6 awesome things about urban fantasy.

[seanan_mcguire]

My pre-release countdown for A Local Habitation [Amazon]|[Mysterious Galaxy] continues. I'm six days out now. Books have been sighted all over the place (although still not in my home town, which is probably good for my overall level of twitchiness, if not for the local folks who want to buy them). And I've been thinking a lot about urban fantasy.

I've been thinking so much about urban fantasy, in fact, that it's today's countdown item. So there.

6 Awesome Things About Urban Fantasy.

6. Because urban fantasy is a relatively new genre, there's a lot of flexibility for making up rules as you go along. No one says "oh, this book was terrible because they didn't all meet up in a bar and there was no quest for the magical wing-diddy of Macguffindonia." There's an insane amount of freedom in urban fantasy.

5. Because urban fantasy in an incredibly old genre that's just making its reappearance, there are centuries of tradition to draw on. Seem like a contradiction? It's not. As I've said many times, we are the children of Lily Fair, and we are carrying on the traditions of our fairy tale ancestors. There are monsters in those woods.

4. Urban fantasy gives its authors the freedom to play with creatures from both sides of the divide between "fantasy" and "horror." You can have pixies and werewolves, if that's what makes you happy, and nobody gets to tell you different. It's awesome.

3. The modern/pseudo-modern settings of most urban fantasies make it easier to build engrossing and detailed non-human societies, without needing to first introduce your readers to a whole new reality. That creates an illusionary accessibility that reveals itself only when it's too late to escape. Mwahahaha.

2. The scope of urban fantasy means that it really does contain something for everybody. Maybe you don't like my work. That's fine. Kelley Armstrong is more horror, and Kim Harrison is more sexy, and Anton Strout is more funny. We can find you a match!

1. All the ass-kicking heroines. Naturally.

Comments

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Some time before I die, I'm going to form a heavy leather band and name it "The Magical Wingdiddies of MacGuffindonia".

[mariadkins.livejournal.com]

THIS.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

AWESOME.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Now I want a story with werepixies.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Defying the laws of physics and common sense.

[deire.livejournal.com]

Oh gods. You know that would be CONTAGIOUS, right?!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Which part?

[deire.livejournal.com]

Both. The idea, and well...you know, I can just see the little were pixies. They fly up and bite when you're not looking, and then they flitter away giggling about what's going to happen next full moon.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

...I thought it was a mosquito.

[deire.livejournal.com]

You'll have to be contained for the good of the general population. ;)

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you're gonna break the rules, break the *big* rules.

[ravenclawed.livejournal.com]

1. All the ass-kicking heroines. Naturally.

I'm new to urban fantasy -- are the protagonists usually female?

[tikiera.livejournal.com]

An truly awe-inspiring number of ones are... and they are diverse lot.

U

[beccastareyes]

It depends. I'd say that there are a lot of female protagonists, but they tend to be in more romance-biplot* books than male urban fantasy protagonists**. Urban fantasy overlaps a lot with the 'paranormal romance' subgenre, and I'm not entirely sure there is a distinct line. OTOH, having romance authors writing fantasy as well does make for more female characters, since romance is a typically woman-dominated space.

* Here distinguished as 'books in which the heroine's romantic interest/relationship is as pressing as whatever outside agency is driving the plot'.

** Though this is open to biases. If I had read the first two-three books about Harriet Dresden, Wizard for Hire, who had a starting relationship with Samuel Rodriguez, tabloid reporter trying to Find the Truth and UST with Karl Murphy, cop and head of Weird Cases that Tend to Be Magical, I might have put them into this group, and maybe stop reading... and then not find out that Dresden and Rodriguez broke up and Dresden spends the next six books single.

[shadowkitty.livejournal.com]

Now I really want to read about the adventures of Harriet Dresden :(

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

It's not just you... :-(

[beccastareyes]

It would be an interesting alternate universe.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

There's a thin line, but it's becoming easier to find the more that you read in both genres. I'm hoping it'll continue to become more distinct, because it's possible to love both, but you shouldn't judge one by the standards of the other.

[beccastareyes]

Yeah. Some of my problem is that with the exception of Toby and Marla Mason, it seems to be 'men are in urban fantasy, women are in paranormal romance', when I want a more even split in the genders between genres. And that if, as you said, I go in expecting one and getting the other, I get disappointed.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's difficult to know where to draw the line, and that makes it hard to get the right books to the right readers, sometimes.

[beccastareyes]

At least I've gotten good enough to realize when it's not the book, it's my expectations. It means if I leave a review on Goodreads or something, I can say that and try to sort out what parts was just 'not the book for me' versus 'this is a bad book'.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Quite frequently, yes.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Ass-kicking heroines? Naw! You'd know nothing about ass-kicking heroines! (0)

*poke* ;-P

One of the reasons I like urban fantasy is that I think in pictures and it's considerably easier to "roll the movie" in my head if the framework is easy to construct so to speak.

Inversely if I have to construct the framework from scratch while I'm reading (alien world and language for example) the world "feels" more real to me because I've invested more energy into it.

(0) I think I have a heroine addiction because I often enjoy reading stories about strong female protagonists more than male ones. Usually in fantasy settings. :-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

[gorgeousgary]

One of the reasons I like urban fantasy is that I think in pictures and it's considerably easier to "roll the movie" in my head if the framework is easy to construct so to speak.

I do the same thing. Occasionally it gives me fits while reading SF because the world or the aliens are so weird I can't get the mental picture. Or I run into cognitive dissonance because I get an instant image of a character, which turns out to be completely wrong but the author doesn't provide the description until several paragraphs (or even pages) later.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

The thing about genre urban fantasy as a whole that does somewhat get to me, much though I love several individual examples, is how much of it is transplanted European mythologies with no trace of the native powers remaining.

That and a bit of a grumble going in here about things that are definitely a) fantasy and b) urban but don't get called "urban fantasy", ranging from China Mieville to Ellen Kushner to Sarah Monette to Walter Jon Williams' Metropolitan and City on Fire (because, dude ? That series is, like, Trantor with magic. It's Totally and Utterly Urban Fantasy.)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I've had to go with "look, the native powers may and probably do exist, but Faerie doesn't exist in the same layers of reality as they do." So the native powers want nothing to do with Faerie, aren't part of Faerie, and are just leaving them the hell alone. (This is because my Faerie requires descent from the primary Three, and I refuse to say "la la Coyote is descended from Oberon." Just no.) I figure that in a lot of cases, your local spirits will follow you when you leave, just because they're accustomed to having you about.

I agree with your grumble, utterly.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cause if Coyote is descended from Oberon, then his love-child with Loki (shapeshifters, after all) would be incestuous- right?

[deire.livejournal.com]

It might not last through my microbiology test next week, but I now feel the need to write a short story about a werewolf being horribly annoyed by pixies. He's magic, but no one else has noticed yet and they think it's funny. I'm sure you can imagine what he thinks.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[deire.livejournal.com]

He's taken to trying to dunk them in his coffee. Not that he thinks he should eat one, but the mug is handy, and they deserve dunking in something.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Albuquerque, also still sucking. *cranky* Want book.

. . . well, so much for that lunch hourandahalf. Back to the coal mines with nothing at all to look forward to after!

because I own no other books, no video games, no DVDs, and there's no internet at my house. Or something.

[angel-vixen.livejournal.com]

This, precisely (except that I'm on the East Coast).

<continues to ignore her massive To Be Read shelf>

AngelVixen :-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Sorry, honey.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

I am surely not the first person to link you to Disney Zombies.

Or the My Little Pony musical.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

These make me...happy.

[kittikins.livejournal.com]

Add Central Pennsylvania to the sighting list. I bought a shiny new copy from the book display of awesomeness prominently displayed in my local Barnes & Nobles. :)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

[bigherman.livejournal.com]

My evil plan is to show up to the book release party early, buy the book, and read it so it is JUST THAT FRESH when the party starts.

Also, I'd rather buy from Borderlands than B&N or Borders.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

This is an EXCELLENT evil plan. I approve.

[kidogirl.livejournal.com]

Yup, purchased in Monroeville, PA (just outside of Pittsburgh) today at B&N.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Woo!

[arib.livejournal.com]

I got my copy on Monday at the Borders near my office in Boston. Grinned like an idiot all the way back from the store. :-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay.

Thank you for letting me know.

[arib.livejournal.com]

I also saw it earlier this week at the B&N in Copley Square in downtown Boston.

In the Borders, it was shelved next to the first book in the F&SF, as well as on a table with other paperbacks.

At B&N, it was shelved with the new releases in the F&SF section, as well as on a standalone columny thing with other F/SF books.

Frequent bookstores much? Me? :-)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Glee!

[moshez.livejournal.com]

0. The possibility of having the story set in the Bay Area, objectively the best place on earth!

:)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Awwww.

Yes, that, too.