Urban Fantasy

[WizardofOwls]

I am a huge fan of the Urban Fantasy genre. Charles de Lint is the best writer of all time! I am currently reading War for the Oaks by Emma Bull which is also good. Another faorite is Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist.(This is classed as Dark Fantasy, but I consider it to be Urban Fantasy). Still waiting to be read, I also have Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Please post them here if you do.

Thanks!

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm not sure what you are classifying as Urban Fantasy if you're including Mythago Wood, which is certainly a darkish modern fantasy but which steers pretty much clear of anything you could call an urban environment.

But if you are asking for something with a contemporary setting and sensibility, there is always The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. Or the Borderland novels and anthologies (various authors), edited by Terri Windling.

http://www.endicott-studio.com/borderland.html

In fact, you might want to have a look around the Endicott website in general, since a lot of the books they recommend there are Urban Fantasy.

You might also want to look into Tim Powers and James Blaylock, although they both write other types of fantasy as well.

[GOLLUM]

Yes, I'm not fully clear either on what you're calling Urban fantasy but here's some suggestions:

War Of The Flowers - Tad williams as Kelpie suggests.
Little Big - John Crowley (part of the Masterwork series).
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The collected novels of author Charles Williams who is viewed as the father of modern urban fantasy.

Hope this helps.....

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

The collected novels of author Charles Williams who is viewed as the father of modern urban fantasy.

Really? I'd never heard that before. I can see how Williams might have influenced someone like Powers or Blaylock -- and in more than just the modern setting, or the supernatural thriller aspect, because they share a lot of the same themes.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Kelpie

Really? I'd never heard that before. I can see how Williams might have influenced someone like Powers or Blaylock -- and in more than just the modern setting, or the supernatural thriller aspect, because they share a lot of the same themes.

Yes it is true because most of his books are set in London and he's essentially viewed from what I've read by various literary critics and in essays as the originator of so-called contemporary fantasy. Interesting hey?

[Jay]

Urban Fantasy can encompass a alot more than most think as the defintion is not really something that is set in stone Here are some in modenr setting or urban sprawls:


China Mieville:

Perdido Street Station
The Scar
Iron Council
Looking for Jake (collection)

Jeff VanderMeer:

City of Saints and Madmen
Secret Life (Coellction)
Veniss Underground
Shriek: an afterword

Kelly Link:

Stranger Things Happen
Magic for Beginners

Neil Gaiman:

American Gods
Anansi Boys
Neverwhere

Graham Joyce:

Dreamside
Dark Sister
House of Lost Dreams
Requiem
The Tooth Fairy
The Stormwatcher
Leningrad Nights
Indigo
Smoking Poppy
The Facts of Life
Limits of Enchantment
TWOC

Sean Stewart:

Perfect Circle
Galveston
Mockingbird

Ian R. Macleod:

The Light Ages
The House of Storms

James P. Blayclock:

The Last Coin

Homunculus
Lord Kelvin's Machine

The Paper Grail

Jonathan Carroll:

The Land of Laughs
Voice of Our Shadow
Outside the Dog Museum
After Silence
From the Teeth of Angels
Kissing the Beehive
The Marriage of Sticks
The Wooden Sea
White Apples
Glass Soup

Jeffrey Ford:

The Well-Built trilogy:

The Physiognomy
Memoranda
The Beyond

M. John Harrison:

The Course of the Heart
Signs of Life

Holly Phillips:

In the Palace of Repose (collection)

Jonathan Lethem:

Amnesia Moon

Gene Wolfe:

Castleview
Pandora by Holly Hollander

Haruki Murakami:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Jeffrey Ford -

Portrait of Ms. Charbuque

John Crowley:

Aegypt sequence

If you have more specific criteria, do tell!

[dwndrgn]

Looks like you've got plenty of recommendations to work with so I'll just add that I found Mythago Wood to be a complete letdown, dull and uninteresting. Of course, this is just my own personal opinion.

[littlemissattitude]

Since Jay seems to have missed him but Kelpie did mention Tim Powers, I would definitely recommend the following of his books as urban fantasy of the finest kind:

Last Call
Expiration Date
Earthquake Weather

These are a trilogy of sorts, with the first two volumes standing more or less alone, but both volumes being brought together significantly by the third volume.

Also his Declare would, I think, be classed as urban fantasy, despite the fact that it takes place not in the strictly contemporary world, but in the world of the Cold War. It is a very good book, as well.

I'd also recommend his short story collection, Strange Iteneraries, which I just finished reading. I didn't love all the stories there, but some of them were excellent.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Jay

If you have more specific criteria, do tell!

Well actually I do have a more specific defintion, otherwise I would have included several of your recommednations including Vandermeer, Harrison and Mieville.

From my research into these things Urban fantasy essentially describes stories in our supposed real world rather than Urban settings per se that are obviously imagined like Mieville's New Crobuzon or Harrison's Viriconium. The criitcal thing here is that the main action needs to take place within our contemporary world or the world at the time the books were written in order for it to be classified as Urban fantasy. Therefore a story like Guy Gavriel Kay's excellent Fionavar Tapestry where the main characters are tansported from our modern world to another realm is not classified as Urban fantasy set within a contemporary setting. A series like that by China Mieville is ostensibly viewed as being "New Weird" which does not necessarily need to be set in contemporary times and basically involves a "melding" of different Genres including Horror, SF and Fantasy.

Hope I'm making sense.....

[WizardofOwls]

I am particularly interested in Urban Fantasy books that deal with Faerie, like Charles de Lint's books, Emma Bull's War For the Oaks, Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, and so on.

Has anyone read Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry books? They seem to be about faerie. Are they any good?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by WizardofOwls

I am particularly interested in Urban Fantasy books that deal with Faerie.

Then my first two suggestions (War of the Flowers and Borderland) were particularly apt. Powers and Blaylock not so much.

I forgot to mention The Sword of Maiden's Tears by Rosemary Edghill. Her collaborations with Mercedes Lackey would probably meet your requirements, too, though I've not read them.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by WizardofOwls

I am particularly interested in Urban Fantasy books that deal with Faerie, like Charles de Lint's books, Emma Bull's War For the Oaks, Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, and so on.

The following 2 books aren't really Urban but they do deal with the concept of Faerie and are considered classics of the genre so you may wish to check them out:

Lord Dunansy's important work King Of Elfland's Daughter.
Hope Mirlees - Lud In The Mist.

Also maybe Susanna Clarke's wonderful Johnathon Strange and Mr. Norrell is a little closer to the mark...

Just something to keep at the back of your mind perhaps...

[rune]

Good to see the subject come up as I am a lover or Urban fantasy too

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by WizardofOwls

I am particularly interested in Urban Fantasy books that deal with Faerie, like Charles de Lint's books, Emma Bull's War For the Oaks, Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, and so on.

Has anyone read Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry books? They seem to be about faerie. Are they any good?

I have read Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series and I like it alot. Her characters are very engaging. I have not really read alot of other urban fantasy, though so I don't have alot to compare it to. I actually got intrested in her writing through her Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. If you go to her official website you can read a few chapters in her books to see if it is your style.

[Lissa]

C.E. Murphy also has a series going that is really good called Urban Shaman.