If you like Pratchett, try...

I was always told, (by various people) "If you like Pratchett, you should try Tom Holt - you'll love his books". Then I tried a couple of them and was seriously disappointed - I didn't like his style at all and have been completely put off.

I was wondering if there were any authors you'd heard of that had been likened to Pratchett that actually DID live up to the reputation (even if Pratchett still remains your favourite)? Anyone got any recommendations?

Douglas Adams sort of SF rather than fantasy, not quite as oblique in the points he makes with the jokes - more trying to be funny than trying to mkae a point. But still very good.

Jasper fforde - not quite so much a parady of life, but another very fuuny sideways take on the world. Particuarly good if you are very widely read - there are a lot (really a very large lot) of obscure references. The books are still good even if like me you miss most of the references.

# 2 reading_fox - Funnily enough, I'm reading The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde right now and loving it (I read The Big Over Easy last year and have The Eyre Affair waiting on my shelf).

If you read DW for younger readers, you might want to try Eoin Colfer.
For others try Gaiman or Robert Rankin. Gaiman is a bit of a give away, I agree, but I just plain like Rankin.

Red Dwarf - obviously SF rather than fantasy, but humorous nonetheless.

Also, Ben Elton has written a few genre-ish humour books.

I enjoyed Tom Holt's books, but then I wasn't expecting them to be Pratchett knock-offs. They are a different style, more about ordinary people in ordinary settings, but with extraordinary events turning their lives upside down. TP's books start with whacky and just get stranger from there.

Keep an eye out for Splashdance Silver and Liquid Gold, both by Aussie author Tansy Rayner Roberts. I don't think you can get them in the UK, but they were fantasy/humour.

Cheers
Simon Haynes, author of Hal Spacejock

I like Rankin, haven't read any Holt.

I have to agree reading_fox. I love Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde. Jasper Fforde especially has that combination of fantasy and humour that Pratchett does so well. Quite different to Pratchett but lots of fun. I especially liked The Fourth Bear.

I'm so delighted (but not necessarily surprised) to see that Simon Haynes is a Pratchett fan. I knew there was a reason I liked him.

I like Pratchett just fine. I didn't read any of his books until after I'd written my second novel, thank goodness, else I'd probably have packed any ambitions of getting published into a small tin and chucked it under a steamroller.

BTW, you may already know this but half an hour ago I managed to put the first five chapters of Hal Spacejock on my website, so if you want to read something more along the lines of HHG than Pratchett, feel free: http://www.spacejock.com.au/Hal1Sample.html

You could also try John Moore, Robert Asprin, or Esther Friesner. They are not as good, but they a comic fantasists. I enjoy their books as true fantasy escapism.

I kike Jasper Fforde a lot, as well as Robert Rankin and Douglas Adams. I've even tried a couple of Tom Holt books and they were quite funny but not in the same league as Terry Pratchett.

One book I really liked, even though it was not as outrageously funny as Terry's work, was Blue Moon Rising by Simon R. Green, I first noticed this book because the German edition (Das Regenbogenschwert) features a cover very similar to the Discworld books.

I couldn't get into the Eyre Affair by Fforde. Christopher Moore was recommended to me as a read-alike in style to Pratchett. They are funny, but lack the intellectuality of Pratchett! My favorite Moore so far is "A Dirty Job"

I have to second the vote for Jasper Fforde, especially his Nursery Crimes series. The Thursday Next books are a little too convoluted for me and many of my friends second the emotion.

If you're looking for a few giggles in a fantasy background, then go for Robert Aspirin. He's got some fabulous puns, and it's just fun stuff to read. Popcorn Literature, really, but for worth at least a library rental for a try.

Sadly, there are very few folks out there on par with Pratchett. Nothing is anything close to his Discworld.

I agree that Jasper Fford is a good choice and Robert Rankin is fantastic.

Also I adore Jim Butcher, his series (Harry Dresden have not read the other yet have two of the Codex books on shelf as we speak) is more action/fantasy but has enough comedy for some good laugh out loud moments.

A young adults trilogy by Jonathan Stroud called the Bartimaeus Trilogy is also quiet good as an alternate fantasy world with dry British humor. Same with Eoin Colfer and the Artemus series.

Of course there is also Simon Haynes space jock series good laughs!

However I agree with the above comment that there is nothing else really on Terry Pratchett's level. That I think is one of the things that makes his books so special. You really have to adjust your expectations when reading other authors and enjoy their books for what they are which is something different.

What I find really amazing about Pratchett is that each book is so different and so good. And his books get better as they go, which is just opposite of many authors. It seems like sometimes they start out with a good idea and then just work it to death. But since his books jump around so much, that doesn't happen with him. They're always fun.

Looking down the list of touchstones, I'd agree with many of the recommendations. With Tom Holt, try the early ones, with Robert Asprin it's the M.Y.T.H. Inc series. A name not mentioned is Craig Shaw Gardner. His early works are similar to early Pratchett.

On a different tack, changing genre, two of my favourites are Alan Coren for his flights of fancy in short pieces and PG Wodehouse for convoluted plots and the comic inevitability of situations (Rincewind/Bertie Wooster, anyone?)

>14 Caspettee: I stumbled across Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy last fall in the local library - the eponymous demon gets all the best lines. Just bought copies for myself, as I know I'll be rereading it. The third book, Ptolomy's Gate, was especially good.

If we're changing genres, definitely pick up A Confederacy of Dunces. The first two chapters are a little choppy but the book is a modern classic. Also Michael Malone's Handling Sin and his academic literary hoax novel, Foolscap, for you Sir Walter Raleigh fans. His other books are pretty straightforward but these are quite funny.

I'm not sure how many German speakers read this thread but I'll give it a shot ;)

I've just finished Zwerg und Überzwerg by Christian von Aster and liked it a lot. It contains a lot of humour (including footnotes ^^) and an enthralling story. So far it is only available in German.

Well, not all of Tom Holt's books have that sort of subtle humour that is so prevalent in Pratchett's Discworld series.

Take the J.W. Wells & Co. series for example. I would say it is corporate humour because I find the idea of a firm of sorcerers (with junior clerks and a typing pool) to be funny. And because it has wizards in it, I would assume it to be similar to Unseen University. But it isn't. So Discworld fans might be disappointed if they expect J.W. Wells to like U.U.

If you want the funny ones, I can suggest some titles for you.

Grailblazers, Faust Among Equals, Paint Your Dragon and Snow White and the Seven Samurai.

I guess it depends on which Pratchett you like – early goofball/spoof/slapstick, or the later, darker ones?

I'd definitely enth (we're way past second) the recommendations for Jasper Fforde though. Like Pratchett, there's more than one style of Fforde. The new one, Shades of Grey feels like later Pratchett to me – Small Gods level of anger, and Thud darkness. The Thursday Next books start well, go a bit soft in the middle and then get really interesting again for the most recent couple. The Nursery Crimes series is more lighthearted, more silly. (Well done silliness is a good thing, and he does it well.) One thing that's worth being aware of if you start with the Nursery Crimes books is that they are books-within-books – they spin out of the events of Lost in a Good Book. You don't need to read the Thursdays to understand them, but it does give an interesting bit of context.

Away from fantasy, a writer I really enjoy and who strikes me as having a Pratchettish streak is Malcolm Pryce – his Aberystwyth books are the most amazingly looney detective-noir. (I think the technical term is “screwball harboiled noir”?) Aberystwyth Mon Amour is the first.

eta because I can't spell

#14 I too would say the Bartimeaus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. It starts with The Amulet of Samarkand. They and Discworld are the series I love most. They are marketed as young adult books but can be enjoyed by any age. They would be a mixture of the early Pratchett books and the later ones. The Amulet of Samarkand would be closer to the light early Pratchett and the third and final book Ptolemy's Gate would be more reminiscent to his later books. They as well make use of footnotes.

I also enjoy Douglas Adams, but I feel his characterization is not well done.

I agree with all those recommending the Thursday Next-novels of Jasper Fforde, although they will specifically amuse those (also) interested in classic literature. I was disappointed by Tom Holt (simply not funny) and Jonathan Stroud (a bit too childish and not nearly as profound as Pratchett). There is also a lot of satire in the novels of Connie Willis, who is usually considered an SF writer, as most of her books deal with time travel of some kind, still it reminded me a bit and I'd recommend "Passage" or To Say Nothing Of The Dog.

> Allow me to point out the "To Say Nothing of the Dog" is the latter end of the title of Jerome K. Jerome's comedic masterpiece "Three Men and A Boat."

I think you're a bit harsh on Stroud - I loved the narrative voice of the demon Bartemaeus in the eponymous trilogy. But not as profound as Pratchett, I agree.

> Well, maybe I'll give Stround another chance some other time. I've often come across the phenomenon that certain books that did not appeal to you during the fírst reading can actually grow on you the second time around - and admittedly the demon has some great lines...

I've been looking for Pratchett-esque books for a while as well. I see a lot of familiar names on this list, but I'd like to add one more: A. Lee Martinez. His "In the Company of Ogres" book is the closest thing I've found to a Pratchett book.

Not exactly Pratchett, but pretty damn funny all the same, are Christopher Moore's books - especially "Fool."

Christopher Moore is not actually anything like Terry Pratchett, but he is as funny as Terry Pratchett and as well read. I love Pratchett, I like some of Holt's, like Jasper Fforde a lot (but quite literary), and I love Christopher Moore. I suggest you try Moore if you like the wit.

Sorry stringcat 3, didn't even see what you'd written before I posted about Moore as well.

no harm no foul ;-) I'm reading Moore's Lamb now. It's not up to his performance in Fool but quite entertaining nonetheless.

I just wanted to throw my support for Robert Aspirin's Myth Directions/myth series of books. great stuff as someone already mentioned.

Unfortunately there is no one "like" Terry Pratchett. That said, I'll recommend Jim C. Hines as a teller of lighthearted fantasy tales. You might also want to check out John Moore.

Again, not exactly Pratchett, but this list would be incomplete without Fahrenheit 666 by Andrew Harman

Anyone read Steven Brust? He's got a bit of humor as well as some fantasy.

I like Fforde, Adams, Wodehouse, Gaiman and Moore a lot as well. But not sure I've ever uniformly loved all the characters to this extent with any other author.

I like the "Werewolves of Seaside" series by Alice Keys. They're quite funny (the first book starts off rather dark and brooding, then finds it's pace later), but full of action and good humour. Best of all, they're clean and I'd have no problem letting my kids read them. Some of the other authors mentioned here I'd consider inappropriate for younger readers.

I too like Jasper Fforde and Eoin Colfer, though I find their later books (especially Colfer's) are becoming tiresome.

Matthew Thomas reminded my somewhat of Sir Terry. Unfortunately, so far, it appears he has only ever published two books. Terror Firma and Before and After.

I have read most of his books. Like Monty Python a lot of the contemporary British references go sailing over my head but the story is good in itself. I think the rich referential material that I can't possibly grasp without plodding research does slow things done, but it still works for me.

Moore and Pratchett share humor and readability. The one deals with a fantasy whole cloth world the other with surreal quirkiness based in our world. I am a sucker for all of it. Easier reading than Fforde even when Fforde is using a simple accessible storyline. Fforde's singleton foray into a strange color dimension world I thought was fascinating, but what makes a series really catch on? Humor is so mercurial a quality.