Steve Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 What does it mean to you? Do you picture an urban metropolis like Hudson City, only with sidhe hiding out in its dark corners to prey on the unwary, maybe with gritty notions like vampire prostitutes and streetsmart wizards like Harry Dresden wandering about? An otherwise normal city with a neighborhood bar run by a down on his luck godling, where Norse valkyries and Greek heroes drink and chat among normal humans? Vibora Bay in the Champions universe? A near-future setting like Shadowrun? The World of Darkness from White Wolf? Something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I think some of the old Simon Hawke books like The Reluctant Sorcerer/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I always liked Nightlife's New York, which pre-ceeded the WoD by 4-5 years at least. An underground of Ghosts, Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires, Goblins, Ogres, Tree Spirits, Witches, Aliens, Cyborgs and practically any monster that had ever featured in a late night horror movie or EC Comic, all living in their own weird sub culture in major cities across the US. No real attempt at a "logical" explanation, no agreement among the various races as to how they got there, just this piece of splatterpunk insanity. Great setting. Best semi-serious take on it was GURPS Cabal and Black Ops, taken as a single coherent setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... There was a whole panel on this at Dragon*Con. I think we settled on a definition, and decided that Charles de Lint is the definitive urban fantasy. No one argued that point. So I think of Charles de Lint - Native American myths living side-by-side with Celtic faeries, crossing-of-worlds, fantastical elements all around if you only know where to look, ordinary people posessing otherworldy power . . . And spunky and cute trumping ambitious and bloated every time. ^ v ^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... There was a whole panel on this at Dragon*Con. I think we settled on a definition, and decided that Charles de Lint is the definitive urban fantasy. No one argued that point. So I think of Charles de Lint - Native American myths living side-by-side with Celtic faeries, crossing-of-worlds, fantastical elements all around if you only know where to look, ordinary people posessing otherworldy power . . . And spunky and cute trumping ambitious and bloated every time. ^ v ^ I'll agree with that. And to top it all off, his stuff is just so cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... What does it mean to you? It means fantasy in a city, be it Los Angeles or Lankhmar, Vibora Bay or Aarn, Union or Troy, Sigil or Constantinople, Phoenix or Arakeen. It often means to me that a lot of people don't know what the word "urban" means. If you mean "set in the modern day," then call it "Modern Day Fantasy," or something like that. What do you call fantasy set in modern times that takes place out in the country? "Rural Fantasy"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted February 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... What do you call fantasy set in modern times that takes place out in the country? "Rural Fantasy"? I suppose a sub-genre case could be made for "Suburban Fantasy" then, but that reminds me more of the old TV shows like "I Dream of Jeanie" and "Bewitched." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... It means fantasy in a city, be it Los Angeles or Lankhmar, Vibora Bay or Aarn, Union or Troy, Sigil or Constantinople, Phoenix or Arakeen. It often means to me that a lot of people don't know what the word "urban" means. If you mean "set in the modern day," then call it "Modern Day Fantasy," or something like that. What do you call fantasy set in modern times that takes place out in the country? "Rural Fantasy"? "Urban fantasy" is a term used to refer to the sorts of fantasy being discussed in this thread. I believe I've actually heard the term "suburban fantasy" used to refer to things like Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie. Also note that before the publishing houses used Fantasy to refer to swords and magic, it generally referred more to what we now call Horror. And Gothic meant something entirely different before teenagers in black got to it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StGrimblefig Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... Would Callahan's Crosstime Saloon fit? Even though there are plenty of aliens and time travel, there is also a leprechan and a couple of other fantasy creatures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I used to love the Gavagans Bar and the (early) Callahan's stories, before Mike left. I'd class them as at leas as much Fantasy as Sci Fi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... Would Callahan's Crosstime Saloon fit? Even though there are plenty of aliens and time travel' date=' there is also a leprechan and a couple of other fantasy creatures.[/quote'] I don't see why not. Aren't "Tales of X's Bar" considered a subgenre of fantasy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
"V" Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... The first thing that came to mind when I saw the title of the thread was Terry Pratchett - his works often centre around the city of Ankh Morpork and have an undeniably urban feel to them - albeit the characters include wizards, the undead, barbarian warriors etc. There are fewer sequences involving non-urban activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... The first thing that came to mind when I saw the title of the thread was Terry Pratchett - his works often centre around the city of Ankh Morpork and have an undeniably urban feel to them - albeit the characters include wizards' date=' the undead, barbarian warriors etc. There are fewer sequences involving non-urban activities.[/quote'] Yup. He also has a passion for the life of the city itself, and how villainous plots and heroic actions affect that life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... Urban fantasy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy Fafhrd and Grey Mouser - Cheesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser Neverwhere - Neil Gaimen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere The Borderland Series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borderland_Series Garrett P.I. - Glen Cook http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I.. Lord Darcy - Randall Garrett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Many_Magicians New Crobuzon - China Miéville http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdido_Street_Station More later QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... For me? It's what I write, it's a core concept of who I am. So this is close to home. It just always made that right next door is a world most people won't see. So for me, the question is two fold: -- How fantastic? -- How blatant? Then create your grid, and you'll see where you fall. You can add parameters as necessary. "Suburban Fantasy" sounds like a bad sit-com. "Rural Fantasy" happens all the time -- usually in Stephen King novels, but also in Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, one of my favorite books growing up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethosos Posted February 10, 2007 Report Share Posted February 10, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I usually use "urban fantasy" to mean that the mundanity doesn't know about how magic is still alive in the time and age. The natural default is the modern age, of course. The SIERRAed Edge and Bedlam's Bard books are a good example of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... d20 Modern's Urban Arcana setting. Hey, you asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I only scanned the thread so I know I agree with a few. Charles De Lint China Meville The Bordertown and Borderland collections of short stories (these may be out of print) Neil Gaiman All of those bring forth Urban Fantasy to my mind. There are others as well, I forget the name of the series but it involved elves in sportscars. And moving way back in time Susan Cooper (The Dark Is Rising series amongst others) really introduced me to the idea of mixing Fantasy with modern elements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... All of Capcom's & SNK's Fighting games in a shared world with Harry Potter. Well, you asked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... All of Capcom's & SNK's Fighting games in a shared world with Harry Potter. Well, you asked. I'd play in that campaign. Mostly, I'd want to see Chun Li kick Harry Potter in the head repeatedly while he tried to come up with some lame pig-Latin method of saving himself, but I'd play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I envision a world where the general populace doesn't know about magic, but that a select few do. Books and authors that immediatly spring to mind are Charles DeLint, the Dresden Files*, William Deitz (the MacTyrie gang in particular). The second thing I think of is where magic is part of the world a la Lord Darcy, or (shudder) Anthony's Incarnations of immortality (I like on a Pale Horse.. shoot me). * given I've only read the first two, and am starting the third, but it does seem a little more obvious that I initially thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lethosos Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... There are others as well, I forget the name of the series but it involved elves in sportscars. That is The SIERRAted Edge books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... I liked the War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull. That and Neverwhere are the things that I think of when I think of Urban Fantasy. Technically, "Angel" could be considered urban fantasy, and "Buffy", suburban fantasy. Keith "How about Rural Sci Fi?" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted February 11, 2007 Report Share Posted February 11, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... That'd be Tatooine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrFaust Posted February 12, 2007 Report Share Posted February 12, 2007 Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... Honestly, Changeling: the Dreaming springs to mind before any fiction does, but that's probably because I've spent more time reading Changeling books than the source material. I've also come to think of Mage Done My Way as urban fantasy. But yeah, for source material, I guess I think of Neverwhere, Charles de Lint's Newford stories and even parts of Gaiman's Sandman as urban fantasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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