Fun Fantasy Recommendations

[RedMage]

(This may have been done before, but how long ago?)

I'm looking for some truly FUN fantasy recommendations. Novels with characters who are generally fun to hangout with. You pick up the book to learn what happens, but you keep reading to because the characters are lifelong friends from early childhood and even now, thirty years on, they haven't run out of things to talk about or each other's buttons to push. Books that make you genuinely laugh out loud once a chapter--or at least every other chapter--and which you decide to read more slowly simply prolong the enjoyment.

Is there anything like that out there? Here are some examples that I've already read--and, I know, some aren't so much fantasy as scifi, or are outright scifi rather than fantasy. I'm open to all genres and markets from adult to YA to middle grade.

• Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman --I've tried other LitRPGs and I'm not actually into them, but Dinniman does it right for me
  
  
• Castaways series by Craig Schaefer -- school for magic draws teens from across the multiverse
  
  
• Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik -- also school for magic
  
  
• Laundry Files series by Charles Stross -- the first half of the series was better for me than the latter half in terms of "fun"
  
  
• Hench series by Natalie Zina Walschotts -- it's like Amazon Prime's "The Boys", but follows a villainous henchwoman and is oh so good
  
  
• Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen -- book 1 was ridiculous fun, book 2 was a good sequel, need to read more
  
  
• The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis -- mundane family enters the supernatural world when their 5 year old is turned into a werewolf
  
  
• The Checquy Files by Daniel O'Malley -- superhero MI6
  
  
• Dark Lord Davi duology by Django Wexler -- is this LitRPG? Has the setup, but none of the stat discussions or even notifications or other RPG type of things

 

[Raf]

The Gobbolino London series by Kim M. Watt - Human & talking cat duo solve supernatural crimes in and around Leeds, England. 8 books and great fun for the entire series.

 

[Fryan]

I thought Lud-in-the-mist by Hope Mirlees was a lot of fun and didn’t take itself too seriously. Lots of good jokes in there and some witty banter as well.

 

[Randy M.]

Fury from the Tomb by S. A. Sidor. Pulp adventure that's well-written and at times quite funny. Think "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or the Brendan Frasier "The Mummy".

R. A. McAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon has an old-folks romance, but is generally a cosy adventure novel. Then there's Peter Beagle's I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons, which gave me some of the feelings I got from The Hobbit -- for the characters there's an adventure and by golly, they're going to face it whatever their misgivings.

 

[RedMage]

Great recs! Thanks all! I'll check them out. Keep them coming though!

 

[Raf]

Joe R. Lansdale's "Ned, the Seal" series. Pure pulp, tongue in cheek and great fun with cameos by all the traditional monsters & historical figures. Frankenstein, the Werewolf, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull & Captain Nemo and his intellectual seal, Ned to name but a few. 4 books in the series,

 

[Hobbit]

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. Reviewed it HERE.

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[RedMage]

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. Reviewed it HERE.

Thanks for the link to your review, Hobbit. I've tried a number of Romantasy titles and, while a few hold my attention, the majority have a strong romance plot that I don't find appealing. To clarify, I like A romance storyline in books, but I don't read the Romance genre and don't want it as the primary A-plot in the genres I do read. Would you say this falls into that romance-heavy-plot category? The Romantasy I've enjoyed include it as a storyline, even a B-plot or major C-plot, but don't let it overwhelm or takeover the primary plot of external events driving the characters to do X thing.

 

[Hobbit]

Hi RM. Yes, like you (I think!) I'm pretty averse to stories where romance is the centre of the plot. If I remember right, (It's been a while!) although it is part of the plot here, the details of dealing with the main character's other workers and his opposition take up most of the plot.

I don't know whether that is the case with other books in the series.

 

[RedMage]

Thanks @Hobbit!

 

[farseer2]

The Renegade X series by Chelsea M. Campbell. It's a YA superhero series about a teenage boy who is the son of a supervillain single mother, but finds out his long-lost father is actually a superhero do-gooder. This embarrassing fact threatens to make him a pariah in both the supervillain and superhero societies. It tells an interesting YA story, but what's great about it is the characters. Damien, the main character, tells the story in first person in a very snarky and sarcastic way, but he's actually a nice kid, for all his contrariness and insistence that he is a future supervillain like his mom. There's angst but also it's always tongue-in-cheek and funny.

On a more mainstream note, although you're probably already familiar with it, the Miles Vorkosigan saga is a lot of fun.

Another SF series, the Bobiverse is also easy and fun to read.

 

[RedMage]

Thanks @farseer2! Renegade X sounds fun! I'll check it out. And, yep, the Vorkosigan Saga is a favorite