I think I sort of understand when I read an agent asking for "Urban Fantasy and Light Sci Fi" (or even "I want hard-hitting, hard Sci-Fi and hard -boiled Urban fantasy, but it has to happen on Earth. I don't care if I have to toss my hard cookies as long as it happens on a hard object that is definitely the Earth").
Sometimes a little light romance is also suggested.
Now comes the hard part:
Mulling this over, I wonder what might be too heavy for these lighter versions of the genre. Apparently "hard and light" would be okay in many cases. And "hard, light and on Earth and Urban" would be even better.
I like to think my own oeuvres (does that mean eggs?)
are pretty light. But are they light enough or is that lightness just a function of avoiding heaviness?
For example, I mention torpedoes in one of my novels. This sounds heavy and not very urban, though it is "Earth-neutral" as we say in our lighter moments. On the other hand no torpedoes are ever loaded, gassed, calibarated, braced, targetted, fired or even seen and no mention of their special military COMCASTCOM-$-4-ACE-BACKSLAP-DONT-SHOOT-SARGE-AGAIN military thing is ever even hinted at. So I think the bare mention of torpedoes is getting off lightly. But who knows. They just are not very urban. Those torpedoes.
Sometimes a little light romance is also suggested.
Now comes the hard part:
Mulling this over, I wonder what might be too heavy for these lighter versions of the genre. Apparently "hard and light" would be okay in many cases. And "hard, light and on Earth and Urban" would be even better.
I like to think my own oeuvres (does that mean eggs?)
are pretty light. But are they light enough or is that lightness just a function of avoiding heaviness?
For example, I mention torpedoes in one of my novels. This sounds heavy and not very urban, though it is "Earth-neutral" as we say in our lighter moments. On the other hand no torpedoes are ever loaded, gassed, calibarated, braced, targetted, fired or even seen and no mention of their special military COMCASTCOM-$-4-ACE-BACKSLAP-DONT-SHOOT-SARGE-AGAIN military thing is ever even hinted at. So I think the bare mention of torpedoes is getting off lightly. But who knows. They just are not very urban. Those torpedoes.
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