Wed
Mar 30 2011 4:07pm
If you like X, you should try Y: Urban Fantasy Recommendations

Urban fantasy recommendations

The best thing about connecting with hundreds of urban fantasy lovers on Tor.com Urban Fantasy Facebook and Twitter? Book recommendations! I asked the Tor.com Facebook Urban Fantasy followers to give their best “If you like X, you should try Y” urban fantasy recommendations.

For example, if you like Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series, you should try Nicole Peeler’s Jane True series

Here are more that we came up with:

If you like Patricia Briggs you should try Carrie Vaughn

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Patricia Briggs fans, especially of her Mercy Thompson series, should also check out Richelle Mead’s Georgina Kincaid series.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Fans of Kim Harrison should try Jaye Wells (and vice versa).

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

If you like the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost, you may want to try Lynsay Sands’ Argeneau Family series.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Being intrigued by Jeaniene Frost also makes you susceptible to Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunters series.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Admirers of Bitten by Kelley Armstrong, tended to also like Stray by Rachel Vincent

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

If you like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, be sure to try Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Similarly, if you like Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series, you should try Stacia Kane’s Downside Ghosts series.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

  Or DD Barant’s Bloodhound Files series.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

If you like Strange Angels by Lili St.Crow, you should try Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Fans of Jeri Smith-Ready’s WVMP series might also appreciate C.E. Murphy’s Negotiator trilogy.

 

Urban fantasy recommendations

Finally, if you like Kraken by China Mieville, you  might like A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin.

 

Thanks to johnnie_cakes, Shelley Romano, Andy Lawler, Ju Lee, Tiffany Smith, Bella Franco, Majda Čolak, Stephanie King, Mary Whitener, and everyone onTor.com Urban Fantasy Facebook and Twitter for all the suggestions. Have a “if you like X, you should try Y” urban fantasy recommendation? Let us know in the comments.


Abigail Johnson manages the Tor.com Urban Fantasy Facebook and Twitter accounts and loves engaging with readers about paranormal fiction and pop culture. Need a good UF/PNR/Paranormal YA recommendation or have one to share? Hit her up @tordotUF.

20 comments
Elektra Hammond
1. elektra
If you like Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, try Anton Strout's Simon Canderous series (starting with Dead to Me).
Startide
2. Startide
My biggest pet peeve about urban fantasy is that you never know if what you are about to read is a romance novel. My wife and I love Butcher and Briggs. She has read Andrews. I am currently flying through Green. I handed her Kane and she threw it right back and said it seemed to be more romance.

I understand Urban Fantasy is a very broad genre that can encompass those elements, but for those of us that read mainly Sci-Fi and Fantasy, this is a very off putting sub-genre. A simple statement that it is Urban Fantasy/Romance would solve things immediately. I won't buy a UF book unless it is someone I have read before just because I am sick of wasting money on something that should have been mentioned from the start.

The romantic element that Mercedes and Adam have, or Dresden and Murphy dance around, is one thing. Anything that goes like "As Vlad came towards me with his ripped shirt, and his gleaming muscles, my loins quaked".... Definately crossed the line into another genre that seems like they are trying to dupe people.

End of my rant.
Startide
3. erinlb
I really like Nicole Peeler's Jane True series, but I can't stand Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. For some reason Sookie really annoys me as a first person narrator, while Jane doesn't.
Startide
4. Chelsea/Vampire Book Club
I run an "If You Like..." feature on Vampire Book Club, because I love these kinds of recommendations. While some of ours are paranormal romance or YA paranormal suggestions, I'd highly suggest fans of Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts read Carolyn Crane's Disillusionist books (first one is Mind Games) and vice versa.

(Though, I should admit when I posted the Downside/Disillusionist If You Like it somehow sparked Kane and Crane to have their heroines hypothetically duke it out.)
Abigail Johnson
5. AbigailJohnson
@elketra - Thanks. I definitely see the similarities.

@Startide - I hear a lot of that same type of frustration from readers. The genre line is blurring more and more and it can be difficult to find the more tradtional UF titles. Have you tried Seanan McGuire's October Daye series? Or maybe Sonya Bateman's Gavon Donatti books? The Charlie Madigan series by Kelly Gay is also light on romance (it does pick up in later books though). I also think Kane's series is more dark UF than romance IMO. The 'romantic subplot' is really a small part of that series.

@erinlb - I've not had huge sucess with either series personally, but I'm thinking about starting over with Sookie.

@Chelsea - I love that feature! And I'm a big fan of both Kane and Crane too (although the names in Crane's series always throw me...Cubby and Otto?)
Startide
6. saucerhead
Startide - Garrett PI is arguably UF and not romance, and Ben Aaronovitch has a nice pair of books Midnight Riot/Rivers of London (US/UK titles) and Moon Over Soho that are UF but sufficiently masculine.
Startide
7. Ramenth
I feel like a big problem in Urban Fantasy is the line between UF and Paranormal Romance. A lot of book stores just sort of toss the books on the shelves at random (including having half the series in one place, and half in another some times). I can't see any real solution to this, at least not until UF and PNR get their own shelves instead of being scattered through Fantasy, Scifi, and Romance.
Startide
8. Chelsea/Vampire Book Club
@Abigail - Otto as a love interest is hard to picture. And the dude wears a cape. Still, love her world-building.
Startide
9. Staar84
I agree with Startide. That's actually why I avoid anything described as Urban Fantasy. I won't read one unless someone I know had read it and can tell me it isn't romance.
Startide
10. Andrew Lawler
@Abigail - Thanks for the mention !

I agree with Ramenth, that the major barrier to finding new authors is where the books fit in the PNR/UF spectrum. Few (save Ilona Andrews and earlier Kim Harrison) to a great job of sitting in the middle. I joked on Facebook that I wish books came with a scale measuring where they 'sat'.
I don't think it's a new observation, but I find the difference is simple. UF is plot-driven with interesting relationships. PNR is relationship-driven with interesting plot.
Kerry Kuhn
11. Kerry
If you liked C. E. Murphy's Walker Papers (starting with Urban Shaman) you will probably like Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series (starts with Skinwalker.) I do know they like each others' books.
Thiago Leitão
12. kwisatzhaderach
How about something for people who liked Kat Richardson's Greywalker?
Glenda Wilson
13. glinda
Anyone have recommendations for those of us who prefer/are stuck on the UF of Emma Bull and Charles de Lint? (And some of Borderland...) Have read several of the authors mentioned above, and just cannot really get into them, though I will grab the latest from Jim Butcher from the library.
Startide
14. Andrew Lawler
Seanan McGuire (seanan.mcguire.com) writes TERRIFIC fae fantasy which really feels Emma Bullish (with a dash of Brust).
John Mallick
15. Malazan
@glinda

John Crowley - Little, Big (1981)
Elizabeth Hand - Waking the Moon (1994)
Patricia McKillip - Something Rich and Strange (1994)
Sean Stewart - Resurrection Man (1995)
Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere (1996)
China Mieville - King Rat (1998)
Peter S. Beagle - Tamsin (1999)
Nina Kiriki Hoffman - A Fistful of Sky (2002)
Guy Gavriel Kay - Ysabel (2007)
Glenda Wilson
16. glinda
Andrew Lawler:

Oh, yes. Luckily, the library has her books, but I'm scouting for them second-hand, they're definitely in the "I'm going to need to reread" category.

Malazan:

Thank you. Spot on for most of those.

I bounced off the Crowley, twice; not sure why. Still haven't found a copy of the Stewart, though I've read and liked others of his.

Beagle and Kay are "buy in hardcover even if I really can't afford it" authors, as is Gaiman. I guess I hadn't classifed them as urban fantasy, more as authors whose work is sui generis (ditto Bull and De Lint).

I've read and liked everything by McKillip (my favorite is her SF Fool's Run) and Hoffman. The others, I've liked as well.
Startide
17. Tiffany M.
@glinda:

I would suggest McKinley's Sunshine.

A bit off the beaten path and similar, but different would be Connie Willis To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Jeri-Smith Ready's works feel almost Emma Bull-ish, especially the vampire series.

Magical realism with a hint of romance and southern charm are books by Sarah Addison Allen.
Startide
18. JayEmDee
Urban fantasy fans should try Yasmine Galenorn's kickass Sisters Of The Moon series, and the Indigo Court series that follows it. Great stuff!
Startide
19. MistyMassey
If you like "A Madness of Angels", you should read definitely read "Sandman Slim".
Startide
20. Mari B
I'll second MistyMassey's suggestion, with the note that while both of those books fall firmly into Urban Fantasy, neither one has much at all to do with Paranormal Romance.

"A Madness of Angels" would probably also work well for Charles de Lint fans.

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