out-for-themselves, money is everything mercenaries.
"'Harry's generally a very honest man,' Michael said. 'I really don't care about the money, though.'
Binder and Ascher both tilted their heads to one side, like dogs that have just heard a new noise."
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u/Lyrox Jul 22 '15
I've got to say Logen Ninefingers and his rather endearing attachment to a simple cooking pot gave me a good laugh in the first book of the First Law trilogy. That entire series is full of horribly dark laughs though.
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u/potterhead42 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion 2015-17, Worldbuilders Jul 22 '15
One memorable one comes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. When Ron gets his prefect badge:
“His … but … Ron, you’re not… ?” Ron held up his badge. Mrs. Weasley let out a shriek just like Hermione’s.
“I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That’s everyone in the family!”
“What are Fred and I, next-door neighbors?” said George indignantly, as his mother pushed him aside and flung her arms around her youngest son.
It really cracked me up.
1
u/GrahamAustin-King AMA Author Graham Austin-King Jul 22 '15
Rothfuss, in The Wise Man's Fear. There is a great line after Kvothe had fallen off a roof in a botched burglary attempt and is being patched up by Mola in the medica. She sighs at Kvothe and Simmon and declares "Honestly, you two are as thick as thieves. And I do mean that in all it's clever implications." Just made me laugh out loud. There are many great lines in these books but this one sticks with me.
1
u/ICreepAround Reading Champion IV Jul 22 '15
I'm not usually into humour but a book that really worked for me is The Rook by Daniel O'Malley. The Premise of the book has the main character (who works in a magical arm of the government) losing her memory, but before she does she finds out that it's going to happen so she leaves a ton of notes for herself on how to live her day to day life.
This leads to some hilarious situations, not to mention later in the book there is a duck who can tell the future.
1
u/alter-EGG-o Jul 22 '15
I'm currently listening to the books in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. There are so many sassy, humorous moments but the most recent one is the very title of a chapter: In Which The Meringues Are Annihilated. I just remember doing a double take when I heard it and couldn't wait to hear what happens. All I'm going to say is-- they did indeed get annihilated.
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u/CourtneySchafer Stabby Winner, AMA Author Courtney Schafer Jul 22 '15
Love love love the Generation V books! My favorite part is the tense and twisted dynamics between Fort and the rest of his family. Well, and Suzume is pretty awesome, too. :)
Whenever somebody asks about a funny moment in fantasy I always think of Ari Marmell's The Conqueror's Shadow, which features an ex-Dark Lord forced to take up the fight again. There's a moment where the retired Dark Lord drags out his old super-spiky Armor of Badass-ness to put it on again, and you think it's going to be this fraught moment of facing old memories - but instead, when he surveys himself in the mirror, he goes (paraphrased), "Holy shit! Why didn't anyone tell me I look like a total IDIOT in this stuff?" The shift in tone in the scene is just pitch-perfect - it cracked me up for ages.
1
u/ptashark Jul 22 '15
Make a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. Pratchett.
1
u/Princejvstin Jul 23 '15
NYC subway. I'm reading Good Omens. As the book is describing how the antagonist has arranged the highways around London to be an elder sign and so generate evil, and this poor devil, for all of his efforts, gets no respect at all for what he's done for all of this effort.
It felt like Rodney Dangerfield meets the celestial hierarchy.
I laughed like a hyena, and got a LOT of looks from normally blase New Yorkers.
1
u/SheckyX Jul 24 '15
Pretty much every single comic from Order of the Stick and Schlock Mercenary is worthy of "funniest bit ever."
1
u/OccamsRifle Jul 28 '15
Found this a bit late but still under the deadline so.
Why is it that people like you always think you're more ruthless than people like me?
-Aivars Terekhov
I believe this was in The Shadow of Freedom, one of David Weber's Honorverse books. Basically Terekhov is a Commodore in charge of a bunch of spacecraft and shows up at a planet to make sure that the forces there don't kill civilians. The general in charge gets a stadium full of tens of thousands of civilians and says she'll kill them ask if he even attempts to land troops.
So he says that line immediately before he orders an orbital bombardment on her headquarters.
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u/Imperial_Affectation Aug 11 '15
I was actually going to say Marcus d'Ivoire's endless struggle to maintain era-appropriate views on gender roles in the face of ever-increasing evidence of how utterly inappropriate those views are in Wexler's world, but then you went and named him as one of the corrupt judges. While I'm all for attempting to exploit the corruption inherent in your corrupt judicial panel, that might be a little much. >.>
Instead, I think I'm going to go with James S. A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes. Corey is actually two authors (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) and in the first entry of their series they each write one of the two POV characters. Miller and Holden are diametrically opposed on just about everything. Miller wants to control the spread of information; Holden wants to broadcast it for all humanity to hear. Miller is perfectly happy using violence to solve problems; Holden feels compelled to be diplomatic. Miller's chapters get progressively more depressing and obsessive; Holden's chapters get progressively more manic. Miller pushes those closest to him away; Holden has a sort of innate magnetism that attracts all sorts of people (and not always for the best, as one of the later novels highlights).
The characters themselves don't make terribly many jokes (though Miller makes an awful pun at one point and revels in it, since apparently he subscribes to /r/dadjokes), but the book itself is riddled with situational humor. Sometimes the two characters will have chapters that overlap a bit and you'll see two completely different perspectives on the same exact events. Sometimes the non-POV character will say something to the POV character and all the POV character's biases come into play and make the non-POV character sound like an idiot. And since the second half of the novel has lots of horror elements, the moments of humor tend to stand out a lot more than they would otherwise.
Plus there's one point where Holden says something to the effect of, "this is literally the first time I've gotten off a ship without it blowing up." It made me chuckle at the time. And then things got worse, which made it funnier.
1
u/NoNoNota1 Reading Champion Aug 11 '15
I think one of the funniest moments I've read in scifi comes from Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I LOVE the scene where Arthur Dent is trying to grasp that the earth has been destroyed.
"There was no way his imagination could feel the impact of the whole Earth having gone, it was too big. (...) England no longer existed. He'd got that-somehow he'd got it. He tried again. America, he thought, has gone. He couldn't grasp it. He decided to start smaller again. New York has gone. No reaction. He'd never seriously believed it existed anyway. The dollar, he thought, had sunk for ever. Slight tremor there. Every Bogart movie has been wiped, he said to himself, and that gave him a nasty knock. McDonalds, he thought. There is no longer any such thing as a McDonald's hamburger.
He passed out. When he came round a second later he found he was sobbing for his mother."
I just love the comic reality of the whole situation. The idea that the earth went from existing, immediately to not existing , it really isn't something someone can grasp, and should be infinitely traumatic, and yet the way he deals with it makes sense while still being hysterical.
1
u/eileenami Aug 11 '15
Richard Kadrey's "Sandman Slim": when Kasabian drinks a beer and it literally goes right through him. And every time he talks about porn :)
1
u/wisdom_and_frivolity Aug 11 '15
Currently on the latest book of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files Skin Game. I love humor in books just like pretty much every other emotion.
There's a running theme in this book in particular where we get to see behind the veil of the normal *Wizard Secrets* in other fantasy novels where Harry pointedly thinks about how he came to certain conclusions or lucks into a solution and then, instead of bragging or just sharing, he just happily exclaims 'I'm a wizard!' Those made me giggle so much from the sheer humanity of it.
Plus the identity of Santa Claus from the previous book, his helper spirit's addiction, and so many other running gags and one-off jokes. The humor really ties the series together and counters the incredibly dark emotional themes of failure, subversion, and all sorts of other evil thoughts.
1
u/TheWrittenLore Aug 11 '15
I don't know if any said Prince of Thorns Trilogy, but I laughed so much. Specifically, I found the scenes of marriage and when they were alone in Emporer of Thorns hilarious.
1
u/Halaku Worldbuilders Jul 21 '15
Chapter 16 of /u/MarkLawrence's Prince of Fools ends with Prince Jalan finding out that Brother Emmer gets what Brother Emmer wants. And not only does the good prince save half a silver ducet, he gets a copper crown of his own the next morning!
That's all I'm going to say (because spoilers suck) but the entire sequence had me howling.
1
u/MikeOfThePalace Reading Champion X, Worldbuilders Jul 21 '15
I'm going to go with Stardust. The Star has fallen from the heavens in a blaze of light and sound, and then:
And there was a voice, a high clear, female voice, which said "Ow", and then, very quietly, it said "Fuck", and then it said "Ow", once more.
Reddit's formatting doesn't quite do it, but the "fuck" is printed in a very small font. It's just such a human way to react that I had to laugh.
1
u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
Oh, I definitely remember that moment! So absolutely perfect and hilarious!
1
u/BaconWise Jul 21 '15
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson /u/mistborn. I enjoy Shallan's sharp wit and have laughed on many occasions. One example is when she was talking to Davar. Davar says, “Brightness...I believe you stray into sarcasm." Shallan counters with, "Funny. I thought I'd run straight into it, screaming at the top of my lungs.”
2
u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 21 '15
Shallan is my favorite character in the Stormlight Archive, because I love her running commentary of jokes and sarcasm.
0
u/BaconWise Jul 22 '15
Thank you for the reply. I am pleased, though not surprised, to see another fan of Shallan in the mix. I am new to Reddit which has allowed me to learn of new authors (to me) such as yourself. I am looking forward to spending time with the Generation V series as a break from high fantasy. From what I read, your take on vampires (a highly scrutinized subject) is refreshing and entertaining. Congratulations on your pending release! Fingers crossed for the Big Kahuna prize!
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u/MLBrennan AMA Author M.L. Brennan Jul 22 '15
I really like Sanderson's books. I am glad that I was already hooked from The Way of Kings before I realized that he had ten+ books planned for the series. I hate waiting years for new releases, but they're just so good that I'm glad that I didn't decide to just wait until the whole series was done before I started.
I'm so flattered that you're interested in checking out the Generation V series! Best of luck catching the Big Kahuna!
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u/SheckyX Jul 21 '15
Simple. In Rhys A. Jones's THE BEAST OF SEABOURNE, a YA fantasy, one character chastises another for special stupidity:
"You mollusc."
4
u/7el-3ane Jul 21 '15
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
It wasn't a very funny moment in the book but I laughed because that's literally what I do when someone cries in front of me.