I’m not going to lie, reader friends: life be lifin’ as of late. 2026 has been a relentlessly difficult year for my personal life. My creative writing career, however, has been thriving. This has established a dissonance that will surely enrich many of my future fictional works with great character development, but in the meantime, things are looking a little glum.
That’s why today’s post is as light as the proverbial feather! There’s no emotional pathos or oversharing: just big, dumb fun to be had. I could use a distraction, and admit it: so could you! So come on, follow me back to The Book Nook for some fun fictional recommendations by authors who are not me!
That’s right. In light of my debut novella Max Demons Slayed, LLC releasing a few weeks ago, I wanted to recommend three completely different book series that are close in spirit to my book. How close, you may ask? Did I plagiarize any of these books to write my novella? Um, no. Here are the 3 criteria by which I shall recommend these books (which my novella also meets):
- The books are told from a first-person perspective by a memorable protagonist. No omniscient third-person needed, thank you! Only personal accounts from subjective points of view.
- The book series must be comedic or otherwise lighthearted in tone. No grimdark, heart-shattering, or overly grotesque narratives. We’re keeping it light today!
- The series must include speculative elements. These stories must have a horror, sci-fi, or fantasy element that is integral to the plot. Wizards battling dragons, robots fighting AI villains, that kind of stuff. My book has a duo of demon-fighting siblings whose latest case is to find a prized cow named Betty White. Just one example. 🙂
By the way, if you don’t want to keep reading (yawn!) here’s a video version you can watch instead. Don’t say I never gave you nothin’!
Ready? Let’s goooooo!
#3. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Imagine a noir detective novel set in modern-day Chicago. Cool, right? Now throw goblins, evil faeries, and talking skulls in the mix. Oh, and our lead detective protagonist? He’s also a wizard. MUCH cooler! That’s what The Dresden Files books bring to the table: a wonderful mixture of urban fantasy, sardonic first-person storytelling, and mysteries that only grow in scale with every successive book.
I love the character of Harry Dresden — he’s certainly true to the tropes from whose cloth he was cut, but the magical ability angle (and him being a wizard on the run not from the mafia but from the Fae Court, at one point) adds a wonderful flavor to the proceedings. And while the series starts out as a monster-of-the-week caseload, it later morphs into a universe-ending epic of much grander proportions. I heartily recommend this series to all who crave mystery, humor, magical creatures, and a fun twist or five.
#2. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
This is such a special series! Martha Wells has won those awards fair and square, because these books a bursting with creative energy, life, and empathy toward their characters. But the real standout point of them is the humor, which is largely derived from the point-of-view android character and how much differently he sees the world from his human counterparts.
He is a SecUnit, you see, a robotic security guard whose job is to… um… safeguard the facilities as he is programmed to do. But our guy manages to hack himself into a free will status, names himself Murderbot, and decides that the greatest joy in the universe is vedging out to some space soap operas in his databanks. He binges on them because he lives for the melodrama, except all these annoying humans around him keep needing to be rescued! He can’t admit that he has true feelings, a whole secret world bursting inside him that even he can’t name, and thus the humorous sci-fi hijinks are heightened. Every book a gem, and what a story they tell! Check this one out if you enjoy comedic identity confusion and “friendship is magic” character cast dynamics.
#1. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Yes! My favorite book series of the past decade — did you think #1 could be anything else? I could potentially talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl until the proverbial cows come home. However, I’ll spare you the farming analogy and cut to the chase: this is an excellent series. A thrilling book series. An imaginative boatload of creative worldbuilding, crammed to the brim with memorable characters, jaw-dropping action set pieces, and story arcs that both tease and fulfill your readerly needs. That’s right, I’m inventing words now! “Readerly needs” is now a thing.
But seriously, check out this premise: when a guy named Carl gets thrust into an alien race’s brutal reality gameshow, he only gets one companion to do it with — his ex-girlfriend’s cat Princess Donut. Together, they team up to take on the many boss battles, alliances, and scripted storylines that are thrown at them by the evil overlords. The scale and scope of the world grows far beyond the titular dungeon, and the LitRPG-style narrative has built-in gauges of abilities and skills that keep the pace fresh and exciting. But the humor? That’s on full display here! So many jokes that land, and so many character-grounded hilarious moments.
At times this feels like a swashbuckling sea-faring epic, at others like a bizarre Lynchean sitcom, but it’s always fresh and never, ever boring. Seriously. Check it out if you like to root for the underdog, trace a satisfying character arc, watch a master worldbuilder do his thing, or actual jokes that might make you laugh out loud while reading a book!
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That’s it! My list is over. If you take me up on these recommendations, you will have a blast for months: there are 34 books total to peruse (not counting a few spinoffs and short stories set in their respective worlds). That’s a lot to discover! And feel free to drop me a line afterwards, I’d love to know what you thought.
I hope you like what you’re reading these days. The world is a crazy place; full of pathos, chaos, and a third thing that fits the pattern. But at least we have books to make it all better, right?
Have a great day, reader friends! See you on the other side.
-MR