What brought you to urban fantasy?

[yasminegalenorn]

I came to urban fantasy via my love for SF/Fantasy.  I always wanted to be a fantasy/SF author, and I grew up on Bradbury, Pohl, Asmiov, Clarke, and moved into Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, Joan D. Vinge, Greg Bear, Tanith Lee.  And then I began moving into Charles de Lint, Anne Rice, etc.  After awhile I just shifted into urban fantasy

Comments

[tmthomas]

I think my first exposure was C.E. Murphy's first Walker Papers novel. And I was sort of embarrassed when I learned that Luna was a Harlequin imprint, like it wasn't something a boy should read. I'd just read through all the traditional science fiction in the tiny rural public library where I was living and I'd soured on epic fantasy. The mix of fantasy elements with a real world setting appealed. I'd already read a lot of Anne Rice, but for some reason that was "vampire fiction" or some other personal category and it wasn't until Murphy that I even thought of this as a separate literary subgenre.

Then I found some other science fiction that occupied me, and then I moved and didn't read anything non-academic for a while, but somehow I drifted back. The "real world" setting is the big hook for me.

[elfmama]

I also came to UF through SF/Fantasy and am still a huge fan of classic style fantasy, but I read almost everything. Even nonfiction!

I guess my first exposure to UF was Harry Potter. I loved how Rowlings made everyday things magical-those perpetually broken down phone booths are actually portals! Those strange cat ladies are witches trying to keep us Muggles away! We now call the odd house with the three broken down cars at the end our block "the wizard family."

Anyway, that just clicked for me because I've always been so ready to believe in magic.

Great Question

[ewokallie]

I came to UF through horror. When I was younger it started off with Stephen King's Carrie, R.L. Stein, and Christopher Pike. Also picked up YA author L.J. Smith books when they first came out along with Blood and Chocolate. I didn't hit urban fantasy till I read Laurell K. Hamilton, Tanya Huff, and Mercades Lackey. That's when I discovered this is what I wanted to read forever. :0) If there was going to be magic in the world (for realz) this was what I needed to read.

[oneminutemonkey]

I'm trying to use my mental WayBack Machine. And I'd have to say that it was probably something in the teens/YA section that opened the door for me, way back when I was young. Diane Duane's So You Want To Be A Wizard was an early one. The early Tanya Huffs, the early Mercedes Lackeys, Charles de Lint, Emma Bull's War For The Oaks, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, those were all things that solidified my love of the genre.

I remember the LJ Smith books (the Secret Circle) as well.

Do I remember a specific book/author/instance? Afraid not. There've been way too many books over way too many years, so apparently, it just... happened.

[jessaslade]

I read a lot of fantasy as a kid, but I'd say Ann Maxwell's Fire Dancer was the first SFR I found. I mourn that the series ended after three books without the romance between the main characters resolved. But I still recommend them; they stood the test of time, I think.