Recommendation? Light science fiction audiobook

Anyone have a recommendation for a light sci-fi audiobook with a humorous first-person voice in the vein of The Martian, Ready Player One or Tunnel in the Sky to listen to with my 14yo kid while we work on a big art project?

After an hour of Dune he said "there hasn't been a single joke." (And he's got a point.)

How about The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

>2 Maddz:

Ha. I asked this on Twitter and people said just that. He has already read it, and indeed loved it. I also loved it as a kid, but I find it too much now. I like my humor in a real universe, not a funny universe, as it were :)

The whole Hitchhiker series?

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency?

Have you tried any of the Piers Anthony Apprentice Adept series? This is technically a cross between science fiction and fantasy.

>1 timspalding: I'd recommend the Bobiverse

>3 timspalding: Ah, I'm thinking of the original radio series rather than audio books of the novels. If you've not heard the original broadcasts (complete with cheesy BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound effects), then you're in for a treat. 30-minute episodes, so they are an easy listen.

I would advise against the Anthony. As usual the first one is OK but it goes downhill as you continue the series.

There are a number of issues.
1) It is always a problem giving recommendations to humour as it is a very subjective thing - when it doesn't work for you it just doesn't work.
2) Also a lot of SF humour works are of a shorter length or are fairly old and do not have audiobooks.
3) Many do not have a first person narrator.

Lots of people speak highly of To Say Nothing of the Dog for example but it didn't really work for me. I also cannot remember if it is first person or not.

I am not sure how you would classify it but how about The Eyre Affair - OK it is not our real universe but it is pretty funny.

People on Twitter are suggesting Redshirts. I have never read Scalzi. Any thoughts?

>8 timspalding:

It is OK - certainly bright and breezy but it is pretty much a Star Trek parody at heart (although with meta-fictional aspects).

Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series (start with All Systems Red) might fit the bill. The Murderbot's rather jaundiced view of humanity amuses me.

Oh, and it's fantasy and a police procedural, although the main character does have a tendency to apply the scientific method to magic, but Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series (start with Rivers of London, published in the US as Midnight Riot) is full of dry wit and the reader is superb.

I'm fond of Scalzi's work, and Lock In might be a good choice, too. SF police procedural, and there are two audio versions - one with a male reader and one with a female reader, because the main character's gender is unspecified.

We've started Redshirts. Amusing so far.

long way to a small angry planet almost cosy SF but certainly has humour in it. Lovely story. No idea if it's available as audio but most new things are these days.

Starfarers is the only other book not listed above that I've got tagged with humour in my SF collection. It's not deliberately funny as such, but has great banter and light hearted interchanges between it's characters.

I'm sure tagmashes or recommendations should work for this better than just asking people.... that's what they're for?

Obligatory warnings. 🙂 I don't do audio books so don't know if any of these have audio editions. I also can't think of any recent humorous sf so these are all old and I mostly don't know how well they've aged.
Keith Laumer with his Retief books.
Harry Harrison, particularly the Stainless Steel Rat books.
Robert Asprin. I liked his early Myth books the best but they're fantasy. He had some sf ones as well, like Phule's Company.
Finally, not humorous, but light hearted, Janet Kagan's short stories that got turned into novel form with Mirabile.

Edited to add that I don't know that any of these are 1st person.

>13 reading_fox: I heard about The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. "Cosy SF" might be what my kid is looking for. I'll look into it.

Scalzi's other humorous book is Agent to the stars. It's pretty entertaining too.

Adam Rex is consistently funny. The true meaning of Smekday is about a kid in middle school during first contact with the aliens who visit earth. They have to write a paper about it, and then they have to rewrite the paper. To me it brought back memories of school (rather than middle school in particular); the main thing about the kid's age is they can't drive, IIRC.

(If this sounds familiar, the book the basis for the animated movie Home.)

How do you feel about superheroes? James Alan Gardner's All those explosions were someone else's fault is about some college housemates who suddenly gain superpowers after a lab accident that opens a portal to another world/universe thingy. They figure out their new powers pretty scientifically. Not first person, because it's an ensemble piece.

Oh, and forgot: Robert Rankin, particularly the Cornelius Murphy books.

timspalding (#1):

How important is the first-person voice aspect of this? I'm tempted to suggest Valente's Space Opera but it isn't first-person.

I've enjoyed some of Max Barry's sci-fi/humour blends, like Jennifer Government.

I enjoyed Rocket and Groot Steal the Galaxy (It's a Marvel Graphic Audio), but I'm a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy. It's pretty funny.

I had to look up how "Graphic Audio" works, as it seems like a deliberate contradiction, but I reckon audiodrama like that would certainly work to keep you entertained; if only I'd be interested in Marvel.

>16 karenb: Don't forget about Scalzi's The Android's Dream. That is definitely on the lighter side.

Have you checked out the serial box app? They have a humor category.

https://www.serialbox.com/serials?q=humor

Ah, I just saw that the BBC production of LOTRs became available for free download. Not sci-fi, but magnificent.
https://archive.org/details/the-lord-of-the-rings-bbc-radio-drama