List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

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List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby frice2000 » Sun Jun 12, 2011 7:59 pm

Thought it might be interesting to share what you consider your favorite Urban Fantasy series with each other if anyone else reads them. If you don't know Urban Fantasy takes traditionally 'Fantasy' elements either vampires, werewolves, fairies, whatever mythological creature you want to modernize; and places them in a modern landscape having to deal with modern problems and life.

My favorite series and author would likely be Kelley Armstrong and her Otherworld Series which starts with Bitten. Very good story about a unwillingly turned werewolf trying to deal with life and distance herself from those who turned her and how much she can or can't do so. Nicely written and nicely paced and starts off the rest of said series. Can get a view into that series with this piece which is up for free online and also can see a comic book telling of her right after being bitten here. All in all quite like this series it introduces a lot of great characters and protagonist and does a very nice job of making monsters and such likable and interesting characters and but for one or two characters introduced there's no one that makes me grate my teeth while reading about.

Second favorite series and author would likely be Seanan McGuire and her October Daye series. Very nicely written stuff dealing with a faerie changeling protagonist. Does a awesome job with mythology and retelling of traditional and darker and also light fairy mythology into a modern context. Very much worth a read.

So anyone else have any other series they particularly enjoy? I know LawOhki/Lawra mentioned and recommended to me the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood series, and while I enjoyed bits of that didn't really capture my interest like the other two series I listed. Also one of the more popular and well known examples the Dresden Files always bored me just didn't capture my interest. If you have some others to recommend by all means do so would be interested to see.
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby Knight of L-sama » Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:46 am

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. It's Urban Fantasy but it does owe a chunk in style and feel to the 'hard-boiled' detective novel and film noir, including the fact that the protagonist is a licensed Private Investigator but he's listed in the phone book under what he considers his primary occupation - Wizard. The first book is fairly good but the second is kind of weak but picks up with the third book as Jim Butcher introduces the over-arching plot that starts to tie things together and really hits its stride in the fourth book as Harry's successes in the first books begin to get him caught up in major events. In the fourth book in particular he gets caught up in a war between the Faerie Courts and it only goes up from there.

Its written in the first person and the fact that Harry's response to pressure is to start making smart-ass remarks gives the books a distinct vein of humour that is part of what makes it so enjoyable. That and Butcher has a talent for writing a protagonist that relies on Crazy Awesome and Refuge in Audacity. The fandom currently eagerly awaits the thirteenth book in the series after the twelfth ended on a major cliffhanger.
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby Ellen Kuhfeld » Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:39 am

It's not a series, but Emma Bull's War For The Oaks is extremely fine.
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby talonhunter » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:09 am

While not a series either, The Cowboy and The Vampire has been one of my favorites for years and is now getting a resurgence with the Twilight saga and others. Otherwise, Remember Me and the Christopher pike young adult series of books is always a tasty morsel as well
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby spooky316 » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:53 am

In similar vein to Dresden Files, I enjoy Simon Green's Nightside and Mike Carey's Felix Castor books.
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby frice2000 » Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:36 pm

Knight of L-sama wrote:The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

I read the first three just couldn't get interested. The writing style struck me as a little bland. While the universe was interesting for me to really like a series I have to really connect with and like the protagonist. This just didn't happen with Harry for me. I've heard it just keeps getting better and Butcher's other novels are a lot better, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Though, they are on my Kindle waiting to me read so I'll get to them some day I'm sure. Interestingly this series did spike my interest in UF but I never caught the fever for it in specific.

Ellen Kuhfeld wrote:It's not a series, but Emma Bull's War For The Oaks is extremely fine.

Interesting never even heard of it. I'll take a look at it. Sounds interesting. Bit afraid I won't like the 80'sish band thing that is mentioned in the synopsis but I'll give it a chance.

talonhunter wrote:While not a series either, The Cowboy and The Vampire has been one of my favorites for years and is now getting a resurgence with the Twilight saga and others. Otherwise, Remember Me and the Christopher pike young adult series of books is always a tasty morsel as well

Hmm, read the synopsis for the Cowboy one doesn't sound particularly interesting to me. Is it better then the synopsis indicates? I have read Pike's Vampire stuff because of its mention in this fic. Found it to be quite good until the last two or novels where it just felt like it unraveled.

spooky316 wrote:In similar vein to Dresden Files, I enjoy Simon Green's Nightside and Mike Carey's Felix Castor books.

First series sounds pretty interesting I'll give it a shot, though it does sound pretty close to Dresden so I might not like it since I wasn't a big fan of that series. Second one didn't sound particularly interesting from the synopsis. Is it better then it sounds?

Thanks for the great replies guys seems I've got lots more to look at :).
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby talonhunter » Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:47 am

it does read better then the synopsis indicates. Remember, most synopsis are written without a full read of a story. But then I like eclectic stories such as Sue Graftons alphabet mysteries, the cat who... Stuff and LARP gaming to Vampire, l5r and code break...:)
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby camk4evr » Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:50 am

Mercedes Lackey has a few series set in the same universe (I've read the novels but not the short stories). most of these books are cowritten with other authors. Here's her wikipedia page if you want her bibliography:

Diana Tregarde: A romance novelist (and practicing wiccan) uses her magical power to fight angry deities, evil sorceresses and vampires. Until last year only three novels and three short stories had been written due to poor sales and the fact that there were a number of people who thought Diana Tregarde was real (apparently she even received death threats when she stopped publishing this series).

Bedlam's Bard: The adventures of a bard and his elven and human lovers as they battle renegade elves and evil government agents in California (I haven't read all the books in this series). As of the fourth book, the bard (whose name I've forgotten) has left his lovers and moved to New York.

SERRAted Edge: Elven race car drivers and their human allies rescue abused children while battling the Unseelie court and evil humans. Mark Sheppard, who co-wrote the book Wheels of Fire has created a sort of spinoff to this series however I would not recommend these books.

If you can still find them White Wolf has published numerous books set in their orginal World of Darkness game setting. However, I've only read the Immortal Eyes trilogy.

While they aren't a part of a series, I'd recommend Gil's All Fright Diner and Monster, both by A. Lee Martinez. Especially if you like a bit of humour in your Urban Fantasy

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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby Knight of L-sama » Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:56 pm

With regards to Mercedes Lackey's Urban Fantasy stuff, the latter stuff for Bedlam's Bard and Serrated Edge was published by Baen with some of it available through the Baen Free Library or at this site which mirrors the CDs that are released with some of Baen's hardcovers.

And if you're worried about piracy, worry not. It's perfectly legit and Baen actively encourages that the stuff on their CDs be shared openly and it comes in a variety of formats including .mobi (Amazon's Kindle), .epub (a wide variety of e-readers including Apple's iBookshelf app) and .html and .rtf if you want to read it on your computer (though I would personally reccomend Kindle for PC and the .mobi format because it remembers where you were up to).
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby ckosacranoid » Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:33 pm

SERRAted Edge: Elven race car drivers and their human allies rescue abused children while battling the Unseelie court and evil humans. Mark Sheppard, who co-wrote the book Wheels of Fire has created a sort of spinoff to this series however I would not recommend these books.

this series i likes with the human mage...its been a while since i have read it though....elves, cars, guns and magic....what else o you want for fun....
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby talonhunter » Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:36 am

A dihydromono-oxide cursed genderswap martial artist...;)
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby Neko- » Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:24 am

I'm more for straight up Fantasy, and not the Urban variety.

Only examples I can think of are non-books (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Underworld trilogy, and Blade trilogy)
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby talonhunter » Sat Jun 25, 2011 2:45 pm

...Would graphic novels be included in such a list? There are some good ones from DC...(Banes arc in the Dark Night storyline) Marvel...(Near and dear to my heart is Spiderman and all it's offshoots) and even Dark Horse with the Buffy/Angel/Spike stories. Still, even the short series based on the masquerade from white wolf was good until the liscensing issue got ugly...
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Re: List your Favorite Urban Fantasy Series and Recommendations

Postby frice2000 » Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:15 pm

but Emma Bull's War For The Oaks is extremely fine.

That was truly excellent. Thanks a lot for pointing it out. The band parts did weaken it a bit in my eyes though, still very nice novel.

While not a series either, The Cowboy and The Vampire

Thanks for pointing this out, but I really didn't like it very much. It had some unique concepts but the religious aspects felt a little over the top and the rest while interesting didn't strike me as better then a lot of other urban fantasies out there. It was unique though so I'll give you that.

Simon Green's Nightside

Getting to these on my Kindle now. Been a busy end to the school year. Lots of grading and check marks to make.

Mercedes Lackey'

I've tried to read a couple of her novels but have never gotten too into them. Thanks for pointing them out though.

Baen Free Librar

Heh. I've used that before for John Ringo's Council Wars series. It is a unique service amazing that it doesn't kill their sales though don't think it's the best idea for em.

Would graphic novels be included

I'd say non-big name super hero work would be fine. Something like Batman/Superman/Spiderman/etc. doesn't really feel appropriate to me.
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