Top Ten Books I’d Recommend To Someone Who Doesn’t Read Urban Fantasy (and Romance…)

I missread this to begin with, so I started on the romance novels and then realised that it should have been anything I wanted. Then I decided that, as a person who doesn’t normally like Romance novels (at least those lonely girl meets gorgous guy they fall instantly in love at first sight kind, followed by intimancy at what seems like five minutes after they have met, then some evil person wants to break them up, they defeat the foe and then live happily ever after kind of book) I decided to go ahead with it anyway. So that will come later.

What I decided that my top ten should be is Urban Fantasy. Urban Fantasy has exploded in recent years. When I first became aware of the genre (which would have been about the time Buffy the Vampire Slayer came on the scene and then later when I read my first set in modern times werewolf novel) the genre was pretty slim. Vampire books dominated, but I’m not really a fan of vampires and bear in mind that this non-fondness was way, way before sparkly vampires was even a scrible in someone’s ideas notebook, there were very few series out then. We had the Dresden Files of course, Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series (which was probably about three, maybe four books back then), Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series, Tanya Huff’s Vicky Nelson series (which had been out about ten years) the infamous Anita Blake and some obscure, difficult to get hold of trilogies and standalones  that varied in quality. Now there’s loads. The question for new readers is where do I start? Even for those who have a love/hate relationship with the genre know that it’s a minefield of badly written romances, Mary-Sue heroines and Buffy knockoffs. I have tried to come up with books from different authors as well because it was too tempting for me to just list all of Jim Butcher’s or Kelley Armstrong’s works.

Top Ten Books I’d Recommend To Someone Who Doesn’t Read Urban Fantasy

  1. Strom Front by Jim Butcher – Needless for me to say that my favourite Urban Fantasy author is Jim Butcher. One of the main reasons for this is that every book in the Dresden Files that he’s written gets better than the one before it, which is a hard thing to do when the first book is great to begin with.

Most authors I’ve found tend to get worse as time goes on.

I also love the characters and care what happens to them, even Harry Dresden’s cat, Mister and his dog, Mouse (and of course, Bob the Skull…)

  2. Stolen by Kelley Armstrong – Kelley Armstrong was for a long time, my favourite urban fantasy author, which is why Stolen is second. I love the werewolf pack that she created, espeaically Elena, Clay and Jeremy. Of all her characters, these remain my favourites. What I like about her work is that she brought something fresh and new to the werewolf mythos (and to urban fantasy in general). She is also not afraid to change the narrator of the story, so you do not feel like her characters are becoming too perfect, or the reader becomes bored with them. Having said that, I wish that there were more books in the series focused on the werewolf pack. Another thing I like about her work is that she doesn’t write a lot about vampires and she even introduces new supernatural races which aren’t normally seen in the genre.

 3. Blood Price by Tanya Huff – As these books were written before Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out, they tend to avoid all the cliches and Vicki Nelson also has her own weaknesses.

Too many modern Urban Fantasy books have their heroine too perfect, too strong, too attractive… You don’t get that with this.

There was a show, Blood Ties based off these books but sadly it only lasted a series and half. Plus, I also like Henry Fitzroy, even if he is a vampire and not a werewolf!

 4. Into the Nightside by Simon R. Green – Ok, he uses the PI handle, which seems to be common in Urban Fantasy books, or at least with the ones I like.

Maybe that says something about me. I do like Sherlock Holmes afterall, which makes me wonder what Conan Doyle’s books would have been like had he written UF.

I like Simon R. Green’s writing because of his creativity. His work blends Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Supernatural in a way that few other authors in this genre rarely do.

  5.  Moon Called by Patricia Briggs – Why do I like it? Well, although it looks like it should be a werewolf book, the main character isn’t a werewolf. She’s a shifter, which is a Native American legend of people turning into animals. Mercy turns into a coyote and was raised by werewolves. I like the concept of it, because it reminds me of the relationship that real wolves and coyotes may sometimes have in the wild. I also like the fact that the heroine has a job which people wouldn’t normally associate a woman to have but which doesn’t happen to be a solider, a cop or some other kind of investigator or military personel. There is romance in the series, but it does not take over the entire plot and the author stays away from the sex at the drop of a hat which seems to crop up quite often in Urban Fantasy.

6. Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn – Of all the books in this list, this one was the one that I had the least expectation for when I first picked it up. Why? When I first came across it, it was an American import. Don’t get me wrong – some of my favourite books are American imports (Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, R. A. Salvatore…) but I’ve also had quite a few disappointments with American imports as well. The title and the cover didn’t make me expect much from it either. I’m glad that I decided to buy it. From the first book I was hooked. Some of the books in the series have not been as good as the others and felt like a filler, but overall, in comparison to other UF books, my opinion of the series has remained quite positive, and even more so, because I wasn’t exactly expecting it.

7. Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison – Kim Harrison is one of the most skilled authors in the genre, in my opinion and the Hallows is a pretty good series. The only reason why I have not placed it higher in the list is because I find the character Ivy a bit too creepy. (And plus, I’m not interested in reading much about homosexuality in books – it is not my thing. I accept that authors can make characters whatever sexuality they want to and I don’t mind it if the character is a secondary or minor character and I must point out that Tanya Huff is gay, but I don’t want it shoved in my face, if that makes any sense.)

8. Nightlife by Caitlin Kittredge – I picked this up last year and although it is not my favourite UF, I think that it could be a decent addition to the genre, espeaically if it improves as the series goes on.

My only critisism with it is the name, Luna for the main character (sometimes I think the names given to the main characters are a bit daft or over the top or too cliched) and that she can’t control her temper well in some situations. Yeah, your co-worker might be a dick, but you need to have some self control so that you yourself don’t get sacked.

9. Stray by Rachel Vincent – Werecats! Ok, so that was what caught my attention. We have werewolves so what about other werecreatures?

Until I came across this book, most of the werewolves and shifters I had come across were secondary or minor characters and I like the concept of shapeshifting, so I thought this would be a good read. If you’ve not read Kelley Armstrong, then you’ll probably enjoy it more, but if you have, you can’t help but notice the paraells between the two series. I would like to see more books like this, but with a bit more originality and with a bit more accuracy of the behaviour of the animal that they turn into, if that makes sense. However, I have decided to give the series another chance.

 10. Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow – I came across this series by accident and although I started reading this book and then decided to not finish it, I have decided to give it another chance. What I had read, I did like and I gave up reading it because I had too much to read. Now because I don’t buy as many books and because it looks like money will be a problem for everyone in the next few years, I’ve decided that I’ll probably get to read it after all.

I was going to do the romance list, but as it has taken me longer that I’d thought to write this, I’m going to hold off until after the SOPA strike tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that the bill is defeated because it could have serious consequences for sites like this, even if for most of us, it’s an hobby and our motivation is to share our love of reading (and maybe, just maybe, increase the sales of the books that we love by default, which is something that has probably not been considered…)