The Python gang
Please welcome Del Rey’s newest writer, Ben Aaronovitch, whose novel Midnight Riot goes on sale tomorrow. I babbled on about Midnight Riot in my introduction to the excerpt posted in 50 Page Fridays last week—you can learn more about the book and read a nice chunk of it here—but now I want to talk more about Ben. He been an author for years, toiling in the vineyards of Dr. Who scriptwriting and tie-in novels for that show and others, but Midnight Riot (and the continuing adventures of PC Peter Grant, Moon Over Soho and Whispers Under Ground) are his first original work. And well worth the wait. Ben not only tells a good story–a police procedural set in London, involving magic–but has a dry wit that made me laugh many times over the course of the books. There is simply not enough humorous SF/fantasy being written these days, IMO. I asked Ben for some further recommendations in book and movie form, and here are his responses, with commentary.
Films
DUCK SOUP
The fake mirror scene is one of the funniest sustained comedy sequences ever made and has yet to be surpassed.
MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN
“He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.” It was this or Holy Grail and Brian won because it has a plot and a point.
SCROOGED
“The bitch hit me with a toaster.” Bill Murray replays A Christmas Carol with the meta twist being that he knows that’s what he’s doing. What’s not to love?
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
“He was my…BOYFRIEND!” Single funniest thing that Mel Brooks ever did, and he was very funny man.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
“We’re Vikings, we have stubbornness issues…” I enjoyed this film in a completely unabashed genuine way – don’t know why just did.
Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder
BLACKADDER (ALL OF IT)
“For you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people.” You can actually get a pavlovian laugh out of me by saying the words “Robber Button.”
Books
Terry Pratchett, courtesy of economicvoice.com
TERRY PRATCHETT – just TERRY PRATCHETT
You need an explanation for this? Because his work has stood like a wossname on a rocky shore the better to guide us over troubled waters. And they’re really funny too.
THE LOST CONTINENT – Bill Bryson
“I comforted myself with the thought that they would be dead soon.”
Expatriate American Bill Bryson travels through the small towns of America to see if there’s anything left he recognises.
A CIVIL CAMPAIGN – Lois McMaster Bujold
“Do you know all those old folk tales where the count tries to get rid of his only daughter’s unsuitable suitor by giving him three impossible tasks?” Bujold sets about proving that she can make a space opera do whatever she damn well wants it to do! Serious comfort reading.
TURBULENCE – Samit Basu
A 747-full of passengers arrive at Mumbai having been unknowingly gifted with superpowers. Heroes in India but without the bad genetics and with a rich lashing of humour.
DEAD BEAT – Jim Butcher
I had to pick one of the Dresdens and it was this one because of Sue the T-Rex.
So, if you appreciate Ben’s suggestions here, try out his own sense of humor in Midnight Riot, on sale February 1, and Moon Over Soho, coming next month on March 1. Enjoy!
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