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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