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Thread: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

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    Sundancer is online now Registered User Validated User
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    [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Recently, I've been in the mood for some Urban Fantasy.
    (Or Contemporary Fantasy, or whatever the current hip name is...)

    The thing is, my - admittedly somewhat limited - own experience with Urban Fantasy featuring female leads, combined with what I've read on various message boards, leads me to conclude that they tend to drift more towards the romance (or in prominent cases: porn) end of the spectrum.

    This is no doubt a gross and unjustified generalisation on my part, but what it comes down to is this: when I'm looking for some quick reads, I prefer books with male leads.

    The reason I ask here instead of browsing amazon or my local bookstores, is that I've already read a good amount of Urban Fantasy, so I know most (I guess) of the bigger names of the genre.
    I'm willing to be flexible on the genre definitions, i.e. a more fantastic or futuristic bent is fine, as long as the urban element is still prominent, like in the Vlad Taltos series, or the Garrett Files. (Except alternate history, I'm usually not big on that)

    Here's the list of what I've read and what I'd consider as close enough to Urban Fantasy to qualify for the purposes of this thread.

    Jim Butcher: Dresden Files.
    Steven Brust: Vlad Taltos.
    Mike Carey: Felix Castor books.
    Glen Cook: Garrett Files.
    Jasper Fforde: Nursery Crimes, but I didn't like the Thursday Next books.
    Neil Gaiman: American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere.
    Simom R. Green: Nighside books, Secret History books, Drinking Midnight Wine.
    Justin Gustainis: Quincey Morris - Black Magic Woman.
    John Levitt: Dog Days, New Tricks.
    Scott Lynch: I am aware of The Lies of Locke Lamorra, but I'm still debating if it's worth reading or not.
    Kelly McCullough: Webmage and its sequels.
    China Mieville: Perdido Street Station. I tried to read it twice and didn't get far, but the setting was cool.
    Terry Pratchett: Most of his books taking place in Ankh-Morpork.
    Martin Scott: The Thraxas books.
    Jonathan Stroud: I didn't like the Bartimaeus books. Bartimaeus himself was a fun character, but I didn't like the setting. This also means there is no need to mention Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
    Anton Strout: Dead to Me.
    Rob Thurman: the Cal Leandros books.
    Liz Williams: Inspector Chen.

    So...what remains ?

    P.S.
    To go off on a small tangent: Is there something like Urban Sci-Fi ? The category that would include Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Altered Carbon, Thirteen/Black Man, Mindstar Rising, is there a specific name for that genre ?

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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    You...you're seriously not familiar with the term "cyberpunk"?
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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Harry Potter

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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Charles Stross The Atrocity Archives and Jennifer Morgue. Basically Delta Green meets the British civil service.

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    Sundancer is online now Registered User Validated User
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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Quote Originally Posted by Axiomatic View Post
    You...you're seriously not familiar with the term "cyberpunk"?
    Well...yes, of course I am.
    It's just that I expect some cyber with that punk...and that said, Altered Carbon didn't really feel that punk-ish either.
    It may well be that my definition of cyberpunk is too narrow, but for me cyberpunk was always perfectly embodied by the cp2020 game: a product of the mentality of the 80s, with the loner-outlaws and obvious tech that doesn't even compare with what my cellphone can do.
    Now I will admit that Mindstar Rising does fit into the cyberpunk genre, and Blade Runner is often cited as one of the great cyberpunk movies, but the books of Richard Morgan don't fit that nicely, in my opinion.
    In any case, cyberpunk is not what I meant, at least not exactly.

    Quote Originally Posted by Adrian Werner View Post
    Harry Potter
    I must have missed that strong Urban element when I was reading the books...

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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    dracula

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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    John Crowley's Little, Big has a couple male protagonists -- also his Aegypt books, but I haven't figured out yet just how fantastical they are.
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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sundancer View Post
    To go off on a small tangent: Is there something like Urban Sci-Fi ? The category that would include Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Altered Carbon, Thirteen/Black Man, Mindstar Rising, is there a specific name for that genre?
    Tech-Noir? Although that's more a film thing.

    On the urban fantasy thing, try Jeff VanDerMeer, City of Saints and Madmen.

    And what about Sergei Lukyanenko's Nighwatch Series?

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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Quote Originally Posted by Wise One View Post
    Tech-Noir? Although that's more a film thing.
    I agree with the poster above that many cyberpunk novel use tropes for Hardboiled novels.
    Altered Carbon is certianly a cyberpunk novel while DADoES is what could be proto-cyber-punk (similarly to many other PKD works).

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    Re: [Books] Looking for Urban Fantasy with male protagonists.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kreuzritter View Post
    dracula
    Fred Saberhagen's Dracula novels. Turns out the Count isn't some epitome of evil, he's just a guy. Well, not just a guy. He's a tough, ruthless Wallachian soldier/aristocrat from bloody-minded times, and he's lived five centuries past his death as a vampire, but mostly he's just a guy trying to live his life. Of course, when your Dracula, just living your life entails things like countering Morgana Le Fay's plots, retrieving a stolen portrait that Leonardo painted of one of your wives, risking your life to meet a centuries-old obligation, and tangling with a pissed-off crocodile-god who wants the Philosopher's Stone.

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