Urban Fantasy Recommendations

January 11, 2010 9:45 AM

Urban fantasy story recommendations

I've always been a fan of science fiction, not fantasy, but I've just read Mike Carey's Felix Castor books and Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory and absolutely loved them. Any suggestions for other urban fantasy novels I might like?

posted by TorontoSandy to media & arts (35 answers total)

It's not purely urban by any means, and a lot of it does take place in the middle of nowhere, but George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series spends more time in realistically-conceived cities than most other fantasy novels with which I'm familiar.
posted by valkyryn at 9:51 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, possibly even American Gods and Anansi Boys, but definitely Neverwhere.
posted by namewithoutwords at 9:53 AM on January 11, 2010

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is a great urban fantasy, set in the London Underground.
posted by phoenixy at 9:54 AM on January 11, 2010

Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series?

Kim Newman's Dracula books?

Michael Moorcock's Metatemporal Detective stories?
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:56 AM on January 11, 2010

I'm not familiar with your example books but Liz William's Detective Inspector Chen novels seem right in line with the genre.

Branching out a bit to a more general genre of fantasy set in a more or less contemporary world Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale and John Crowley's Little, Big are both worthwhile reads (only a component of Little, Big is urban though, it's other side is in a country setting). Neil Gaiman's American Gods is a fun modern fantasy read but it is not about a "city" setting.
posted by nanojath at 9:57 AM on January 11, 2010

Check out War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull. I think Mike Carey writes modern urban, and this is set in Minneapolis so it should fit the bill. Good book.
posted by selfnoise at 10:03 AM on January 11, 2010

Modern day Minneapolis, War of the Oaks by Emma Bull.
posted by jadepearl at 10:04 AM on January 11, 2010

Also... Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris books are fantastic, though they take place in a weird sort of semi-technological city (probably up to about 1940s level tech in Finch).
posted by selfnoise at 10:07 AM on January 11, 2010

Jonathan Carroll does a lot of magical realism books. I've only read a few, but I did really enjoy Sleeping in Flame

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle is interesting and set in Japan.

The Master and Margarita is set in Russia.
posted by willnot at 10:19 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Perdido Street Station, China Mieville - a mix of sci-fi/fantasy.
posted by scribbler at 10:20 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

urban fantasy? charles de lint. haven't read in years, might be untenably cheesy. might not be quite what you're looking for but china mieville's perdido street station series, also king rat..
posted by beefetish at 10:21 AM on January 11, 2010

Charles de Lint is the urban fantasy go to guy. Yeah, he's a little new-agey, a little cheesy, but it's good stuff overall.
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:26 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

2nding beefetish's recommendation of China Meiville's Perdido Street Station.
posted by mmmbacon at 10:26 AM on January 11, 2010

3rding Perdido Street Station.

A good portion of Stephen King's The Wastelands (third book in the Dark Tower series) takes place in a postapocalyptic city. (Your mileage may vary, people either love or hate the Dark Tower books, which I think you could describe as a blend of sci-fi and fantasy. I thought they got pretty weak by the end, but there's good stuff throughout.)
posted by usonian at 10:33 AM on January 11, 2010

Neil Gaiman, yes. China Mieville is fantastic, but not what I would call urban fantasy, exactly. Jasper Fforde's books tend to be urban and fantastic, but not exactly urban fantasy either.

I also enjoyed Greg van Eekhout's Norse Code, Seanan McGuire's Rosemary & Rue. There are generally good recommendations at The Big Idea.
posted by jeather at 10:36 AM on January 11, 2010

If you liked Carey's Felix Castor novels, then there's a good chance you'll enjoy Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels.
posted by tdismukes at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2010

Oh, and if you liked Pandemonium, you'll probably want to pick up Gregory's new novel The Devil's Alphabet.
posted by tdismukes at 10:49 AM on January 11, 2010

You might like Nightlife, by Rob Thurman. It's the first in a series, and while it's definitely urban fantasy, it's a bit more gritty and not as "fantastic" (if you follow). If you liked Pandemonium, you'd probably like this.
posted by divide_by_cucumber at 11:34 AM on January 11, 2010

Nthing Perdido Street Station.
posted by gnutron at 11:54 AM on January 11, 2010

Resurrection Man by Sean Stewart is pretty decent. Also try Magic for Beginners which is short stories. The author's name escapes me.
posted by FunkyHelix at 12:19 PM on January 11, 2010

Magic for Beginners is by Kelly Link.

Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff is set at Cornell University, so I don't know if that's urban enough for you :-)
posted by Gorgik at 12:24 PM on January 11, 2010

River of Gods by Ian McDonald is a sci-fi book that felt more like fantasy to me, what with all the Hindu mythology (and some theology) references and the AIs running amuck like tricksy ancient gods. And it's most definitely urban.
posted by Quietgal at 12:39 PM on January 11, 2010

Yeah, Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council (slightly less urban) are great. I also really enjoyed The City & The City. All by China Miéville.
posted by librarina at 12:45 PM on January 11, 2010

Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart kind of reminds me of Pandemonium. The protagonists of both books are kind of smart-ass losers with engaging narrative voices. The world of Pandemonium is a bit stranger than the world in Perfect Circle, and Perfect Circle is a bit more melancholy in tone, but the overall feel of both books is similar to me.
posted by creepygirl at 1:02 PM on January 11, 2010

Wizard of the Pigeons, by Megan Lindholm. It was a little over 200 pages, and then suddenly it was 'way past midnight, and I had finished it.

Earthquake Weather, by Tim Powers. It's the first of three.

Dhalgren by Samuel Delany can certainly be described as "urban fantasy", although I think it deserves a genre of its own.

That ought to hold you until March, if you start right now.
posted by the Real Dan at 1:04 PM on January 11, 2010

Ack! Start with Last Call, by Tim Powers.
posted by the Real Dan at 1:07 PM on January 11, 2010

Seconding Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is rather nice, especially if you know enough about London to get all the references in the names. In fact I'd describe it as the baseline for modern urban fantasy.

I'm not in love with China Mieville's fantasy books, but King Rat was one of those books that can't be left unread. Young man returns home after the death of his father and discovers that he's now the king of rats. Complications ensue.

Those two are self-contained stories and somewhat mythic in tone (if not scope). If you prefer more "mundane" human stories and a big stack of books, The Dresden files series by Jim Butcher is good. Wizard private detective and sometimes consultant for the local police. They're easy reading, but that doesn't mean they're not good (though they get better as the series goes on). There's an overarching plot, but they're all written to be readable in isolation. Fantastic airplane books. Sample chapter one and chapter two of the first book.
posted by Lorc at 1:43 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

The Nightwatch cycle by Sergei Lukyanenko.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:50 PM on January 11, 2010

Ariel, by Steven Boyett is a recent read of mine. Talks about a "Change" and how magic and fantasy creatures appeared afterwards. Much of the book is set in urban post-apocalyptic settings. It was recently released for Kindle, as well as a sequel out in November. Was originally written in 1983, and the author chose to keep the event that caused the Change the same, despite it being rather specific to that time period. I'd recommend it.
posted by Draccy at 2:46 PM on January 11, 2010

If you can find it (don't know if it's out of print or not), Borderlands and Bordertown were a couple of collections of novellas that I loved about fifteen-twenty years ago, about the elflands suddenly returning to the world, and the town that sprung up near the border. There were stories by Emma Bull, (Mefi's own) Will Shetterly, and others. Really good stuff.

There was also a sort of series of retellings of old stories in urban fantasy, and Charles de Lint was a part of it, especially with Jack the Giant Killer (which is now in an omnibus with the other story it was related to, I think).

Seconding Resurrection Man, by the way. Sometimes I wonder if anyone else ever read it. It's fantastic.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:17 PM on January 11, 2010

I really liked the Borderland books and was very disappointed when they quit coming out with them. I'm not familiar with the books you read but Emma Bull and Charles De Lint (suggested by others) both contributed to them.
Hmmm, looking around for a link to give to you I found that there may be a new one coming out.
posted by BoscosMom at 3:20 PM on January 11, 2010

If you are interested in audio fiction, you should check out Metamor City.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 9:21 PM on January 11, 2010

I was looking over my bookshelves last night and thinking about this question. I don't know the author's you referred to, so my suggestions might be off base, but here are a few more anyway.

Elizabeth Hand is a huge favorite of mine; Glimmering in particular is very urban fantasy.
Martin Millar, Lonely Werewolf Girl (I am slowly coming to the conclusion that this may just be The Perfect Book) and Good Fairies of New York.
Simon R. Green - the Nightside books are all noir and urban. He's super violent though and eventually that got to be too much for me.

And then there are a gazillion books out at the moment about vampire/werewolf/witch private eyes who have mad sex, fabulous parties and then kill each other. Some of these are definitely more equal than others. Robin McKinley has a good one that's very different from the usual. The Sookie Stackhouse books are as light as air but they're oddly unputdownable. Tread carefully around this genre, though, because there is some heinous, oh heinous, shit out there.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:07 AM on January 12, 2010

Please ignore the apostrophe of doom that is hovering up there.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:15 AM on January 12, 2010

Seconding Metamor City. The first couple of episodes aren't the best, but serve to introduce the world nicely. The novel, Making the Cut, is really good.
posted by JDHarper at 8:29 PM on January 12, 2010