7 Sci-Fi Comedy Books That Will Make Your Commute Fly By

An artist in a wild biotech future confronts aliens from another dimension—and finds a new way to get high—in this rollicking, psychedelic SF novel from Rudy Rucker.

Biotechnology has replaced machines, and genetic modification is commonplace. At the forefront of this revolutionary change is artist Zad Plant, who works with living paint, lives in a talking home grown from plants, gets around on a giant roadspider, and has a sentient rat—complete with Kentucky accent—as a sidekick. Unfortunately for Zad, his career’s on the skids, and his wife Jane has thrown him out.

Enter qwet—quantum wetware—that changes Zad, making him cosmically high and giving him telepathy, and soon enough, a psychedelic revolution begins. Yet when mouths begin appearing in midair, eating people, Zad and Jane must travel through a wormhole to learn how to save their world. . . .

Night Shade Books’ ten-volume series with Rudy Rucker collects nine of the brilliantly weird novels for which the mathematician-turned-author is known, as well as a tenth, never-before-published book, Million Mile Road Trip. We’re proud to collect in one place so much of the work of this influential figure in the early cyberpunk scene, and to share Rucker’s fascinating, unique worldview with an entirely new generation of readers.

Stuck on Mars after a space mission gone awry, astronaut Mark Watney makes a desperate bid to survive despite near-impossible odds. The adaptation stars Matt Damon, who has some experience with stranded spacemen—he was in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar just last year. But don’t get the two tales confused: according to Damon himself, The Martian is “totally f****** different.”

Release date: October 2, 2015

Laser-sharp zingers and out-of-this-world puns pile up at an astronomical pace in this zero gravitas sci-fi spoof from the author of Witches Be Crazy.

Never meddle with unidentified spying objects . . .

The year is: The Future. Mars and Earth are like that divorced couple who don’t exactly like each other but have at least stopped fighting in public. Floating somewhere in between them, amid all the garbage and Gene Roddenberry’s ashes, a transport vessel called the SS Jefferson is homeward bound. Its crew might have even made it on time for once, too…

Captain Cox is no stranger to encountering the odd pickle in space, but when a tantalizingly derelict ship crosses paths with the Jefferson, he unwittingly parks in the middle of a NASA-ty interplanetary squabble. Faced with a marauding Martian and a squad of snobby secret agents, Cox and crew embark on a mad scramble across the solar system, to save themselves from either murder-via-space rifle of imprisonment in the notorious Guantanamo Docking Bay. Maybe they’ll also get around to dealing with the biological weapon that accidentally wound up in their fridge, too.

Join Logan J. Hunder (Witches be Crazy) in a riotously funny send-up of spaceships, space exploration, and all the stories we tell about both. Discover adventure, love, loss, gain, losing what was gained, gaining some of it back, and all the different ways the Outer Space Treaty can be violated.

A poor undergraduate, Ned Henry is tasked with finding an original bishop’s ornament for a rich old lady’s recreation, and has to go back in time to do so. If you think it sounds easy, think again. Time travel is notoriously, ridiculously, and often even stupidly tricky to get a handle on. Ned is caught up in trying to remember his Victorian history while also trying to avoid being discovered by a rogue time traveler, all while trying to convince his doctor back home in 2057 that of coursehe’s getting enough rest! Of course, so restful: he just loves learning that he has a cat allergy in the middle of a rescue mission; it’s so, so peaceful here.

Much of this list is focused on the mishaps of human beings in space, but Year Zero is the book for when you’re really worried about what’s happening in Roswell. Turns out, aliens aren’t planning for our imminent destruction, but they have been jamming along to Madonna, Selena, Whitesnake, Queen Latifah, and Melt-Banana since 1977 (missing The Beatles entirely), and, in the process, committing the worst case of intergalactic copyright infringement known in the galaxy. Enter, Nick Carter, our bumbling protagonist, an everyman with a keen sense for paperwork and a nose for trouble who has just two days to sort this mess out. He’s got 48 hours to un-bankrupt the galaxy, get home safe, and impress the girl. Talk about high-volume stakes.

2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets the joy and glamour of Eurovision in bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente's science fiction spectacle, where sentient races compete for glory in a galactic musical contest…and the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented—something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.

Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Species far and wide compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes, or faces. And if a new species should wish to be counted among the high and the mighty, if a new planet has produced some savage group of animals, machines, or algae that claim to be, against all odds, sentient? Well, then they will have to compete. And if they fail? Sudden extermination for their entire species.

This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny—they must sing.

Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock.