S/O of Urban Fantasy

[snshne322]

I'd love to get some new recommendations for Urban Fantasy.  It's my favorite genre.  However, I feel like I'm just waiting for new releases in series that I'm already caught up on and an eager to invest in some new series.  I'm fully OK with PNR, too.

Some I've read are:

Night Huntress
Mercy Thompson
Kate Daniels
Fever
Guild Hunter (First 2)
Kitty Norville (First 5 or so)
Alpha & Omega
Charley Davidson
Chicagoland
Anita Blake

[pixy0stix]

I've read a LOT, but narrowed this down to my favorites:

Kim Harrison - The Hollows series
Seanan McGuire - October Daye series
Ilona Andrews - Kate Daniels series, and the Innkeeper Chronicles
Carrie Vaughn - Kitty Norville series
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson series

Not a female lead - Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files

From meshaliuknits who reads even more than I do (from earlier thread, I'm stealing her words):

Kalayna Price - Alex Craft
Karen Chance - Cassie Palmer & Dorina Basarab (exist separately, but touch a couple of times)
Faith Hunter - Jane Yellowrock
Jeaniene Frost - Night Huntress
Laurel K Hamilton - Anita Blake, though I quit around book seven or eight, I think. The Meredith Gentry series is OK too but it's got a LOT of sex since the basis is trying to get this chick knocked up.


And if you want pure cotton candy in the future on another planet where everyone has psychic powers and the couple ALWAYS hooks up, Jayne Castle's books will do the job.

[snshne322]

Thanks, pixy0stix! I started the first in the Kim Harrison, but I wasn't feeling it. I'll give it another shot.

There's a few on that list I've never heard of. I've got work to do!

[ufcasey]

You already have a lot of good ones listed between you and pixy, so here's some ones I didn't see listed:

Good but not necessarily great (might be worth checking out)
Irin Chronicles by Elizabeth Hunter
Forever Evermore by Scarlett Dawn
Discord Jones by Gayla Drummond
Colbana Files by J.C. Daniels
Imp by Debra Dunbar
Premonition by Amy Bartol
The Disillusionists by Carolyn Crane
Darkness Falls by Jessica Sorensen


Ones I would recommend:
Riley Jenson by Keri Arthur
Elemental Assassin by Jennifer Estep (only have read a couple though)
Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews
Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne (more male-oriented with various religious gods/deities involved though)
Dark Swan by Richelle Mead (minus the last book, I'm still a little mad about it)

[MrsAxilla]

Hey pixy0stix, thanks for posting those again. I was working all day and used all my bathroom and elevator time to catch up on the CEP Daily Thread. How is urban fantasy different than fantasy? I think you mentioned a connection to the real world or something like that? My main problem with straight fantasy and sci-fi is that I don't have enough mental energy to invest in a whole other reality unless I'm invested in the storyline and characters. I've read the first book of lots of series and didn't have it in me to continue. On the other hand, I'm super sick of reality lately. I've been bopping around from genre to genre, so what the hell! Urban fantasy up next - lol.

[alleinesein]

May 16, 2017 23:24:26 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Hey pixy0stix , thanks for posting those again. I was working all day and used all my bathroom and elevator time to catch up on the CEP Daily Thread. How is urban fantasy different than fantasy? I think you mentioned a connection to the real world or something like that? My main problem with straight fantasy and sci-fi is that I don't have enough mental energy to invest in a whole other reality unless I'm invested in the storyline and characters. I've read the first book of lots of series and didn't have it in me to continue. On the other hand, I'm super sick of reality lately. I've been bopping around from genre to genre, so what the hell! Urban fantasy up next - lol.

Urban fantasy takes place in "our world". The Dresden Files takes place in present day Chicago. The Hollows in Cincinnati. The world's differ slightly from ours and the things that go bump in the night are real.

I can explain better when I get on my laptop tomorrow. But the gist of it is that urban fantasy takes your normal world and throws in witches, wizards, vampires, shapeshifters, faerie, etc with humans.

[pixy0stix]

May 17, 2017 5:42:06 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

May 16, 2017 23:24:26 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Hey pixy0stix , thanks for posting those again. I was working all day and used all my bathroom and elevator time to catch up on the CEP Daily Thread. How is urban fantasy different than fantasy? I think you mentioned a connection to the real world or something like that? My main problem with straight fantasy and sci-fi is that I don't have enough mental energy to invest in a whole other reality unless I'm invested in the storyline and characters. I've read the first book of lots of series and didn't have it in me to continue. On the other hand, I'm super sick of reality lately. I've been bopping around from genre to genre, so what the hell! Urban fantasy up next - lol.

Urban fantasy takes place in "our world". The Dresden Files takes place in present day Chicago. The Hollows in Cincinnati. The world's differ slightly from ours and the things that go bump in the night are real.

I can explain better when I get on my laptop tomorrow. But the gist of it is that urban fantasy takes your normal world and throws in witches, wizards, vampires, shapeshifters, faerie, etc with humans.

Yup, this. Fantasy tends to take place in entirely different worlds (think Game of Thrones). 

Urban Fantasy takes place in parallel universes to us in that they're mostly set in the modern day, but something has happened for the supernatural world to have "emerged". In the Kim Harrison novels a mutant strain of tomato killed most of the humans off, leaving witches, elves, and vampires alive which forced them out into the open. More often than not, there isn't even a backstory. 

[ThirdandLong]

I think The Razorland Trilogy (Enclave, Outpost, Horde) by Ann Aguirre is UF. I really enjoyed it!

[alleinesein]

May 16, 2017 9:40:14 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

Thanks, pixy0stix ! I started the first in the Kim Harrison, but I wasn't feeling it. I'll give it another shot.

There's a few on that list I've never heard of. I've got work to do!

Keep at it; the series as a whole is good and then when you finish the series you can read the prequel.  There is only one book in the series that I hate and it is because of the character it focuses on. 

[alleinesein]

May 17, 2017 9:17:57 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

May 17, 2017 5:42:06 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Urban fantasy takes place in "our world". The Dresden Files takes place in present day Chicago. The Hollows in Cincinnati. The world's differ slightly from ours and the things that go bump in the night are real.

I can explain better when I get on my laptop tomorrow. But the gist of it is that urban fantasy takes your normal world and throws in witches, wizards, vampires, shapeshifters, faerie, etc with humans.

Yup, this. Fantasy tends to take place in entirely different worlds (think Game of Thrones). 

Urban Fantasy takes place in parallel universes to us in that they're mostly set in the modern day, but something has happened for the supernatural world to have "emerged". In the Kim Harrison novels a mutant strain of tomato killed most of the humans off, leaving witches, elves, and vampires alive which forced them out into the open. More often than not, there isn't even a backstory. 

Did you read The Turn?  I really hope that she turns the prequel into a series; I have so many unanswered questions now.

[alleinesein]

A few more for the list
-Monster Haven series by R.L. Naquin (these are quick easy reads and the series is only a few books. The author also has a few other series that you might want to check out)
-Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc by Angela Roquet (not quite urban fantasy)
-Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective by E.J. Stevens
-Agent of Hel trilogy by Jacqueline Carey
-Black Wings series by Christina Henry
-Edie Spence series by Cassie Alexander