Kit's Favorite Urban Fantasy Books

When most people think of "fantasy," the first thing to spring to mind is hobbits and elves marching across an epic landscape eerily reminiscent of New Zealand. That's what's usually called "high fantasy," where you've got a completely different world, usually with a less than technologically advanced society.

Urban fantasy, meanwhile, usually takes place in a modern-day world very similar to this one, right down to New York, the United States of America, London, or a city that would fit right into our modern world. In some, like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, an entire alternate history is created and vampires and werewolves are public knowledge and fully incorporated into society. In others, like Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series, the masses have no idea anything supernatural really exists.

Examples of Urban Fantasy Movies and TV Series:

• Supernatural - a TV series about the Winchester brothers as they fight all sorts of monster and demons.
• Being Human - a TV series about a vampire, werewolf, and ghost trying to live like normal people.
• Underworld Trilogy of Movies - An elite vampire enforcer gets entangled in a plot to create a vampire/werewolf hybrid.
• Lost Girl - A TV series about a woman who discovers she's a Fae and fights to keep her independence from the Fae Courts.

Whatever form it takes, urban fantasy is full of fascinating characters, complex relationships, and the page-turning whirlwinds that come from really good stories.

• Main Character. This is probably the most important part for me. Characters make the story - they're what connect with the reader. Not the uber-amazing plot, not the jaw-droppingly amazing descriptions of magic and mayhem. If it doesn't have a main character that I love, that I want to root for and stick with for the long haul, I'm probably not going to stick with the series too long. Heck, if I hate the main character enough, I probably won't make it all the way through the book (this goes double for books written in the first person, where you are literally trapped inside the character's head).
  
  Me, I like 'em snarky, like Tony from the Smoke series or Cal from his books. A sharp wit goes a long way for making a good story a truly enjoyable romp. Heck, I'll even put up with a hardy helping of woe-is-me angst if they make it entertaining.



• Story. If I care about a character enough to worry about what's happening to them, something needs to happen to them. I like action. Action makes the world go round and gives my little darlings something to react to. More than that, though, it has to make sense in the long run. I don't want to be wondering why I just wasted my time reading about a character sitting around, watching TV.
  
  Give me a good plot. Give me mystery, intrigue, and some butt-kicking action. Give me just enough balls to juggle that it doesn't make my head spin, and then make it all come together in the end. All the books on my list do this, but each in their own way. The Smoke books are pretty straight-forward while the Cal books and Patty Brigg's work like to add in more mystery and more threads to follow, but all of them typically wind it all together beautifully.
  
  And finally, give me something new. That doesn't mean putting together something so drastically different that I'm left wishing for a handy guidebook to the author's brain. It just means having that special twist. My favorite book from the Smoke series is about a homicidal haunted house - about as cliche as you can get, but it's entirely what the author does with it that makes it so great.
  
  Bottom line, I want enough happening that I don't get bored and move on to more thrilling pastures.



• Tension. This is what kicks in if a book has great characters in a great plot. It's what makes me worry about the characters. And it's what makes me keep turning those pages and wishing I read faster.
  
  Tension can come from all sorts of places, and my favorite books have it coming from more than one source. It's where all those little subplots come in. Sure, Mercy's got a dead werewolf on her doorstep, but she's also got the Alpha of the local pack waging an emotional battle with her ex-but-maybe-not-for-long-boyfriend from her tumultuous teens, plus her own inner desire to stay independent. Cal's got his father's family trying to get their claws on him, along with werewolves, vampires, bog monsters, and just about anything else you can think of, but he's also trying to keep his brother alive, hold down a job, and figure things out with his would-be girlfriend. Even Tony has to deal with his ex, his job as low man on the totem pole, and his crush on his decidedly straight love interest on top of all the supernatural shenanigans going on around him.
  
  Now, here's the important part - all that tension has to be there for a reason. If you're going to involve Mercy's lovelife or devote a lot of time to Anna and Charles negotiating their relationship, then it better have some impact on the plot, and it better feel like it's part of the cohesive whole. If it feels like it was just tossed in because hey, complicated love lives are fun, and then attached to the plot by a generous helping of duct tape as opposed to being fully woven in to the tapestry of the story, it's not going to make my favorites list.



• Humor. You might not think humor's that important, but it is. You see, I read to escape. To have a wild romp through the pages that leaves me wanting more. I want to have fun, even if it's while the main character is being put through the literary wringer. There's a thrill in watching your favorite character stumble through the challenges life throws at them, and in wondering how in the world they're going to get out of this one, and in sympathizing when they have the inevitable realization that yeah, their life kinda sucks.
  
  But when it just drudges on and on and the characters are getting more and more worn down and life looks bleak and hopeless and I just can't see how a new day will dawn or start pondering the benefits of hari-kiri... Well, you've lost me. I don't want to be depressed, and I don't want to sit through the MC's endless wangst. It's where the snark comes in. I like humor, even dark humor. I like when the other characters won't put up with it. And I like it when characters don't take themselves too seriously, even when their lives are dead serious.