Why must "urban fantasy" make me sadface?

[celestineangel]

So, having heard good things about them (in a comment in this comm, actually, I think), I picked up the first book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, Moon CalledI liked it. I liked Mercy as a character, I liked the story, I really enjoyed the description of werewolf society and "dominance games" and the political situation between fae

Comments

Potential Spoiler

[teahound]

Don't worry, the ending of Iron Kissed makes it all better. <3 I won't say WHO she chooses, but I'll just say the matter is solved in a pretty satisfactory manner.

I will agree on the covers though; so disappointing. She has ONE tattoo, cover-makers, not 8 billion. The covers just keep getting worse. :T

Edit: Oh, and so help me but I'd KILL for a good urb-fantasy book/series where romance doesn't play much of a part. I was looking for some new, interesting series and they ALL seemed to have some variation of, 'and as if this weren't enough, Main Character also has to ward off the advances of Sexy Random Person, who has more of a past than they let on.' Whyyyyyy. ;;

Re: Potential Spoiler

[cyranothe2nd]

Have you read 'Kitty and the Midnight Hour?' The sequels suck but I really liked this book, mostly because the main character is this submissive, scared female and makes this journey towards kickass, all by getting rid of a guy...it's pretty satisfying.

Re: Potential Spoiler

[teahound]

I remember reading Kitty a few years ago but being unimpressed - I'm contemplating giving her another go though, since once I finish the Mercy Thompson series I'll need to find new books to read on break at work.

Re: Potential Spoiler

[czol]

Yeah, I've found I've stopped reading much genre fiction nowadays, simply because of this. I'll pick up a book & read the blurb, & the setup/plot sounds so cool... & then I get to the last few sentences of it & find a reference to the protagonist having a "complex personal life" or something about an attraction to another character getting in the way, implying that that is a subplot, but I'll just KNOW that the romance angle will take over the whole damn thing & the mystery/fighting demons/magic will be window dressing for the romantic angst. I want to read about kickass chicks doin' it for themselves, not Bridget Jones with vampires!

[elialshadowpine]

Reading that thread summarizes a lot of my frustrations with the urban fantasy genre. I adore urban fantasy but arrrrrrrgh.

[celestineangel]

Yeeeaaaaahhh.

And see, I could actually handle the behavior of the werewolf guys IF Mercy handled them differently. IF she had a spine like she did in the first book, IF she stood up and told the both of them to knock it off and back the fuck up. I mean--~~**SPOILER**~~ she kills a werewolf in the first book with only her teeth! Newbie, maybe, but she still did it!~~**END SPOILER**~~ So how much danger from them can she really be in except oh now she's the potential girlfriend which obviously strips her of all her power. Even she seems to think this.

Because IF Mercy were to step up and actually be the strong female character Briggs obviously thinks she's writing, then the behavior of all the men supposedly in love with her or otherwise after her would be commentary, and not simply moronic.

[intertribal]

IDK, I've heard things go rather downhill with Iron Kissed.

[celestineangel]

D:

Damn.

Two differing opinions on Iron Kissed here. I'll finished reading it before I make mine (I bought the damn thing, after all).

This is so disappointing, because the non-"romantic" portions of the plot are entertaining.

[intertribal]

Hey, don't take my word for it, since I haven't read any of them - I just remember really long articles expressing great disappointment over what happens in Iron Kissed from a feminist perspective. I don't want to spell it out for you since you're reading it, but if you've read the link above then maybe you've already figured it out. Apparently a lot of people quit the series after that book, so I just thought I'd warn you.

[celestineangel]

Well, unless it's pretty spectacular, I plan to stop reading after this book anyway, so... XD

[future_guardian]

I gave up on this series after the third book, not because I didn't like it (to be honest, this is one urban fantasy series where the female lead doesn't make me want to chunk my book/ereader into the nearest wall) but because of the way the books were published. The publishing company was all "Yeah, we're publishing hardcover first, and then you all have to wait for another full year to maybe get the mass market." Thanks a lot, publishing company! That, and on a lot of urban fantasy blog websites where there were "Vote for your favorite couple" polls, this book was in competition with the worst examples of the genre. So, not much choice and I found it hard to trust the blogggers' opinions when this was the only book with a "good" relationship (actually not sure is relationship is good because it's been a good three years since I read any of the books).