Book Review: The Funny Business

About the Book

Sometimes you just want to be silly.

#1 Bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson is known for his grand science fiction sagas, his epic fantasies, his fast-paced adventures, or his steampunk Clockwork chronicles.

But Kevin J. Anderson also has a lighter side. You’ll laugh so hard, brains will come out your nose.

What happens when—

A wimpy, henpecked man finds an enchanted loincloth that turns him into a real jungle Ape Man?

A stranded alien uses his advanced technology to fool audiences as a stage magician?

A frustrated monster-movie actor uses a gypsy witch’s special makeup to turn into a real werewolf when the cameras start to roll?

A group of heavy-metal fans finds a spell on the internet to raise their favorite dead rock star from the grave for a final encore?

A vampire, just minding his own business, wakes from his coffin to find he’s being stalked through his own castle by an over-enthusiastic vampire hunter?

A futuristic law firm uses time travel as a legal loophole to win their client’s case?

Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. takes on the Boogeyman for a client, or is hired out to save a sacrificial Aztec Christmas turkey?

These twenty stories cover a range of slapstick, subtle, short-short, and groaner humor. The Funny Business also includes for the very first time the scripts of the hilarious comic miniseries Grumpy Old Monsters, never before published.

Beware—silliness ahead. Open the book, and prepare to snicker!

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Funny-Business-Kevin-J-Anderson-ebook/dp/B0C2QLRKML

My Review

The Funny Business, by Kevin J. Anderson is a collection of 20 totally silly stories, which entertain and elicit chuckles, including a few that he wrote with wife, Rebecca Moesta or other co-authors.

With so many stories, I’m not going to talk about them all. But I will mention those which particularly stuck out for me.

• “Frog Kiss” is a classic fairytale turned upside down and a lesson in appreciating what life offers.
• “Special Makeup” is werewolf story that proves you should be careful what you wish for.
• “Bump in the Night” is a short Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. adventure, when Dan is hired by the Boogyman to protect him from his overbearing aunts. Dan Shamble as always, is good for a few laughs.
• “Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law” are legal beagles specializing in time-travel dilemmas. By the time the case is through Paradox’s defense tactics may leave your head tied in ridiculous knots of possibilities and probabilities.
• “Eighty Letters, Plus One” (with Sarah A. Hoyt), tells the tale of a misguided inspector with his priorities terribly twisted. The final letter offers a final ironic twist to this tale.
• “The Sacrifice” brings us a village virgin awaiting the dragon to come for his ritual sacrifice, harboring a secret that may put the joke on the dragon.
• “Technomagic” is a story about what happens when an alien being is stranded on Earth for twenty-seven years. The report he gives upon rescue may surprise you.
• “Dark Carbucle” ( with Janis Ian), is a story of a rock stars personal hell.
• “Cold Dead Turkey” is another Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. story. Always a favorite for me. I love the antics of Dan and the antics of the unnatural quarter. In this one, an Aztec mummy hires him to track down his stolen wish turkey. ( I told you many of these tales were just plain silly… but really fun.)
• “Loincloth” (with Rebecca Moesta), is the story of a timid little man who uses Tarzan’s loincloth to bring out the beast in him.

Of course, there are many more, including a comic strip script for “Grumpy Old Monsters” (with Rebecca Moesta), which is a different kind of reading, but funny just the same.

Twenty stories that will tickle your funny bone, I give The Funny Business five quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.