Good Urban Fantasy

GoldRanger

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
I'm a big fan of Urban Fantasy, I can connect and enjoy it in a way I kind of never could with "classic" high fantasy.

Unfortunately, a big chunk of the genre has been coopted by a young-adult bent aimed specifically at teenage female readers, a-la Twilight. It's not necessarily bad of course, teenage females deserve reading/watching material too. In fact I did enjoy some stuff that are aimed at that demographic myself, on occasion, and sometimes it's high quality stuff and has its own merit. The problem is that so much of the genre is aimed at that demographic that it's overwhelming and hard to find anything more to my tastes. I think most males and older adults experienced this when looking for quality urban fantasy.

Even ignoring the demographic issue, a lot of UF is just plain crap, like Sturgeon's Law on steroids.

So I want this thread dedicated to recommending and discussing good and enjoyable UF (of course "good and enjoyable" is subjective and will vary from person to person. That is very much fine).

I'll start us off with a few recommendations:

Games

1) Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.

This old PC game is what brought me initially into the genre. Really really cool first/third person RPG game, you play as a vampire and there's a lot of character customization, a lot of lore from the World of Darkness tabletop RPG game it's based on, a compelling plot and characters you grow to love and despise.

It's probably in my top 3 favorite games of all time, a huge recommendation from me.

2) Magical Diary.

This is one of those games that is aimed at teenage girls, but I don't care, I love it. It's a visual novel with simple graphics and little animation, yet it draws you in both with the setting and the mechanics.

The setting is the old Harry Potter twist with a "magical school" (which I really like, but find disappointing and somehow lackluster in Harry Potter itself), where you play a newly admitted girl who has to go to classes, learn magic, pass awesome creative tests using the spells you learned.

Seriously, the test mechanic is amazing, it's essentially an escape room with multiple creative paths to get out with the spell arsenal you amassed. And the spells you have depend on what classes you decide to attend in between the tests.

There's also a vague plot going on (although it's not very strong), and you meet a lot of interesting characters and learn a lot of original lore about the world as you progress through the game.

There are also multiple romance options, if that's your thing (no 18+ stuff though).

Truly, this is a hidden gem that I recommend to anyone despite the "Twilight/Harry Potter crossover vibes" it might give off.

Books

1) Dresden Files (Jim Butcher)

I don't believe it's necessary to add much more. This famous UF series (currently 15 novels and 2 anthologies and still going) is the king of book UF bar none. It's the bar by which all UF is measured by, and an absolute must read for anyone interested in the genre.

2) Alex Verus (Benedict Jacka)

A UF series by Benedict Jacka, recommended by Jim Butcher himself, the writer of the Dresden Files.

Follows a mage with the ability to see the future as he's trying to survive the intrigues of the ruthless mage society. Not as good as the Dresden Files, but I recommend it nonetheless.

3) The Magicians trilogy (Lev Grossman)

Very good read, not for the faint of heart as characters can die here, or get addicted to drugs, or get raped etc. It's a dark series that takes common Harry Potter and Narnia tropes and twist them into unforgiving hyperrealism (that, surprisingly enough, isn't always as grimdark as I made it sound). Very recommended for people who are not squeamish (and who can stand the sometimes idiotic main character).

4) Amber Chronicles (Roger Zelazny)

It's not exactly urban fantasy, it's more like epic fantasy with interdimensional travel to modern Earth at some points, but I'm still including it. The first 5 books are awesome, while the second series, also 5 books, is considerably worse off (I never finished it).

I hugely recommend this series, just pick up the first book, Nine Princes in Amber, it's amazing.

TV Series

1) True Blood.

It's generally pretty decent up to about season 4-ish, where it takes a nosedive. There are a lot of supernatural stuff going on and it can be quite brutal and bloody, but copious romance elements are also present. Some characters are insufferable jerks, so beware. Overall, a mild recommendation, check out at least 4-5 episodes to see if it grows on you.

2) Blade.

Yep, surprise! Blade had a TV series in... 2006 I think. And it was much better IMO than what IMDB will have you believe.

Unfortunately it got cancelled mid-season, so there's that.

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I believe that's enough for now. I hope you guys share some more awesome urban fantasy stuff with us all!
 
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Sunglasses After Dark (The Sonja Blue chronicles). Delicate maids should not read it... But Nancy Collins is the Master of the genre and sadly neglected. Her world is a lovecraftian descent into a punk rocker’s madcap nightmare, of The Hidden World, non-euclidean geometry, possession and rebirth—and an unstoppable killer fully intent on avenging herself upon the vampire who left her trapped between two worlds.

Accept no substitutes.
 
Constantine is not a bad movie for the Urban Fantasy. As is Bright. Lord of the Rings meets Training Day is certainly a unique concept and though it has flaws its definitely a fun film.
 
For books, I've real liked the Greywalker series. The first book is kinda so-so, but that's typical since most series have to do all the set up and have an actual plot in the first book, and that's tough, but grey Walker manages. It's also got a heavy focus on ghosts instead of vampires and werewolves and the like (granted, it still has vampires and they do a lot, but it's not like Dresden files or WoD were they show up constantly), which is a nice shift of focus one a genre element that's usually kept in the background.

Gaming wise, I've been playing Hellsign a lot and cautiously recommend it. Right now it's still in early access and several features aren't in place yet, but they have a solid early game coded in and I trust the rest will be up to that standard. It's basically got three core gameplay systems, all of which interlock nicely. The combat/RPG is your standard 3rd person isometric shooter, which is functional if a bit clunky (which I like because it keeps the horror element present, you can fight the monsters but it's not a cakewalk), and it has some elements that I think are designed to work with that horror element. For example, you don't auto reload, so if you don't keep track of shots fired or panic, you can end up uselessly clicking the fire button as something chases you. You can also set various traps and lures to help even the odds.

Next you have the investigation system, which is basically Ghost Hunters: the game. Same tools they use (emf reader, microphone, uv light, thermal camera), which you use to find clues and signs that you can use to sell or in crafting, and a few other things. Each tool has a different mechanic behind it's use, and it takes a bit of skill to figure it out. But you're rarely safe when doing so, the houses you search (currently the only environment) are infested with various monsters and cryptids.


And then from ghost hunting we get into ghost Hunting, were you use the signs you collect in a given site to summon and hopefully kill a highly dangerous monster, and to uncover it's weaknesses, powers, and tactics. But it's in that order, so there's a tradeoff between clearing a house to get enough signs to get the info you need (but losing ammo and maybe health in the process), or grabbing just enough to summon the monster and figuring it out mid fight. Much like regular combat, you can set special traps to even the playing field.


GoldRanger said:
2) Alex Verus (Benedict Jacka)
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That reminds me, I need to get around to reading the rest of those books.
 
A couple more book series recommendations:

Monster Hunter International (Larry Correia) - I've only read the first book of the series for now, but it was awesome. A bunch of armed to the teeth mercenaries square off against every supernatural threat imaginable, with a pretty good and epic plot to boot.

Necroscope (Brian Lumley) - finished the first two books thus far, and it's awesome. Psychic agents from different countries during the Cold War era square off against each other and supernatural beings (mostly vampires, who I assure you are very far from sparkling). The protagonist has the power to communicate with the dead at will.

Magic Ex Libris (Jim C. Hines) - the first book is Libriomancer. A very cool series that is based on mages with the power to take a book and use it as a portal to retrieve any object the book described. It has some limitations, so it's only partially as broken as you'd assume. Plenty of pop culture references (a very early scene has the protagonist retrieve a hand phaser from a Star Trek book, for example), and generally a decent story.
 
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That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.

Ahem... resurrected this ancient thread since, well, I wanted to discuss it more, and I think it's better to use an existing one than make an identical new one (which is why, I guess, there's no rule against thread necro-ing. If a mod frowns upon this, let me know please so I can avoid stuff like this in the future).

Anywho, just wanted to add an excellent game to the gaming category, Unavowed. It's an amazing point and click game with an awesome setting, awesome characters and gorgeous pixel-art graphics. And it's Urban Fantasy through and through.

You play as a person who spent the last year being possessed by an evil spirit, and now that you're free you must undo the damage that spirit/"you" had done, with the help of the Unavowed, an organization that is dedicated to protecting the mortal world from supernatural threats. Only the threats are starting to mount, and the organization is stretched awfully thin. It all occurs in NYC.
 
I am not much of anime fan, but short series Read or Die is one of the few I like and would fit the criteria. Special agent, who is a bookworm with paper manipulating powers has to stop the bad guy who is using enhanced clones of historical persons to carry out his plan to kill off the humanity.
 
PsihoKekec said:
I am not much of anime fan, but short series Read or Die is one of the few I like and would fit the criteria. Special agent, who is a bookworm with paper manipulating powers has to stop the bad guy who is using enhanced clones of historical persons to carry out his plan to kill off the humanity.
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I watched that one, good series.
 
tvtropes.org

The Grimnoir Chronicles

The Grimnoir Chronicles is an Alternate History fantasy taking place in the early 1930s. Sometime in the 1800s magic appeared in the world, giving a small fraction of the population (the Actives) one of a standard set of super-powers, such as …
tvtropes.org tvtropes.org

Larry Correia’s Grimnoir Chronicles

This world is one that was like ours but with the advent of a number of people gaining “Magic” and to varying degrees STILL following IRL history with changes like Berlin being a walled off city

Also, the German Kaiser executing a certain piece of shit with a stupid moustache who read Marx and who was also proposed to breed magicals like animals and use them as tools.

The main villains are the Japanese who are lead by a mysterious figure known as The Chairman who “serves” The Emperor of Japan.

But let’s just say there’s more at stake than being conquered by the Imperium

MC is a former soldier turned prisoner turned private detective with Gravity Powers, he’s also very Badass, even figured out how to make his gravity powers almost like the series’ resident telekinetics by studying science in prison
 
I enjoyed A Discovery of Witches. It’s a British show named after books called the All Souls trilogy. I enjoyed it in part because I’m a White Wolf World of Darkness fan and the show captured certain elements of the WoD, including the different supernatural creature types scheming against each other. It does have some supernatural romance elements though, including the silly aspects, but other aspects of the show are enjoyable.
 
Is Shadowrun considered Urban Fantasy? If so I cannot recommend the three Harebrained Schemes games enough. They're all excellent, even if you sometimes feel steered into being a Decker to get the full experience.

And speaking of Dresden Files I'd kill for a spin-off about Bill and Ramirez pulling all the weight of being North America's only Grey Wardens with Harry haring off to do whatever he does all the time.
 
GoldRanger said:
3) The Magicians trilogy (Lev Grossman)

Very good read, not for the faint of heart as characters can die here, or get addicted to drugs, or get raped etc. It's a dark series that takes common Harry Potter and Narnia tropes and twist them into unforgiving hyperrealism (that, surprisingly enough, isn't always as grimdark as I made it sound). Very recommended for people who are not squeamish (and who can stand the sometimes idiotic main character).
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I'm sorry, but this one is a head-scratcher for me. While I confess I haven't read the books or seen the television show version of it, mostly for reasons that should shortly be made clear, I have read some summaries. And from what I've read, it seems to have a rather wokist underlying flavor to the story and setting. Or at least the television show does, which isn't really a surprise.
 
DarthOne said:
I'm sorry, but this one is a head-scratcher for me. While I confess I haven't read the books or seen the television show version of it, mostly for reasons that should shortly be made clear, I have read some summaries. And from what I've read, it seems to have a rather wokist underlying flavor to the story and setting. Or at least the television show does, which isn't really a surprise.
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The books have nothing wokist about them that I've seen, not even remotely. The TV series is an extremely loose adaptation that barely keeps anything from the books to be honest.
 
Robert Lynn Asprin's Dragons series (Dragons Wild, Dragons Luck, Dragons Deal and Dragons Run). A collage student and amateur con artist is contacted by agents of David Icke's Shapeshifting Lizard People Who Run The World conspiracy. Turns out, they're actually dragons in the classic mythological mold, he's unknowingly one of them and the human agents of the conspiracy who contacted him want to use him as a puppet to increase their own standing. Also there's a guy called Saint George who's either a serial killer with the absolute worst possible luck in picking targets who won't motivate a response or a freedom fighter who knows about the dragons.

Same-Day Delivery by Desmond Warzel. An ancient evil undead wizard in the robert e howard mold is employed by a perfectly legitimate group of businessmen to magically teleport packages for free instantaneous shipping. He knew all along that his coworkers were the mafia and he'd been smuggling something, what he didn't know was that wasn't the only thing they were putting over him, some of the packages were actually explosives teleported directly into the lairs of rival mobsters and he was intended as the fall guy.

The Magician and Laplace's Demon by Tom Crosshill. Magic can only take place in the absence of credible observation, so in the modern world of recording devices everywhere, it's been growing steadily weaker for generations, culminating in the creation of an Artificial Superintelligence whose infallible memory and superhuman technological capacity spell the inevitable complete destruction of the hidden magical world. AKA, starts as jk rowling, turns into vernor vinge halfway through.

Nameless by Grant Morrison. A dinosaur-killer asteroid is detected with only days before impact. The only hope of deflection relies on Outside Context means, magic.

Injection by Warren Ellis. A think tank of expies of characters from popular british adventure fiction (Quatermass, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond and the Doctor) decide the world is doomed barring an Outside Context intervention and create one, the Injection, which is either a summoned demon, a viral Artificial Superintelligence which thinks it's a summoned demon or a computer virus with cognition provided by summoning demons with specific criteria so they have to answer what they genuinely think would be the best coarse of action in any given situation to fulfill the virus' programmed goals and taking their advice (they themselves can't decide and they built the blasted thing) and release it into the internet, were to the surprise of absolutely nobody, it goes berserk. In-universe, nobody can tell if they're dealing with a hidden magical world or an insane AI that's big on LARPing.
 
Bassoe said:
Same-Day Delivery by Desmond Warzel. An ancient evil undead wizard in the robert e howard mold is employed by a perfectly legitimate group of businessmen to magically teleport packages for free instantaneous shipping. He knew all along that his coworkers were the mafia and he'd been smuggling something, what he didn't know was that wasn't the only thing they were putting over him, some of the packages were actually explosives teleported directly into the lairs of rival mobsters and he was intended as the fall guy.
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Just read this. Don't spoil it for yourself. It's good and very short.
 
Add Jeffrey Thomas' Strange Case of Crazy Joe Gallo to the list of freely available urban fantasy short stories online. A bankrupt drug addict barters away a very special book to his dealer, with unfortunate consequences for the organized crime behind said dealer.
 
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