Help Me Out On Some Urban Fantasy Please!

On point 2):
Edgar Rice Burroughs had Pelucidar in the center or the earth, Verne had a lost land. All sorts of wonderful nooks and crannies you can have your strange and mystical creature discovered. Ice is a great tool, frozen for millennium, or dropped from space. The depths of the ocean can bring those who have hidden since the dawn of man. Radical evolution in and around nuclear test sites or Hiroshima. Pocket communities hidden away in the rain forest of Brazil. Should I go on?

Smiles
Bob

1) Wow, I got nothin. The UF I've read has all of that and more. Though I'm very curious to hear what others have to offer.

2) I don't work in modern urban settings with this stuff. Otherwise I could be of help.

I have a partial match: Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay. It draws from Celtic mythology. The magical 'creatures' are all animals, so not only do they blend, but they stay on the down low. There is more obvious magic, and Kay deals with keeping it hidden in various ways.

Kitty Pryde said:

I love SF and fantasy, but I am a bit of a noob when it comes to urban fantasy. I read 'Neverwhere' by Neil Gaiman, and I watched the miniseries of it, and that's pretty much it. I also read Lukyanenko's Night Watch series. Oh, and China Mieville, if his stuff counts as UF. Two questions for those more informed than I:

1. Can you recommend some urban fantasy about characters other than vampires, werewolves, zombies, fairies, and european-style witches and wizards? I'm not hating on those critters at all, but I'm seeking some examples of how mythological characters outside of European myth/American pop culture fit into the UF setting. Ex: gods and demi-gods of other cultures, ancient cultures, totally original beasties, or other fantasy figures whose tropes are not as well known and recognized.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty well read in urban fantasy and I can honestly say nothing comes to mind when you take out ALL of those variants. I mean, loosely, you could consider different kinds of weres like werecats... every culture, after all, had it's own man-beasts independent from European influence, but I think you're looking for something a little more unique, am I right?

Well, hold on, I take that back, you could consider demon UF. But you would be REALLY hard-pressed to find demon UF that didn't have one of the other things you listed. Most common is the caster type that can summon the demons to earth in the first place, which you are trying to avoid.

Other than that... I know a romance series that comes to mind that deals with what are basically ancient Olympian dreamwalkers, but that's paranormal romance, not UF (there is a difference). I can also think of another romance series that deals with dragons, but there are a lot of casters intermixed in that one, too.

Yikes. I dunno. You've made me want to go on a hunt. But in the mean time try searching for demon stories or maybe superhero/superpower type... and let me know what you find, because I haven't read any of it that's as exclusive as you want it to be.

My recommendation: If you aren't very familiar with UF, you need to read the books with all that unwanted stuff first so you can know how to be unique. If you need suggestions on some variations from the holy trinity of Fangs/Fur/Fey I can give you those but they will still include at least one of those elements.

Kitty Pryde said:

2. What are some ways (cliche or not) for working your mythological characters into an urban setting in which most 'regular' folks don't know that they exist? For example, in Neverwhere, the magical characters were part of a hidden underground world, and generally fit into the category of Crazy Homeless Person, from the perspective of average Londoners. In the Night Watch series, the witches and vampires and shapeshifters and werewolves all went around pretending to be regular people, but they were sort of unionized into groups of good-ish and bad-ish and impartial magical folks, who all kept each other in check.

Click to expand...

The regular people angle is by far the most popular. Another angle is to have some sort of glamour or illusion on your non-humans to make them look and feel human. Living underground is a good one, and I've read UF where the non-humans lived in a different world/dimension that collided with ours or had some sort of portal opened. The possibilities here are as infinite as your imagination. Me, I generally go for the regular people angle. It's convenient, easy to implement, and I like the surprise element amongst the characters.

Kitty Pryde said:

For the novel I'm brainstorming now, I'm leaning towards having these magical characters be a part of various crime organizations/street gangs but it's still a bit of a muddle. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide! (If this fits better in The Sandbox, feel free to move it, but I just thought I'd ask my fantasy writing peeps!)

Click to expand...

Street gangs are pretty common as well but not so common as to be cliche yet (I think... I could be wrong). What is becoming cliche is the obligatory bounty hunter role: either the MC is said bounty hunter, or she (usually "she") has one as an aquaintance.

Any other questions let us know. I'll jump in and write up whole books for you on my experiences with reading and writing UF

Have you read American Gods, also by Gaiman? It's not my favorite book by him, but it's very good, and it's about Mythological creatures (Gods, actually) blending in with modern life.

Ysabel isn't my favorite book by G. G. Kay, but I would also recommend it.

Charles DeLint does what he calls "Urban Myths", utilizing Celtic & Amerindian lore.

In YA Rick Riordan does the Percy Jackson series, utilizing Greek and Roman Mythology.

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality does some cool stuff with Death, Chronos, and the Fates, etc., using them in some interesting ways.

There's also Gaiman's Anansi Boys, which utilizes Native American lore. I didn't like it as well as some of his other stuff, but it's not a bad read.

Will also recommend GGK's Ysabel, though it helps to have read his Fionavar Tapestry series first (there are some references that won't be as resonant for you if you haven't read the trilogy, but nothing that would make the book incomprehensible).

You might also give Missing White Girl by Jeff Mariotte a try. It's got Latin American magical influences.

-- Marcy

mrockwell said:

Will also recommend GGK's Ysabel, though it helps to have read his Fionavar Tapestry series first (there are some references that won't be as resonant for you if you haven't read the trilogy, but nothing that would make the book incomprehensible).

Click to expand...

QFT and b/c Fionavar is a 'reverse' urban fantasy- people from Toronto end up in a medieval fantasy world. The themes of magic and gods and good vs evil are all very well done.

My urban fantasies go back to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos for cool "new" beasties and gods. I'd say The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," and "Dreams in the Witch House" are all urban fantasies of a sort.

American Gods, Neil Gaimen. He uses gods from all over and brings them into modern America.

I knew some of the gods but not others. So he 'introduced' them in that sense.

I know the story you're thinking about, and I think it would work very well ( makes me think of Kung Fu though. Ahh Glasshopper)

Well, drat, here from reading here and there on the board I was convinced my normal humans with minor psychic powers were urban fantasy. No Hobbits, no elves, not even any ghosts in that one. At least I know why I got so many rejecitons <HG and feeling better about the mss. Thanks guys.>

No idea what to call the thing now. I only saw one magical realism agent and already sent to her.

If you want the romance edge Harlequin does the Noctune line. Don't ask, it was a passing fantasy.


S

Since all I read is UF, and since I do my best to avoid any UF that features vamps and weres, I have a bunch of recommendations for you:

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. (djinn)

Vicki Petterson's Zodiac series. (super heroes)

Liz Williams' Inspector Chen series. (demons and Hell)

Laurell K. Hamilton's Mary Gentry series (the fey)

C.E. Murphy Urban Shaman (Greek mythology)

C.E. Murphy's The Negotiator trilogy (gargoyles, dragons and more)

That should get you started. Happy reading!

Hmm...let's see.

I use angels (but they're only angels in the technical sense, proxies of the apathetic gods I've got running around), so now instead of swords and wings they've got suits and guns. So I've got gods and demons running around, except they don't really have much impact on the current canon (over-powered characters are boring). I do have one diminished god hanging around, an ex-hippie surfer who works at Monkey Burger - the god of humming birds. ^_^

I have your typical "natural" fey - spirits, hobs, brownies, nymphs etc, all the traditional things, some with new interpretations, some traditional. I have fairy courts that are based on a certain trait (ie, Court of the Mad [Madchester], Court of Liars, Court of the Lost), and each run in a different way, for example, Madchester [under Manchester ] is run by an aspect of Mab.

I also have a truckload of invented characters - which range from not-quite-alive mermaids in the Brisbane river that evolved from dead bodies, to creatures that can alter timelines. And creepy ninja/monkey things that pee acid.

As for keeping hidden, some stick to their courts, others don't live near humans at all (nymphs etc tend to stay in their own environment), others rely on glamours, and some just teleport/fade away when someone spots them. A lot of the 'verse relies on the human tendency to explain away stuff they can't explain. However, when something big happens, the angels/agents get their local PR guy to come up with a cover story.

Karen Duvall said:

Since all I read is UF, and since I do my best to avoid any UF that features vamps and weres, I have a bunch of recommendations for you:

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. (djinn)

Vicki Petterson's Zodiac series. (super heroes)

Liz Williams' Inspector Chen series. (demons and Hell)

Laurell K. Hamilton's Mary Gentry series (the fey)

C.E. Murphy Urban Shaman (Greek mythology)

C.E. Murphy's The Negotiator trilogy (gargoyles, dragons and more)

That should get you started. Happy reading!

Click to expand...

Thanks. These look interesting. I'll look into them myself as well as passing them on to a friend of mine who likes UF.

I'd also add our own Jackie Kessler's "Hell on Earth" series. She features demons of all sorts.

Karen Duvall said:

Since all I read is UF, and since I do my best to avoid any UF that features vamps and weres, I have a bunch of recommendations for you:

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. (djinn)

Vicki Petterson's Zodiac series. (super heroes)

Liz Williams' Inspector Chen series. (demons and Hell)

Laurell K. Hamilton's Mary Gentry series (the fey)

C.E. Murphy Urban Shaman (Greek mythology)

C.E. Murphy's The Negotiator trilogy (gargoyles, dragons and more)

That should get you started. Happy reading!

Click to expand...

She didn't want anything with fairies (fey), so you can discount the Mary Gentry series.

I thought Urban Shaman was more of a native american lore thing? The character is Native American / Irish and has a spirit guide.

Vicki Pettersson was a good one though, I forgot about that one.

The djinn thing reminded me of Dog Days... though it does kind of have magic users in it, but they aren't the traditional wizard/sorcerer kind.

Sassee said:

She didn't want anything with fairies (fey), so you can discount the Mary Gentry series.

Click to expand...

But it's atypical.

I thought Urban Shaman was more of a native american lore thing? The character is Native American / Irish and has a spirit guide.

Click to expand...

The character is, the stories are not. The first book as I recall featured "The Hunt" which is most definitely not NA.

The djinn thing reminded me of Dog Days... though it does kind of have magic users in it, but they aren't the traditional wizard/sorcerer kind.

Click to expand...

I've never read Dog Days, but the Weather Warden series is definitely one of my favorites just for it's originality and Caine's fabulous voice. Her stories are non-stop adventure rides and she's such a visual writer! I'm amazed by her talent.

Karen Duvall said:

But it's atypical.

Click to expand...

A lot of stories are atypical with everything that she listed (trust me, I have shelves full of them). We could probably recommend atypical stories for EVERY creature she wants excluded, but in the spirit of the original request, I tried to stay outside of those topics altogether

Kitty -

My recommendation is still to read about those "typical" creatures to get a feel for the genre. Competitiveness dictates that one person's werewolf/fey/wizard is going to be completely different from another, and there are several examples we'd all love to throw your way.

Not quite urban fantasy, but Christopher Moore does some interesting things with demons in Practical Demonkeeping (maybe Suburban Fantasy?) and A Dirty Job.

Nicole

I second (or third, whatever) reading UF even if it has elements that you don't want to include. You need to know the tropes that are out there if you want to avoid them.

My favorite UF books have pretty much been covered and I second the Inspector Chen books. One interesting UF book that hasn't been mentioned is The Secret History of Moscow By Ekaterina Sedia.

How about Kelly McCullough's WebMage series? Greek Gods upgraded to the Internet Age, only more so. Also the Logical Magician books, featuring a math major who uses logic to deal with mythical creatures from all over. The ShadowRun series might qualify, as well as the Dresden books by Butcher.

How about...

Jonathan Lethem - All are urbanly fantastical excepting You Don't Love Me Yet and Motherless Brooklyn.

William Browning Spencer
Tim Powers
James P Blaylock
Graham Joyce
Jonathan Carroll
DeLint
Michael Marshall Smith's The Intruders
Mieville's King Rat

Mine

*grins*


Oh no wait....

UF at the moment seems to be very much dominated by fairies/vampires/werewolves/succubi. I don't really have a problem with that, if you want to write something outside of that, go for it! We need as many variations of UF as we can get so that the genre doesn't become a towering stack of clichés. Add to that, having one or more of thoses elements also doesn't necessarily mean that the story can't be an orginal and innovative take on a trope. I'd suggest reading some, just to at least get a feel for what is out there and how you can play with the ideas.