Classics/groundbreaking stuff or the newer, more successful works that rode the trend?
Absolute agreement on Charles de Lint -- I think he's pretty much mandatory. :)
ETA: Also Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, if you're talking foundational works!
EETA (sorry!): Maybe Gael Baudino's Gossamer Axe? That was one of the earliest modern city/Faerie crossovers I remember coming across, and it's got a strong focus on modern culture vs. Sidhe/trad Irish culture.
EEETA (man, I should just stop and collect my thoughts before I do this, huh? *grin*): Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere! Doesn't get more quintessentially urban fantasy than that, and it's modestly early for the genre.
I'm much more concerned with the earlier classics...i think i have a pretty good handle on the newer works. So if you have any more ideas on classic books fell free to post them!
Emma Bull's book, i keep coming across that one, probably means i should read it.. and yes Neil Gaiman is definitely a must!
Oooh! Oooh! Rosemary Edghill's Twelve Treasures series -- bonus SCA mentions! :) Not really *classics*, though, maybe...
Some other older candidates (I think of the peak of the first wave of this stuff as being the late 80s, early 90s): Tanya Huff's Blood Price series - vampire detective, but predates almost everything else in that field - or else her Keeper's Chronicles, depending on what niche you need
Martin Millar, Good Fairies of New York - people either love or hate this
Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic - a true "mainstream" example, never once shelved in the SF section
Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale - another mainstream success
Pamela Dean, Tam Lin - this one's a little odd, it's set on a modern college campus, but it's a campus based on one in Minnesota so not particularly *urban* per se -- definitely modern life vs. Shakespearean elf life, though. :) Worth reading.
Peter S. Beagle, Folk of the Air - loosely SCA-inspired
Oh, and I forgot about Sean Stewart! A Perfect Circle, maybe, or Mockingbird. He's newer, but absolutely brilliant, and I'm quite sure people will be reading his stuff 20-30 years down the road or more.
Also, I forgot to mention you should look out for "magical realism" as a useful search term -- a lot of what I would consider high-end urban fantasy got labelled that so as not to get stuffed into the SF ghetto. :P
I went to amazon and Sean Steward does look interesting! I think i will have to check that out:)
Yeah- i'm going to run into a a problem with terminology and genre definition soon I think that i will need to sort out.
Magical Realism, Mythic Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy...and there are probably other terms that i am missing.
It makes it worse when people classify things incorrectly. A fellow librarian gave me some "magic realism"/slipstream to read (angela carter and Kelly Linke) and it is very different from most of these other books. VERY Weird stuff... not comfortable and familiar like normal fantasy!
Thanks for the additional suggestions BTW, a few were on my short list, but others were not:)
Yeah, it's tough. :( I would definitely call Crowley's Little, Big a classic, and it counts as Magical Realism, Mythic Fiction, *and* Contemporary Fantasy... but is it Urban? I dunno about that.
Absolute agreement on Charles de Lint -- I think he's pretty much mandatory. :)
ETA: Also Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, if you're talking foundational works!
EETA (sorry!): Maybe Gael Baudino's Gossamer Axe? That was one of the earliest modern city/Faerie crossovers I remember coming across, and it's got a strong focus on modern culture vs. Sidhe/trad Irish culture.
EEETA (man, I should just stop and collect my thoughts before I do this, huh? *grin*): Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere! Doesn't get more quintessentially urban fantasy than that, and it's modestly early for the genre.
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Emma Bull's book, i keep coming across that one, probably means i should read it.. and yes Neil Gaiman is definitely a must!
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Some other older candidates (I think of the peak of the first wave of this stuff as being the late 80s, early 90s):
Tanya Huff's Blood Price series - vampire detective, but predates almost everything else in that field - or else her Keeper's Chronicles, depending on what niche you need
Martin Millar, Good Fairies of New York - people either love or hate this
Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic - a true "mainstream" example, never once shelved in the SF section
Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale - another mainstream success
Pamela Dean, Tam Lin - this one's a little odd, it's set on a modern college campus, but it's a campus based on one in Minnesota so not particularly *urban* per se -- definitely modern life vs. Shakespearean elf life, though. :) Worth reading.
Peter S. Beagle, Folk of the Air - loosely SCA-inspired
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Also, I forgot to mention you should look out for "magical realism" as a useful search term -- a lot of what I would consider high-end urban fantasy got labelled that so as not to get stuffed into the SF ghetto. :P
Reply
Yeah- i'm going to run into a a problem with terminology and genre definition soon I think that i will need to sort out.
Magical Realism, Mythic Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy...and there are probably other terms that i am missing.
It makes it worse when people classify things incorrectly. A fellow librarian gave me some "magic realism"/slipstream to read (angela carter and Kelly Linke) and it is very different from most of these other books. VERY Weird stuff... not comfortable and familiar like normal fantasy!
Thanks for the additional suggestions BTW, a few were on my short list, but others were not:)
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