Terry Pratchett writes madcap, farcical fantasy with his tongue firmly in cheek. The Discworld, a disc carried on the back of four elephants carried along on the back of a giant space turtle called Great A'Tuin is held up as a mirror to our own world and Pratchett spoofs everything from the genres of fantasy and science fiction to Australia, football, academia and Hollywood.
In The Truth, Pratchett turns his attention to journalism. William de Worde is a young man who, along with a eclectic cast of dwarfs, tramps and an obsessive-compulsive vampire, forms the Discworld's first newspaper. He simply finds things out and writes things down but this quickly leads to a whole pile of problems from humorous vegetables that aren't funny to people wanting to kill him.
The Truth is the twenty fifth in the Discworld series but, like all of Pratchett's novels, it is self-contained although established characters including Vetinari, Gaspode and the Watch make frequent cameos.Like all of Pratchett's fare it is bit of an acquired taste but for those who appreciate a good spoof novel then Pratchett is hard to beat.
Read on: There are over thirty Discworld books to choose from now but my particular favourites are Mort, Guards, Guards and The Colour of Magic.
Other farcical fantasies include; Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin; Odds and Gods by Tom Holt; The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin.
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