Introduction to This is My Funniest 2

We always knew that science fiction writers like to laugh. That’s why we assembled This is My Funniest.

Well, now we know something else: science fiction readers like to laugh, too. As a rule, science fiction anthologies, even those with all original stories, sell about a third as well as novels, often even less than that. But This is My Funniest, a reprint anthology, outsold every science fiction novel in BenBella’s catalog in less than half a year.

So what could we do but bring you This is My Funniest 2?

Don’t look for the same writers (with one curmudgeonly exception). They already gave you their funniest. But we’ve got a new batch, just as prestigious, who are happy to share their most hilarious pieces with you. We’ve got Worldcon Guests of Honor like Gene Wolfe, Greg Bear, and Gregory Benford; New York Times bestsellers like Kevin J. Anderson, Mercedes Lackey, Ron Goulart, Larry Niven, and Eric Flint; Hugo and Nebula winners like Michael Bishop, Terry Bisson, Frank M. Robinson, and Jack Dann; and that’s not even half the line-up.

You’ll get satires, parodies, mock scientific essays, and just out-and-out funny stories, in and out of dialect. We’ve got novelettes, short stories, and short-shorts. We’ve got men, we’ve got women, and we’ve got at least two writers I suspect of being aliens.

Mostly, what we have is continuing proof that for all the dire predictions and tales of warning they produce, science fiction writers love to laugh. One of the very nice things about this field is that every editor who has ever worked in it has been willing to buy a well-written humorous story, and sooner or later just about every writer who works in the field has gotten around to producing one (or six, or 53).

Probably it wouldn’t hurt to thank Glenn Yeffeth, the publisher of BenBella, for having the guts to okay the first book at all, and the second book so quickly. If he someday decides to green-light This is My Funniest numbers 3 through 8, I can promise you one thing: we’re not going to run out of authors, and as these first two volumes show, as long as we don’t run out of authors we’re not going to run out of funny stories.

So why are you still reading this with a straight face? Turn the pages and start chuckling.