Light Stories

The radio in our van was mostly out-- we think the antenna is disconnected-- so our 6-ish hour drive yesterday was mostly in conversation, instead of singing with the radio.

 Being the geeks we are, we talked about the Wolverine movie-- Enjoyable! Worth it! Eerily like some folks I know! What is that four year old doing in here?!?!-- and when that was exhausted, we started plotting out campaigns.

 His AF office has several geeks of various levels, none of whom game...yet. A BESM d20 game would probably get them hooked, because it allows for enough humor and character development to make stuff flat-out fun.

 This lead to us talking about a text-based sim we're involved with, and we both have a similar problem...it's just too dire. Everything is serious, everything is deadly, everything is...well, Star Trek instead of Princess Bride, for lack of a better way to phrase it. Maybe "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as opposed to "Stargate: SG1."

 This made me start going over what I've been looking for in my books of late-- I don't need "important" stories right now; I don't want pure fluff, but I do want a joyful core, some humor, sweetness. Think pretty much any of Terry Pratchett's books, or Mrs. Wrede's "The Enchanted Forest Chronicles", or Girl Genius.

 Elf is just fine with dire situations that include humor-- but he's a Warhammer fan. (watch this video for the basic tone of the world--Warhammer Online did great at fitting the tone of the games and books; Warcraft is more my speed.)

 I've always enjoyed humor if it's the right flavor, but when I was younger I tended to try to find stories that took themselves very, very seriously, delt with "big things" and were a bit more dark. Never had patience for hopelessness, but dark and serious-- definitely use to be more interesting.    Salamandastron: A Novel of Redwall, for example. (Hey, if you don't cry at the Noble End, you didn't read close enough. ;^p)

 So, all this to ask two questions: can anyone suggest some books that are similar to the ones listed, or-- if there's anyone else who like quasi-romance books or are willing to ask someone they know who does, similar to this and this series, or quasi-Noir/fantasy series like this and this; second: has anyone else noticed a similar turn in their preference for entertainment?

 Either now, or when they hit the "really a grown up" stage?