Best products from r/urbanfantasy

Unfortunately, I can never pay attention to what characters look like in series (my brain just skips over most of the time). Unless it is said again and again and again, I'm just not noticing it. I literally have to be beat across the head with it to notice it.

I can give you some series I liked that I think there is a low probability of it happening though:

Cainsville by Kelley Armstrong (I know you said you didn't like WotO but the two series feel pretty different imo. This series does have a love triangle, though, but it is the best love triangle I have ever had the pleasure of reading.)

The Others by Anne Bishop, if you somehow haven't read it before.

Realm Walker by Kathleen Collins

Colbana Files by J.C. Daniels, like lupa280 suggested

Skindancer by Anthony Francis

All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness (this probably is focused on a bit, but mostly because love, it doesn't spread to the secondary characters.)

Elemental Mysteries by Elizabeth Hunter (book one is currently FREE on amazon)

don't do Downside Ghosts by Stacia Kane because I doubt we are ever getting an ending to that, despite it being so damn good.

Hunter Kiss by Marjorie M. Liu

October Daye by Seanan McGuire

Jaz Parks by Jennifer Rardin

Sorted from Top (best) to bottom (least best)


Alex Verus - Benedict Jacka: I think this series is finally starting to get a following, but it is a well written, fast paced contender to the more popular Dresden Files. Not much to say here other than it sometimes goes a lot darker direction than other UF is willing to go. ( https://www.amazon.com/Fated-Verus-Novel-Benedict-Jacka/dp/1937007294 )


Clean - Alex Hughes: Another good debut book. This one is about telepaths (replace 'telepath' with 'wizard' and this book easily falls into the UF category). In a world where telepaths exist openly alongside mortals; the main character is a a recovering addict who works with the police using his abilities. Shunned by those like him, he seeks to keep busy, get through the day, and interview suspects, up until an odd slew of deaths starts to hit a little too close to home. The book's plot is fast paced and keeps readers engaged. This book's quality is right up there with some of the big leagues, which makes me sad that not too many people know about it. ( https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Mindspace-Investigations-Alex-Hughes/dp/0451464753 )


Awfully Appetizing - Leod Fitz: A very good debut book about a monstrous corpse-eating ghoul, named Walter, that runs a funeral home, and somehow deals with all the unpleasantness thrown his way. It is fast paced, action packed, has interesting characters, and despite my banal summary - an interesting premise. Definitely one of my stronger contenders and a return to what made me love UF in the first place. Very fun read. ( https://www.amazon.com/Awfully-Appetizing-Corpse-Eater-Saga-1/dp/1530897408/ )


The Coach - M C Sumner: The third book of a young-adult (highschool aged) trilogy, but it stands on its own. Easily grabs your attention and brings back an aspect of impending dread that a lot of UF has drifted away from. Very good read, holds up for adults as well. Might have to go on Abe Books to find a copy. ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1514626.The_Coach )

Reposted From Elsewhere (I got more info):

Crossroad Press announced it was going to be re-releasing the long out of print Vampire: The Masquerade Clan Novels and it has successfully done so, with all thirteen of them now available for purchase in ebook and print format again.

https://crossroadpress.com/product-category/white-wolf/

They've also started re-releasing the Vampire: The Masquerade: Dark Ages novels with the Grail Covenant Trilogy (about vampires seeking the Holy Grail) now available as well.

https://crossroadpress.com/product-tag/grails-covenant/

The Dark Ages Clan Novels are getting released slowly as well and aren't on their main page yet but Dark Ages: Nosferatu (Book 1#) is up and some of the others sporadically behind that.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SBWWPSG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Dark+Ages+Nosferatu&qid=1558996534&s=gateway&sr=8-2

The World of Darkness began in the 90s with the idea of what we now call Urban Fantasy but they called "Gothic Punk." There's a hidden world of undead living among us and ruling the world through puppet strings. They eventually did a second setting of what the world was like in the 1200s with all the spooky fantasy fun in a historical setting you could find. The Clan Novels chronicles 13 Clan members dealing with individual plots and ideas set during an invasion of the East United States by the Sabbat (eviler vampires).

My favorites remain the Lasombra and Assamite books (that form a duology), The Followers of Set (that is a great stand alone) and Giovanni (ditto). I also really enjoyed the Ventrue, Gangrel, and Brujah novels.

I just finished "Heroine Complex" by Sarah Kuhn. There is a second book called "Heroine Worship" that I haven't bought yet but is on my list.


The 1st book was very good - though there is a romance and some sex in it. But the story line was interesting and I really liked the main character.

[Heroine Complex] (https://www.amazon.com/Heroine-Complex-Sarah-Kuhn/dp/0756410843)

This github project will download Worm and convert it to a .mobi ebook. Wildbrow has said he's OK with people making personal ebooks, provided they do not distribute them.

It's the only book I've not been able to read without recharging my Kindle; over 5000 pages, and it keeps the I-must-know-what-happens-next quality for that entire length.

In my opinion it's the greatest superhero story in any medium.

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I also enjoyed Wearing The Cape which has a very "real" feeling to it in how the world has changed with the advent of superheros. There are plenty of little touches like airliners having clearly marked areas for a flying hero to support them in an emergency or OSHA limiting how long heroes can work continuously once an initial crisis is dealt with and it's in the cleanup phase or the hero groups working to generate as much positive PR as possible because they're aware of just how much public sentiment can shift against capes if there's a bad supervillian attack.

Romance is okay as a plot element, but not the entirety or even main aspect of the plot. Female-led stuff tends to have more focus on it, but I find a lot of male UF leads don't have much in the way of personality which is almost as irritating. No, being tough/magical/occasional one liners is not a personality.



Piggybacking off the romance thing, there are few tropes I hate, hate, hate more than any variation on "magic has forced us to be together". I'm sure it can be done well, but it's so fucking lazy most of the time - especially werewolf books where people are "mated". Magic is not a "get out of writing proper development free" card.
Same goes for coming up with bizarre hybrids just to be unique. I stopped reading a book I was almost done with just because a half-griffin half-werewolf showed up. It wasn't cool on forum RPGs back in the day and it's not cool now.



Pretty much any character type CAN be written well, but I think we're largely saturated on ambiguous private eye types - unless you're going to actually do research on what private eyes really do. Always appreciate bits of realism to flesh them out. How do they make a living with all this magical madness raining down? What do they do when everything's not on fire? They do it less now, but I appreciated all the jokes in the earlier Dresden Files about Harry being constantly broke and a pretty boring guy who sits around reading books with his cat.



Have not yet found a book series I'd count as too dark. I generally prefer things on the darker end and the further a series hews to borderline horror, the more I'll probably like it. That said, "darkness" is not a substitute for good writing. I enjoyed the Twenty Palace books, but the main character's lack of personality and the fact it was so consistently dark with little respite hurt it for me. Dark has to be seasoned with lighter things like humor, if you want it to be effective.


Relevant to this whole thread: the Siobhan Quinn books are pretty on-the-nose riff on a lot of tropes and cliches in the genre, and worth a read - especially if you like dark humor and no romance.

You might want to give Ben Zackheim's Relic series a try. I think there are 3 books total. Relatively new. But it has that male + female duo you're looking for.

Straight from the blurb...
Kane Arkright Supernatural Thriller eBook categories:
Dark Fantasy
Supernatural Thriller
Witches & Wizards
Urban Fantasy Thriller
Supernatural Shifter
Angels & Demons
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Paranormal and Urban Romance
Supernatural Mystery and Suspense
Vampires
If you like Kevin Hearne, M.D. Massey, John P. Logsdon, Larry Correia, Al K. Line or Shayne Silvers, you will LOVE the first installment in the Kane Arkwright series by Ben Zackheim.

https://www.amazon.com/Relic-Blade-Arkwright-Supernatural-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0788HNQCY

I've enjoyed all these books and hope they can help you out.

• Shrill Dusk by Helen Harper, Manchester magical apocalypse
  
  
• Tinker by Wen Spencer, "A near-future Pittsburgh which now exists mostly in the land of the elves"
  
  
• Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer, Its a werewolf story but unlike anything else, good story, had me grinning and smiling. So good I read it a second time right after I finished it.
  
  
• Slouch Witch by Helen Harper, fun and upbeat story.
  
  
• The Book of Secrets by Melissa McShane, "Helena has a dead boss in the basement, an unexpected promotion, and the news that she is now a part of an endless war against creatures from another reality."
  
  
• Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie, "Their customers were complete jerks, and I was an asshole right back. That's the definition of fitting in, right? I expected to get thrown out on my ass. Instead, they ... offered me the job?"
  
  
• God Save the Queen by Kate Locke, "Queen Victoria rules with an immortal fist. The undead matriarch presides over a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns."

My partner's book follows in this line. It has a romance subplot with some steamy scenes, but it's firmly a subplot with loads of fun UF action. Instead of being set in a single city, it takes place on a cross-country road trip. Loads of puns and fun characters.


The Eleanor Morgan Novels by Amy Cissell


Here's a link to the first book.

https://www.amazon.com/Cardinal-Gate-Eleanor-Morgan-Novel-ebook/dp/B06VWTG7CY/

My series is getting off the ground (first book out, second in editing), but it sounds like it's worth looking at for you.

I have a lot of articles on my blog and my Amazon page is here

And to be totally fair, there IS eventually going to be a character like you describe... But he's an antagonist.

Well, 'Rhythm' is a duo of weirdos. A homeless, bullied kid and the ancient Egyptian spirit that shares his body.

But the sequel, 'Cadence', has an entire weird team. :) The original pair, an Internet cam boy, an ATM engineer, an opera singer, an ex-SEAL and the SEAL's own ancient Egyptian spirit. :)

I have a Booksprout promo for 'Rhythm' right now, so you can download the ARC if you're willing to leave an honest review.

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Thank you!

You can find my new book available from Amazon and all good bookshops here in the UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Dark-Jonathan-Whitelaw/dp/1912666464/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/261-5110982-3570009?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1912666464&pd_rd_r=a8b8422c-ab31-43bd-8516-9953fff643b4&pd_rd_w=isFbR&pd_rd_wg=xx57X&pf_rd_p=2b420a2f-6593-478e-8b5f-cb43865ff16f&pf_rd_r=ECMPF2R3P3MWMVJVF7YQ&psc=1&refRID=ECMPF2R3P3MWMVJVF7YQ

I'm probably a touch biased because I wrote the books, but I've been hearing some great things about the Ghosted series!
https://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Hell-Uncanny-Kingdom-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B06X3RKL7J/

The first book in my urban fantasy series, Devil's Due, just came out and it's pretty much exactly what you're referring to. It's 99¢ right now on Amazon, so really low barrier for entry.

And so this isn't completely self-promotion, I'll also recommend Demon Moon, the first book in Brad Magnarella's Professor Croft series.

Might as well link the book ;)


https://smile.amazon.com/Rhythm-Ihy-Saga-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07G774Q1Q/

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It's set in massachusetts ? How is the launch going?

https://www.amazon.com/Awfully-Appetizing-Corpse-Eater-Saga-1/dp/1530897408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469331273&sr=8-1&keywords=awfully+appetizing