isn't that the boyhood growing up and superhero one?

I would have thought that fitted the bill for urban fantasy? Or have i got the wrong book...

The one you're thinking of is Fortress of Solitude...

And if we're gonna include that, then I think we're probably better off with michael Chabons Kavalier & Clay - same basic template, but without the cudgel you over the head social commentary... (DYLAN AND MINGUS? COME OOOONNNN....)

erm...its so hard to think of urban fantasy novels without some element of faerie in it...so without being sure if any fit your bill:

Ursula K LeGuin - Lathe of Heaven
Charlaine Harris - Dead Til Dawn
Caitlin Kiernan - Silk, Threshold
Graham Joyce - The Tooth Fairy
James Morrow - Only Begotten Daughter
Terri Windling - The Wood Wife
Dan Simmons - Carrion Comfort
Steven-Elliot Altman - Deprivers

s'all I can think of, right off. I second Jeff Ford and also Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite

The Hellblazer comics... Shade the Changing Man... the Invisibles (Grant Morrison)... all good stuff

the Unknown Armies RPG (www.unknown-armies.com) is AWESOME urban fantasy-- magic is based on insane devotion to an obsession, so somebody obsessed with alchohol or Law and Order can gain power... or you can follow an Avatar, one of the mythic archtypes of the universe, and attempt to gain its power... but watch out for other guys channeling the same avatar... seriously great stuff, and even if you can't find anybody to play with look for the book or the free material on the site

i had a copy of the Etched City... got it for free, then gave it to a girl i like... she never gave it back

One more to add to the list: Jennifer Stevenson, trash sex magic. I'm about halfway through this quirkily compelling story of how two trailer park women, a mother-daughter pair, use sexual magic to protect their neighborhood from greedy developers. Never thought a trailer park slut character could be so damn cool!

Also, check out Jonathan Safran Foers 'Op-ed' piece from Fridays NY Times.

Classic Urban fantasy.

AND HE HAS A NEW BOOK COMING OUT!!!!

*drools*

Bah, you just want more Alexander quotage, don't you?

Thanks for the tip.

Charles de Lint does have tales with Native American folklore (and figures such as Crow or Coyote, for example). I've read them in other Newford colletions.
Also his there's Forests of the Neart, a novel, which has Green man myth in it, but also native American and Mexican (I think) stuff, all interwoven. As a novel I enjoyed it less than most short stories, but because I didn't really like the main character, don't know why. And the bits in Spanish kept angering me coz they were wrong (I'm that nitpicky).

UNKNOWN ARMIES
Now.
The guy's even got a novel out... but you need to read the original RPG. It rocks my socks,and is much different then most urban fantasy in that it has no poofy elves. Its got a good Stephen King/ Terry Pratchett cosmology vibe.

There's a sect of mages who work at McDonalds. They give people magic and prevented Y2K. Does your favorite game have that?

Of course Mage: the Ascension has that. Or can.

Besides, Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies and Demon: the Fallen developer) is a White Wolf (freelance, if I recall correctly) writer, who's also written the upcoming A Hunger like Fire, the new Vampire: the Requiem fiction; so, if you follow Lord's recommendation, this should apply too.

*can't think any on his own, unfortunately*

Wo0t.... nice to see he's making mainstream money. never played those WoD games...

(Unknown Armies is great as a GAME, too, with easy to understand rules and few dice roles... but this thread is about fiction)

I really enjoyed the piece by Jonathan Safran Foer in the NYT. Sadly, the reviews i've seen of his first novel make it sound far less polished than that piece. He's someone i'll be keeping an eye on.

I think i need to get away from de Lint for a while, though i don't doubt that i'll read more of his stuff in the (not so distant) future. I like Celtic mythology, but i think i hit my saturation point with Dreams Underfoot. I was a little disappointed with his use of language, also. I think i was expecting slightly more poetic prose. (After reading Chabon's AAoK&C, most writing seems clunky.)

I decided on Jonathan Carroll this time around, and i'm finding his work very engaging.

I've added a bunch of books from this topic to my list for reading down the line. (It's an active list that i'm referring to for just about every book i've read since January, not a, 'Gee, i'll have to read that someday but i'd rather ignore it altogether' kind of list.) Zivkovic and Graham Joyce sound really promising.

So...to move tangentially a little...what do people generally think about urban fantasy with regard to classic, epic fantasy? Is UF generally considered a bastard child, too mainstream, etc., or is it more of a budding area?

I'd consider it budding.
Epic fantasy has, as I see it, not much more to offer. Bear in mind we don't get much fantasy in Spain, thoguh, these days it's mostly White Wolf stuff and Dragonlance stuff.
But even when Iw as a kid and discovered epic fantasy, I realised soon most of it was Tolkien-like, and the true innovative stuff was rare.
Urban fantasy, on the other hand, offers the mix of any kind of fantasy and myth with any kind of urban environment. So there are a lot of possibilities, and probably it's easier to pull off a mediocre fantasy novel if it has some reasonably good contemporary environment than if you try to create your own world and everything.

But this is just my very lame and uneducated opinion

In response to the question, I'd call it the big growth sector of the moment.

Also, to go back a bit - READ THE SAFRAN FOER BOOK.

it's one of my faves of all time. unpolished my eye.

I'm new here, so I'm not quite sure if I am doing this right, so please excuse any mistakes.

I would highly recommend The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (see www.jim-butcher.com for book excerpts) and Ukiah Oregon series by Wen Spencer. They are both series set in the US, with some homage paid to many types of folk tales.

Nothing wrong, Quorri!

And thanks for th'info.

Ever wonder what would happen to a wolf bitten by a werewolf? Read Howling Mad by Peter David.

Shifter, Nightfeeder & Dark Hunter are the first 3 books in The Chronicles Of Galen Sword by Garfield & Judith Reeves-Stevens.

The Chronicles Of Amber series by Roger Zelazny
Lord Of Light by Roger Zelazny
Lord Demon by Roger Zelazny & Jane Lindskold

quote:

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Originally posted by Flinx:
Ever wonder what would happen to a wolf bitten by a werewolf? Read _Howling Mad_ by Peter David.

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er... he probably makes wisecracks?
i like Peter David, but i've read Peter David before

more RPGs... the new Eberron campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons (the 'default' setting now) has many cool cities and magic that deals with them... and its a pretty high magic world. most people have access to some form of it

Shadowrun is cyberpunk with magic and trolls and elves and all that. looks like a good setting

Unknown Armies is still the best. ever

How about Phillip Pullman? Although that doesn't technically become urban fantasy until the second book. I'm defining urban fantasy here as a story set in the real world mixed with otherworldly stuff. Following that definition, Suzanna Clark's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' would also count as urban fantasy, although that's probably not what you mean seeing as that's set in the nineteenth century (plus, it's got faeries in it all over the place). Oh, and one more vote for Jonathan Carroll from me: I especially liked 'White apples', although the ending is a bit weird. Ah, and I just thought of another one: 'The talisman' by Stephen King and Peter Straub. No faeries/celtic stuff; a cool (and easy) read. Also check out the sequel, 'Black house', although that's not as good as the first one, if you ask me.

How about Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells? I enjoyed it a lot - it's set in a European-ish Victorian-ish city in a parallel Earth. The Amazon summary is not bad:

quote:

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Nicholas Valiarde is both a nobleman and a thief, perhaps the greatest thief in the kingdom of Ile-Rien, where magic is a part of everyday life. Around him he has gathered an unparalleled band of criminals, including a well-known actress, an ex-military officer, a hardened killer, and a sorcerer with a bad drug habit. Valiarde, in the guise of criminal overlord Donatien, is amassing a small fortune in gold and jewels with one purpose in mind: to take his revenge on Count Montesq, the man who leveled false charges of necromancy against Nicholas's beloved godfather Edouard, leading to Edouard's execution. But Nicholas's band of ne'er-do-wells isn't the only force stalking the dark streets of Vienne, and Nicholas is about to face a real necromancer in a battle whose outcome will affect all of Ile-Rien. Wells has created a fast-paced action-adventure story with a wonderful cast of characters and a twisting, turning plot that will keep you flipping pages well into the evening hours.

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- Cho