So, what exactly IS Urban Fantasy?

Reformed SF&F fan here. I used to read this stuff a lot, but as I grew older I moved to non-fiction almost entirely. Lately, I've returned to some fiction (primarily historical fiction as it turns out), but the occasional SF and fantasy. I like George RR Martin, simply because his books seem (dare I say it?) adult, and not the usual infantile nonesense you sometimes find in "popular" fantasy. I also enjoyed China Mievile's Perdido Street Station, though it certainly has its flaws.

One genre I've seen mentioned quite a bit here is "Urban Fantasy". So what exactly is this? Does Mieville's Bas Lag stories count (I've also heard them described as "new weird")? Any recommendations in this area?

Oh, and if Urban Fantasy is teen vampire romance or vampire private investigators etc, tell me now so I can quietly get sick in the corner and never venture in this direction ever again.... :)

I use the term very broadly for any fantasy trope novels that take place within/around/next to "normal" current earth life. Any hero who comes from a recognisable NewYork or London, anyone who has to adjust to crossover between two worlds, or any everyday world where the fantastic intrudes, is Urban fantasy.

"teen vampire romance or vampire private investigators " could both be urban fantasy, but there is no need for them to be, and they certainly aren't defining characteristics of it - merely popular modern interpretations.

faerie tale, dracula, frankenstein, the paradise war infinity concerto are all urban fantasy in my book, some were written before the genre gained that name though.

Perhaps you'll like lord foul's bane the opening of the Thomas Covenant series, as a rich deep and dark urban fantasy world.

No, it's not just the teen stuff :) The shortest explanation is supernatural stories in the cities (more or less real world ones but it might be a part of the city that does not really exist or a totally non-existing city.). However - for some strange reasons (okey... not so strange I guess but I do not like it anyway) most publishers do not make the difference between paranormal romances and urban fantasy and things get... complicated.

The Bas-Lag stories are more steampunk than anything else (at least I would send them there if I categorize them.

As for recommendations - I like The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Mieville's urban stories (The City and the City for example)...

Will you like them? Who knows...

Edit: Fixing typos

Good definitions!
I think of urban fantasy as the realisation that the stories of myth and legend, gods and spirits are real and interact with "normal" life.
A couple of my favourite authors to add to the list:- Charles de Lint, I would start with Memory and Dream (Newford series) or Mark Chadbourn's World's End the first in the Age of Misrule trilogy.

Ah, taxonomy!

A closely related term - because it gets applied to the same sort of books - is "contemporary fantasy". What's meant is that it's set in our world but with fantastic elements and/or connections to a parallel or quite other world.

The problem with the "urban" part of the label is that not all such stories are set in cities (and some fantasy stories set in cities do not take place in our world); the problem with "contemporary" is that it's a temporal term. Take this sort of story and set it in the 13th century, and most people will call it "historical fantasy" (which can also mean it's set in a world which merely vaguely resembles out own world's past).

Anyone know a term that covers this entire area of literature?

I second AnnieMod's recommendations on this: Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and China Mieville's The City and the City.

I'd add ones by Emma Bull: War for the Oaks and Finder. Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar wasn't as much my cup of tea as others, but some people love it.

While there are exceptions, fantasy interacting with a normal reality city like Chicago, London or New York generally covers the idea for me.

The Night Watch (and sequels) would be representative of what I'd fit within Urban Fantasy. A work that takes place within the world that we know and recognise but has elements of what we call fantasy (magic, supernatural beings, etc.).

Thanks for the commentary and recommendations.

Aren't the Harry Dresden books formulaic fantasy PI type pulp? If not, I may have been avoiding them prejudiciously.

I have The City and the City on my "to buy" list... once it's available in soft-cover. I find hardbacks rather inconvenient to read.

If the Bas Lag are steam punk (and I always thought of Steam Punk as something along the lines of A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! and The Difference Engine), then please recommend some more. I love both Bas Lag and steam punk (but only if well written).

With regards to Urban Fantasy, I can live with it not being a proscriptive description (if you know what I mean). In other words, I know it doesn't have to be "urban"... :)

>Aren't the Harry Dresden books formulaic fantasy PI type pulp? If not, I may have been avoiding them prejudicially

They are fantasy PI but I do not think that they are formulaic. And especially in the later ones, the PI angle gets second in the book. I like the whole world that gets built there. Some sample chapters and stories can be read on the author page http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/ so you might check if you would like him. with a warning that the first book is closer to the PI genre that any of the rest.

As for steam punk: The Affinity Bridge by George Mann - I have a review there (http://www.librarything.com/work/5895422/reviews/44480270) - it has its strange moments but I like it. Not my genre really - or was not my genre - these days I start liking it more and more. So I would be interested to see some other recommendations.

Wolfy,

I always forget that the Night Watch is translated into English. I second this recommendation.

I've always understood it as fantasy set in a real-world location. As opposed to something like Lord of the Rings, which is an entirely different world.

I think some of the works mentioned here as examples are definitely not urban fantasy. Lord Foul's Bane and Perdido Street Station are not set in our world or anything resembling it (yes, I know where Thomas Covenant comes from).

Thanks Hieremias,

That's as good as an explanation as any. Good point about Mieville's Bas Lag stories (ie, Perdido Street Station)

So, are you a fan? If so, what do you recommend?

The Marla Mason series is urban fantasy and is set in a town called Felport (which is the very real world, just it is not a real real world location)

I do not think that anyone said that Perdido Street Station is urban fantasy though.

omaca,

I am a fan of Perdido Street Station, and I highly recommend Mieville's other books (the next is The Scar).

I'm not a huge fan of urban fantasy though. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere was already mentioned, it's pretty good. Charles de Lint is another author to consider. Moonheart is a good starting point.

I've really enjoyed some books that are probably considered alternate history fantasy (like urban fantasy in that they're set in our "real world", but not set in the present time). Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and Stephen R. Lawhead's Robin Hood trilogy are excellent.

I'd certainly say that the Harry Dresden series is a prime urban fantasy example. I've always felt it is anything involving the supernatural/paranormal set in a present day/real life setting.

I've just read a newish urban fantasy that I really enjoyed and thought I'd throw the name out there. Street Magic by Caitlin Kittredge. It seems to lean in the romancy direction, although there is no romance in it, but I found it rather unique because it is set in London and the language is all very British.

I've always liked the quote, I think from Lackey.

Elves in the woods, high fantasy.
Elves in the mall, urban fantasy.

< 15

Really liked the Lackey quote-lol. Best, there really is a "elves in the mall" scene in one of Charles de Lint's books. Can't remember which one, but the fairy court takes place in Newford Mall. Maybe Lackey was referring to that.

Everyone mentions Neverwhere - what about Gaiman's American Gods ? Shadow's not really in an urban environment, but it certainly fits Hieremias definition. I read American Gods about 5 months ago, it still haunts me. I really liked that book.

I'm a big fan of China Mieville - though I don't think Iron Council stood up to the first two New Crobuzon novels - but what is "steam punk"? I'm not familiar with this genre. Any other Mieville "read-alikes" would be welcome. (though not sure this is possible - he broke the mold)

Thanks.

#10 - each to their own and all that, but to me because Thomas does explicitly come from our world, and has to deal with the differences between here and there, it is urban fantasy. Although it is on the fantasy side of the continum. I'd be less sure of mirror of her dreams where the heroine isn't so loaded with the baggage from here.

For me urban fantasy must be set in our reality and it must be primarily based in an urban centre (although it can be a fictional town).

I wouldn't include contemporary fantasy not set in an urban centre - so stuff like The Limits Of Enchantment or The Owl Service (in fact all of Garner's work) would not be urban fantasy.

Oops - got the wrong Joyce novel.

Labels are always tricky. Very few things lets themselves being put in neat slots like that without a fight, and where the boundaries of a label go will always be subjective. But I'm willing to offer how I try to define these matters.

I agree with most of what's been said regarding Urban fantasy above. To me, this genre deals with another reality close to our known one - hidden, paralel or forgotten. Charles De Lint's books are good examples, as is most of Neil Gaiman's work. Lately I've been hearing a lot of good things about The secret history of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia, but I havrn't readf it myself.

Steampunk to me is more a format or a frame than a genre in itself. What it deals with seems to be combining high-tec and low-tec, thus introducing technology and other classic sci-fi concepts in fantasy. Clockwork androids, steam-operated undergruond trains, or funghal tracking devices. I'm thinking of Terry Gilliam films. There's a definite element of steampunk in China Miéville's Bas Lag books. But to me, New Weird is a broader label, which includes steampunk as on way of blending genres.

New Weird is a little bit like punk rock in my opinion: the people that are given credit for inventing the genre claims it doesn't exist, and if it did, it only did for about ten minutes in 1997. Nevertheless, it's a useful umbrella for embracing a type of post modern, dirty, grey (as opposed to black and white) adult fantasy, IMHO. The best definition of this concept I've found is from Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's anthology The New Weird, roughly saying that it is a type of secondary-world literature, opposing itself at the genre's often romantic notions of place and instead constructing worlds using the (post-) modern contemporary urban reality as a springboard. It mixes elements from fantasy, sci-fi and horror freely and embraces the weird, freaky and strange as parts of it's worlds' "normality". The pioneers of the genre are often pointed out as Mervyn Peake with his Gormenghast books and M. John Harrison with his books and stories set in Viriconium.

I'm utterly smitten with this, but my trip down these roads is fairly recent. Apart from Miéville and the above mentioned, I've so far utterly adored Jeff VanderMeer's The city of saints and madmen and Shriek: an afterword, and really liked Steph Swainston's Fourlands books starting with The year of our war and Jeff Ford's The Physiognomy.

To further point out the difference between New Weird and Urban Fantasy, in regards to the quote in #15, I think it was Steph Swainston who said:
The elves were the first up against the wall when the revolution came

Mentioning Sedia, the anthology that she edited a year or two ago (Paper Cities) was a good one (even if some of the stories were not exactly Urban Fantasy :) )

So, Harry Potter is urban fantasy?

I would call it contemporary fantasy - in order it to be urban, it needs to have a city/town as part of the storyline (almost as one of the characters). And Hogwarts do not qualify as a city/town. But that's just me :)

@22 - Hah! See! That's what labelling does to you! Sticking to my own guns, I now have to, blushing and shuffling my feet, mutter a very small: yes...

But it doesn't feel quite right.

> 24 I think it doesn't quite feel right largely because the bulk of the story takes place in a fantasy world apart. The bits that are located in London feel very much like urban fantasy to me - albeit a softer, less dark version than many of the genre tend to be.

This seems to be fairly popular in YA lit right now - and not just because of vampires! There are the faerie books (Wicked Lovely and Wondrous Strange) and books that are 'weird abilities we hide from the world' (Wake and Midnighters).

I suspect books like these lend themselves to the sort of 'one day it could happen to /me/' sorts of books that I, at least, loved as a young reader. Who didn't open a closet once hoping it would work like the wardrobe? I've always wondered if that isn't part of HP's appeal, too.

>25 Aerrin99: Aerrin99 said: Who didn't open a closet once hoping it would work like the wardrobe? I've always wondered if that isn't part of HP's appeal, too.

Beautifully put. But, indeed, isn't part of the appeal of all children's literature?

What if?

What if?

What if...?

Oh, absolutely! But there seems to me to be something about YA urban fantasy that is almost a stepping-stone between fairytales and the world teens actually live in. For me, at least, it upped the escapist factor. Which, of course, is what I desperately wanted at 13!

No one has mentioned Tim Powers all his books I've read would fall into Urban Fantasy such as Earthquake Weather

Almost all of White Wolf's World of Darkness fiction would also count.

Tanya Huff writes "Urban Fantasy" Her "Keeper Chronicles" are set in Kingston, and Toronto, Ontario.

To me Harry Dresden, along with the Nightside books, and Conner Grey, The Changeling Detective agency etc. are all more or less "formulaic fantasy PI type pulp", just as Mercy Thompson, Anita Blake, Merry Gentry etc. are all more or less formulaic chick-lit type pulp. Doesn't mean I don't like them, it just means that I recognize that they are using the same template. If that is not your thing, maybe something with a bit more literary approach is better.

Charles de Lint has been mentioned already, as has Neil Gaiman. I'd add Sean Stewart, Graham Joyce and Jonathan Carroll to the list.

Yeah, I've read Gaiman's "Author's preferred version" of American Gods. I both liked and disliked it. :) I found the premise excellent, if the execution imperfect.

But I liked it enough to buy several other of his books, including Neverwhere and Anansi Boys; both yet to be read.

I'm half way through Mieville's The Scar. There's something fascinating about his Bas Lag books, even if I find his protagonists rather unlikeable. I suspect that is by design, as the main characters in both Perdido Street Station and The Scar are really unpleasant people. I read on, intrigued and just a little bit hooked, nonetheless.

For me, Urban Fantasy is where the modern world (our world or slightly futuristic) and the magic world collide. The characters in these novels are often caught in the middle when this happens, but not necessarily so.

My first foray into the genre was the Shadowrun series which is a cyberpunk meets high magic in a dystopian society. The novels were based off a role playing game.

I also enjoyed the Cleveland Portal and Dresden Files books as part of UF grouping.

Could Fritz Leiber's 1943 story Conjure Wife be the first example? An anthropology professor learns his wife has been practicing witchcraft to protect him and advance his career and manages to convince her that its all coincidence and psychological, then learns that several other faculty wives have been doing the same, and finally learns that it is quite real.
66 years later I still found moments chilling.

I tend to think of this as fantasy novels set in an urban, thus medium to big city setting. I would not consider fantasy novels set in the countryside (even if it is a modern world) to be Urban Fantasy.

First to come to mind for me (after the already mentioned Neverwhere) is Urban Shaman, and the entire Walker Papers series, by C.E. Murphy. All of which is set in the city of Seattle

Likewise Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire is set in the city of San Francisco and Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs, is set in the Tri City, Washington, area.

All of which I would consider Urban Fantasy (and all of which I've enjoyed).

I love the genre (subgenre? subsubgenre??) of urban fantasy. A great place to start--and one of those books published before the term actually existed--would be Little,Big by John Crowley. It's a great and beautiful work regardless of how it's categorized, but for sure I'd consider it to be one of the founding works of urban fantasy.

John Crowley's Little, Big is one of my favorites! I've read the first book in his Agypt series and would say that would qualify as well. Neil Gaiman is fantastic, as is Charles de Lint. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is great. Caitlín R. Kiernan is very modernly "urban" and very good. The Gormenghast Novels is certainly something to be experienced!
I'll come up with some more examples as they come to me!