The Big Idea: Nicole Peter and Tempest Rising

[foxfirefey]

So, John Scalzi has a feature on his blog called "The Big Idea". It's a great way to get really tantalizing previews of books you might want to read--and is heavily skewed toward SF/F genre books, too, although it isn't exclusive. A whole site dedicated to the concept is in the works, too.

The latest Big Idea by Nicole Peter has a lot of interesting things to say about urban fantasy, to wit:

In a time of chaos and uncertainty, is it any wonder that urban fantasy, the genre of the contemporary fairy tale, is on the rise? After all, urban fantasy offers a vision of the world in which traditional evils...are often times merely misunderstood. Meanwhile, traditional heroes...are often revealed to be sanctimonious, narrow-minded, and murderous zealots. The binaries neatly dividing good and evil are blurred in this genre, and the underlying message in many urban fantasies seems to be that the individual must make his or her own choices: that we must rely on our own experiences and intellect in a world that wants to brand outsiders as evil, to force ideological dichotomies on reality, and to make soldiers of us all.

Are you an urban fantasy fan (disregarding urban fantasy that you don't like and mainly considering that which you do, if any)? If so, what draws you to the genre? If not, what repels you?

Comments

[corinthian]

I'm a huge Urban Fantasy fan. One of the things I enjoy most about the genre as that it tends not to feel as bogged down as some more traditional fantasy. In a fantastical world there is often a lot of world building activities and details that need to be inserted, sometimes at the cost of flow or other enjoyable things. It's more "real" in the aspect that most Urban Fantasy I read tends to be like fictional only a step to the side. (I read a lot of Newford novels and such).

While traditional or high fantasy doesn't exclude the gray in between it often seems like it falls prey to that. Urban fantasy, for some reason, seems to more innately fall in between the high morality and dark evil.

[draigwen]

I'm not sure I've actually ever read urban fantasy, but more because I tend to stick to authors I know (and that's simply because I don't read much so I have enough trouble keeping up to date with my favourite authors).

That said, some of my favourite high fantasy books have a similar take on traditional heroes versus misunderstood 'evil'. Perhaps not in quite the same way, but I'd definitely say my least favourite high fantasy books are those where the 'heroes' are typical good guys.

[aphenine]

I'm not entirely sure I know what Urban Fantasy is, but if it's what I think it is (China Mieville, Scar Night, gas lamp/steam-punk), then I like the fact that it's very different to traditional fantasy, in a way what corinthian said about being a step to the side. It's really refreshing to read stuff where the background world has technology and big cities and it's a nice rest from all the traditional stuff.

What I don't like is the way that Urban fantasy tends to try to be "edgy". I like what draigwen said about how good fantasy tends to stay away from dichotomes anyway. I just started rereading The Wheel of Time (just finished book one again) and I remember how one of the reasons I love that series is precisely because there is no dichotomy where the factions are concerned, and you have the Children of Light who are evil fanatics going around killing people "in the name of the Light", while the heroes are led by a mage-type, who most people regard as evil.

If anything, I've found that urban fantasy tends to have its own simplifying dichotomy, between the individual and the collective and often ends up being utterly morally nihilistic to the point of *headdesk*ing. Thinking back, while I haven't read much, so my opinion could be utterly wrong, the ones I did read never really had positive collectivist groups. If there was a religion, it would be composed solely of zealots, if there was a government, it would be corrupt and staffed with people who were interested solely in lining their own pockets. If I lived in that kind of world, I'd be morally ambiguous too and paranoid like hell.

[ex_pippin880]

While some people do see urban fantasy as Mieville-type confined-to-a-city secondary world stories, most people see it as fiction set on a contempory Earth with fantastical elements (e.g. Dresden Files, Animorphs).

Definitions in fiction can be really annoying sometimes.

[aphenine]

Thanks for the clarification.

[holyschist]

Sort of. I love the concept. I've found zero authors who really implement it the way I'd like to see it implemented (uh, well, Terry Pratchett has some novels in an urban setting, but it's a fantasy-urban setting, so while it's got part of what appeals to me about the concept, it's a quite different beast).

I like the concept of drawing upon myths and reinterpreting them into a modern setting, and I like genre-crossing (urban fantasy often has a strong mystery/police procedural element). I went through a sexy vampire phase (who didn't?) and I think urban fantasy offers a great opportunity to turn that on its head, or at least play with the concept--sadly, it rarely does. I think werewolves are deeply compelling, but handled badly pretty much across the board (I'm still looking for a werewolf novel where the werewolves actually act something like wolves and have a wolf-like social structure).

The other thing about urban fantasy is it provides the opportunity to bring in the multicultural, multiethnic aspects of modern city life that are frequently missing from traditional fantasy. Unfortunately, the majority of urban fantasy writers are still white, so when they do bring in stuff from outside the European mythic tradition, they often handle it shallowly or treat it like exotic window dressing.

I also like that urban fantasy is often about mostly-ordinary people, or people trying to be ordinary--much traditional fantasy is about heroes and kings and people who are god-touched, and that gets tiring after a while.

[lea_hazel]

I like urban fantasy sometimes, especially because it is almost impossible to get adult heroines in traditional fantasy. When I want my heroes to be grown-ups, I usually turn to the urban contemporary set.

[ex_pippin880]

I read lots of UF when I was a teenager, because it shamefully took me a while to realise that the non-YA section contained more than just non-fiction or crime novels, but I don't read a lot now (except for superhero comics :D) because I find it much more difficult to find UF stuff that sounds interesting than finding interesting new weird stuff or whatever. (I am, however, getting hideously fussy about my reading materials.)

That's an interesting thought, though it applies to a lot of recent fantasy, not just UF, imo.

[anthimeria]

I love urban fantasy--which I define as fantasy set in a world recognizably based on our current world (so I include both worlds where magic is "out" or known to the wide world, and worlds like Harry Potter, where it's hidden). I think this genre could use a lot more writers and perspectives, but when I want a kick-ass heroine, it's one of the first genres I turn to (it and YA!).

I like the mystery tendencies, I like the variety of characters available (good UF should have all genders, sexualities, races and creeds--or at least, acknowledge their existence), I like the dialogue and sarcasm that often populate it. There is often a tone of "us against the world" that I enjoy.

Urban fantasy isn't a perfect genre (when you find that, tell me), but I almost always enjoy reading it. It's a genre where, if I put a book down, it's not likely to be because of genre-related issues.