What would you like to see in urban fantasy?

More cheerful spunky tomboys who love pro wrestling and/or MMA and use moves from those disciplines in epic hand-to-hand battles against the supernatural creatures.

...what?

glutton said:

More cheerful spunky tomboys who love pro wrestling and/or MMA and use moves from those disciplines in epic hand-to-hand battles against the supernatural creatures.

...what?

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...I'd read it.

More seriously, I'd love to see more urban fantasy where a female protagonist isn't constantly thinking about 1) sex, 2) clothes, and 3) how sexy her clothes are. I'm not about to sneer about romantic subplots, but if the story's got bloody murder and the fate of the city in the balance--or at least the fate of the protagonist's checking account--it's tedious to have the story stop for yet another "And this guy is so hot! As am I. I am totally sexy, wearing this sexy outfit I will now describe. I wonder if he wants to have sex with me? Because I want to have sex with him!" digression.

Cheerful spunky tomboys who wear practical clothing for doing battle with the Forces Of Darkness would be awesome. Doubly so if they don't get all angsty about wanting to sleep with the Forces Of Darkness (And Sexiness!) every three chapters.

glutton said:

More cheerful spunky tomboys who love pro wrestling and/or MMA and use moves from those disciplines in epic hand-to-hand battles against the supernatural creatures.

...what?

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Will people stop giving away my damn plots!



Although it's dark secondary world fantasy and they do WWE style sports-entertainment wrestle with added swords and stuff...but still, stop giving away my plots!

I like seeing different creatures/worlds. If you're going to write vampires or werewolves, it's going to be hard to hook me if it's the same old interpretation (or maybe I should call it the same new interpretation, as few books use the old folkloric ideas).

I like adventure stories and crime stories. I don't like romance stories. The more romance you have, the more unique your world needs to be for me to enjoy the book.

Cities I've not seen in stories before are a plus, but not essential. Non-human viewpoint characters are also a plus.

fadeaccompli said:

...I'd read it.

More seriously, I'd love to see more urban fantasy where a female protagonist isn't constantly thinking about 1) sex, 2) clothes, and 3) how sexy her clothes are. I'm not about to sneer about romantic subplots, but if the story's got bloody murder and the fate of the city in the balance--or at least the fate of the protagonist's checking account--it's tedious to have the story stop for yet another "And this guy is so hot! As am I. I am totally sexy, wearing this sexy outfit I will now describe. I wonder if he wants to have sex with me? Because I want to have sex with him!" digression.

Cheerful spunky tomboys who wear practical clothing for doing battle with the Forces Of Darkness would be awesome. Doubly so if they don't get all angsty about wanting to sleep with the Forces Of Darkness (And Sexiness!) every three chapters.

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Stef, my MC is constantly thinking about: 1) Cookies 2) Computers 3) Whatever shiny thing is currently distracting her.

Clothes? She forgets to shower for a week at a time, and generally only notices when she begins to smell. >_> That, and she's tiny, underdeveloped, basically has the body of a 12YO Swedish boy and tends to wear baggy clothes.

As to sex and relationships...well, A) she's asexual B) she's terrified of anything to do with sex C) Has trouble with people touching her, so her thoughts aren't generally geared towards "random hot guy of the week" kind of thing.

Less romance, more adventure.
Fewer vampires/werewolves/mages/demons, more imaginative/mythological/anthropomorphic creatures.
Fewer vampires. Seriously.
Less Joss Whedon, more Charles de Lint.

fadeaccompli said:

...I'd read it.

More seriously, I'd love to see more urban fantasy where a female protagonist isn't constantly thinking about 1) sex, 2) clothes, and 3) how sexy her clothes are. I'm not about to sneer about romantic subplots, but if the story's got bloody murder and the fate of the city in the balance--or at least the fate of the protagonist's checking account--it's tedious to have the story stop for yet another "And this guy is so hot! As am I. I am totally sexy, wearing this sexy outfit I will now describe. I wonder if he wants to have sex with me? Because I want to have sex with him!" digression.

Cheerful spunky tomboys who wear practical clothing for doing battle with the Forces Of Darkness would be awesome. Doubly so if they don't get all angsty about wanting to sleep with the Forces Of Darkness (And Sexiness!) every three chapters.

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Leah Raeder said:

Less romance, more adventure.
Fewer vampires/werewolves/mages/demons, more imaginative/mythological/anthropomorphic creatures.
Fewer vampires. Seriously.

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This and this.

I love it when people write my posts for me.

*takes copious notes on this thread*

fadeaccompli said:

More seriously, I'd love to see more urban fantasy where a female protagonist isn't constantly thinking about 1) sex, 2) clothes, and 3) how sexy her clothes are. I'm not about to sneer about romantic subplots, but if the story's got bloody murder and the fate of the city in the balance--or at least the fate of the protagonist's checking account--it's tedious to have the story stop for yet another "And this guy is so hot! As am I. I am totally sexy, wearing this sexy outfit I will now describe. I wonder if he wants to have sex with me? Because I want to have sex with him!" digression.

Cheerful spunky tomboys who wear practical clothing for doing battle with the Forces Of Darkness would be awesome. Doubly so if they don't get all angsty about wanting to sleep with the Forces Of Darkness (And Sexiness!) every three chapters.

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Funny how when someone else says it, I'm like, oh yeah, I should totally follow that. But when my husband tells me the same exact thing (more or less) about my book, I'm like you just don't understand urban fantasy.

So of course when I read your post out loud to him, he asked if I was taking notes.

Yttar

For some reason I prefer my "creatures" to be in traditional fantasy, and absolutely love human mages in urban fantasy. There's something about the mix of magic and technology that just makes me squee.

Fewer vampires, please. It's an auto-pass for me these days if a book's got bloodsuckers.

What I want is something cool and new and fresh. Give me that and I'll be running to the checkout.

Another vote for books that are in the same tradition as Charles De Lint. Also, loved Neverwhere and would love to see more books with that sort of feel.

Kathleen42 said:

Another vote for books that are in the same tradition as Charles De Lint. Also, loved Neverwhere and would love to see more books with that sort of feel.

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First, this. Second, more supernatural events and less supernatural creatures. Seriously, can it with the vampire werewolf clusterfuck(and I mean that in both sense of the word), and give me a plot already. I don't mind fairies so much, but why can't you be a UF MC without being half-human?(Before you answer, I know there are characters like that, but clearly they aren't getting enough attention.)


Also, any particular reason this isn't in the UF section?

yttar said:

Funny how when someone else says it, I'm like, oh yeah, I should totally follow that. But when my husband tells me the same exact thing (more or less) about my book, I'm like you just don't understand urban fantasy.

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The thing is, I honestly don't have any problem with romance subplots. The vast majority of adults will be interested in having some sort of sexual relationship with other adults at some point, so, heck, why not? But I get tired of every damn protagonist being uber-sexy constantly drooling over someone else's hot hot vampire-elvish-werewolf-zombie body.

The day I see a wendigo-tracking heroine in sweat pants fall in love with a barista who caught her silly D&D joke while ordering coffee, I will buy that book.

fadeaccompli said:

The thing is, I honestly don't have any problem with romance subplots. The vast majority of adults will be interested in having some sort of sexual relationship with other adults at some point, so, heck, why not? But I get tired of every damn protagonist being uber-sexy constantly drooling over someone else's hot hot vampire-elvish-werewolf-zombie body.

The day I see a wendigo-tracking heroine in sweat pants fall in love with a barista who caught her silly D&D joke while ordering coffee, I will buy that book.

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Find 20,000 other people who agree, and I'll write it.

I'd say an urban fantasy where magic is gradually being driven to extinction by modern society. This was kind of brought up in Hellboy 2 a bit, where the magical world felt like it was under siege from humanity as a whole.

Dommo said:

I'd say an urban fantasy where magic is gradually being driven to extinction by modern society. This was kind of brought up in Hellboy 2 a bit, where the magical world felt like it was under siege from humanity as a whole.

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I have a story like that. Secondary world, but definitely UF. Urbanization has a direct negative effect on magic and things related to it.

I only want to see well-developed characters, characters that I truly care about, and make me root for their cause, whatever it may be. And of course, a fairly believable plot (you can have as many fantasy elements as you want, just as long as it makes sense within the context of your story. I hate it when authors make up rules for their world, only to change them when it becomes convenient).

Vampires, werewolves, demons, or fairies? I'll happily read or watch a movie about them all, as long as the book is worth reading and has characters that I can either relate to, or like.

I wanted something with human protagonists, no vampires or weres, so I wrote it. I wanted something that felt more like "classic" UF and less like oh-my-sexy-boyfriend so I made sure that wasn't in my book. I wanted something where the heroine wasn't this gorgeous hot chick surrounded by handsome men, so I threw that in there too. I wanted to do some real worldbuilding so I did, and I wanted to give my characters real problems and make them real people, and I wanted to write something closer to horror with much less romance and very little snark. So I did all that as best as I could.

Obviously nobody but me, my agent and editors, and a handful of reviewers are aware of that. But I keep trying.


I'd love to see more all-human casts; I'm pretty well worn out on paranormal creatures. I'd like to see more complex worlds and different belief systems. I'd like to see more horror elements that really feel like horror and not like castrated horror creatures. Something with balls, honestly. I'm tired of safe UF.

maggi90w1 said:

I'm in the middle of the world building process for my urban-fantasy-things and I'm wondering what people like about urban fantasy.
What does a good alternate world need?
Vampires, Werwolfs, Shapeshifters? Witches and mages? Demons? Secret societies? Cool vampire-hunting-girls? Politicis, Action, Love?
Different from our world in just a few points or with a whole bunch of secret stuff going on?
Just write everything down that comes to your mind.

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Secret societies and conspiracies are always fun, but for Shabranigdo's sake lay off the fucking vampires. They've gone from suck to blow thanks to every schmuck from Laurell K. Hamilton to Stephenie Meyer thinking they can do 'em better than everybody else. Give 'em a rest.

I think you've done a pretty good job, Stacia. Drugs and ghosts and psychopomps. You've got the horror elements and world-building down, too. Definitely not your standard UF tropes.


I think a lot of people forget UFs roots in horror, and place too much emphasis on the "romance" aspect. While there are some good books in that tradition, I think it gets too much of the attention.


I think there's some interesting UF stuff going on in anime/manga. Witch Hunter Robin, say, or Durarara!. Not so heavy on the horror, but much lighter on the romance and paranormal creatures. They both have all-human casts, except for two slight exceptions in Durarara!.

MattW said:

Bad boy minotaurs...

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Funny, i09 did a piece about angels being the new vampires last year.

third person said:

Funny, i09 did a piece about angels being the new vampires last year.

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I saw that last year. It's hilarious.