On urban fantasy.

[limyaael]

Quote of the Day:

"I sometimes wish that I could control the weather. But this might be uncomfortable for other people."

-Swinburne.

Comments

[maureenlycaon]

I think the steampunk genre (or even "sandalpunk"!) already offers possibilities here. If we can have higher technology in the Victorian age, why not throw elves into the mix?

I do know of one such novel, The Not-World by Thomas Burnett Swann. The main characters try an early (undocumented by history!) hot-air balloon ride, and end up in a pocket of English forest. And the "little people" and other creatures here resemble the "other" creatures of legend a lot more than the elves of Tolkien or de Lint.

(Side note: it's a great pity that Swann's work has been nearly forgotten. He owed no debt to either Tolkien or Robert Howard, but drew most of his inspiration from Greco-Roman mythology.)

Another recommendation: Ariel, a book of the Change, by Steven Boyett. The laws of science change abruptly and horrifyingly, so that modern technology doesn't work but magic does, unicorns and griffins and dragons (clearly inspired by the book The Flight of Dragons reappear, etc. . . . but the author is very careful to show the ghastly destruction and human suffering this wreaks, and he does nothing to minimize or defend it. It's a ghastly catastrophe, and humans can only struggle to survive as best they can in the ruins of the old civilization. For me, this was really brought home when the hero finds the scattered remains of a jumbo jet, which crashed when the Change happened while it was in midair.

I think one reason so many of these stories take place in New York City or Los Angeles is the same reason most fiction these days seems based in those cities: it's where most of the writers live (myself included).