The Evolution of Urban Fantasy by Mihir

In the past few weeks, there have been several bloggers posting their thoughts on the topic of “Urban Fantasy”. Surprisingly all of them seemed to be fed-up by it and ironically it is a sub-genre that has many readers, authors, and bloggers divided about its features and strengths. I however like urban fantasy books to a certain large extent with the only detracting point being that romance sometimes becomes the highlight of the story.

Urban Fantasy is a term that has come into the spotlight since the late 90s with the emergence of the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Before this series, it was a bit loosely termed as contemporary fantasy and was competently showcased in stories by Charles D. Lint, Emma Bull and Mercedes Lackey. While these books and many others showed a remarkable fusion of modern life and magical characters, they weren't the most financially successful books. It wasn't until Hamilton came out with her Anita Blake books that the series practically ignited a fire under many readers with its mix of heady action and erotic sequences that left most readers waiting desperately for the next volume. Terry Brooks ironically also had a hand to play in the start to the urban fantasy bandwagon with his world and Void Trilogy, which was a dark urban fantasy series and later revealed to be the prequel to his Shannara world. Many readers enjoyed this darker turn in Brook's predictable efforts.

There's also the presence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which further galvanized the fans and helped focus the rise of Vampires and other supernatural races within the confines of urban life. This was the start of the movement which made publishers take notice of this sub-genre and made them realize how this could be the next cash cow. Of course the Anita Blake series has taken a huge nose dive after books five/six (depending on your perspective) and most of its readers felt the series had jumped off the proverbial shark and headed into the area that can be only labelled as Paranormal Romance at best. However most readers weren't so kind and many labelled it as soft-porn or the erotic ramblings of an author who made her character sex-addicted and charmed to keep boinking to save her life or some silly situation like that.

This series did have an impact on many readers and chief among them was a hitherto-unknown dude called Jim Butcher who started writing his own series about a wizard detective set in Chicago. He got his start by having the same agent as that of Laurell K. Hamilton and in 2000 got his book published under the Penguin imprint. Since his debut Jim Butcher has become a juggernaut of sorts with each new book release, the sales of the Dresden Files have sky rocketed leading to the series jumping from paperback to Hardback on publication and eventually getting a TV show order from then known as Sci-Fi channel as well. The TV show didn't pan out all too well however it further spread the word about the books and that has also helped introduce newer readers to the author whom I believe can be labelled as “Tolkien of the Urban fantasy sub-genre”.

My reason for labeling Butcher as such is simple; this sub-genre is in its nascent stages and is slowly finding its feet. Recall the early era of the epic fantasy genre before Tolkien, people might not remember much beyond Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs and a few other distinguished names. Tolkien basically came along with his books and laid down the foundation for the epic fantasy world and here are a few observations from his seminal work:

1. The story mostly was about good versus evil
2. The world had to be detailed with many races and with a hankering for the passing of ages
3. The stories had to be laid out in the form of a trilogy

The last part we know was more of a publishing decision than Tolkien's, and since then these make-shift rules influenced the epic fantasy world and made it a benchmark for all writers to follow. Terry Brooks lead a further resurgence of Fantasy with his Shannara titles and he was joined by David Eddings, David Gemmell, Glen Cook, Raymond Feist and many others who upon reading Tolkien’s work were galvanized to continue his epic storytelling efforts, however with their own slants. They furthered epic fantasy's cause and showcased various other facets of storytelling that perhaps weren't Tolkien’s forte.

The next decade however was to unleash three other publishing phenomenons who would further change the fantasy rules and create millions of newer readers as well. Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind and George R. R. Martin were the three behemoths that left publishers with a big fat smile on their faces and with even fatter purses. They added the aspect of long winded stories that would require large volumes to be finished. Of the three, one has finished his series (sort-of), one passed away and the third is still writing. Their value to fantasy cannot be overstated, however their writing skills/contributions to fantasy are debatable and have often been points of contention in arguments and discussions. In the last decade though, we have seen fantasy been further amalgamated into various other forms as well seen writers such as Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch and Peter V. Brett take conventional stories/tropes and spin them sideways to give very, very interesting story-lines.

There's also Robin Hobb and Kate Elliott who since their debuts have perfected characterization into a sublime art, Mercedes Lackey who has dabbled in many a genre and further created many more fans. There's also J.K. Rowling who writes in a beguiling way mixing comedy, epic fantasy, and other genres to create a debut series that is often mistaken to be epic fantasy but can be thought of as “Epic Urban Fantasy”. In the last decade many female writers have taken their rightful place into the epic fantasy annals and I hope this trend continues and we see more them explore epic fantasy and all of its multivariate incarnations.

The basic gist of my recollection of Epic Fantasy's metamorphosis is that I believe urban fantasy will take a similar path. Urban fantasy's path will however be much quicker than that of epic fantasy thanks to technology and immense reader participation via the internet and social media, not to mention the meteoric advent of self/indie publishing. What this means is that this will cause further permutations in the metamorphosis of urban fantasy.  Developments which took decades to occur in epic fantasy, might take only a few years for urban fantasy. Presently we are in what we can call the 80s decade of fantasy, which means that we will be seeing or reading the emergence of the Eddings’, Brooks’, Gemmells' and Cooks' in this sub-genre.

Kevin Hearne is a writer whose Iron Druid Chronicles is often thought as the literary successor to The Dresden Files. It has a witty hero, colorful side character cast, deep world system and a quirky magic system as well. Kevin Hearne can be said to be the "Brooks/Feist of urban fantasy" for now. Myke Cole is another writer whose books have taken an off-road track; he debuted in January with his Shadow Ops series, a high-octane mix of military thriller and urban fantasy. His series featured a much darker world and with his background, the author choose to re-imagine a geo-political world that has been further complicated with the rise of Magic. His series has been one to showcase the world from a grunt level and that is very reminiscent of a particular Black Company. I believe Myke can be labelled as the “Glen Cook of urban fantasy”.

Going by the same standards, Ilona Andrews share the same level as David Eddings because of the witty banter shared by their characters in their various books. Though this writer couple is way ahead in prose style and characterization, I'm labeling them as such to provide a point to parallel the comparisons of progress between the two subgenres at their respective development cycle. Also Laurell K. Hamilton while being a label herself, can be thought as the “Terry Goodkind of urban fantasy” as she believes in herself more than others might be willing and her series has simply gone off the deep end, but yet remains a commercial success for her publishers.

Lastly there are a few mavericks that defy classification and are forging their own paths. These writers namely Tim Marquitz, Peter Clines, B. Justin Shier and John Connolly are ones to watch out for as they write their own brand of urban fantasy stories. With Tim Marquitz, the dark and grotesque get their turn at the helm. With Peter Clines, we get a hodge-podge of zombies, urban fantasy, comedy & much more to keep flipping the pages, and with B. Justin Shier it's the exciting mix of Harry Dresden and Harry Potter-like story that perhaps makes the read so enticing. Lastly with John Connolly, readers get a nuanced series about a private eye who's trying to find peace after the loss of his loved ones however trouble always finds him and in this case there are strong metaphysical reasons for the happenings. His Charlie Parker series is unique with its setting and mystical juxtaposition, and it comfortably straddles both urban fantasy and the mystery genre. There also solo gems here and there such as the Anubis Gates by Tim Powers and Devil’s Cape by Rob C. Rogers. Both these books are vastly under-appreciated and equally under-read.

What we can look forward to is the 1990s & 2000s decades of fantasy, when writers will perhaps reach the magnificent depths of A Song Of Ice And Fire or give us the topsy-turvy nature of the First Law Trilogy. Either way it will be something that I as a fan can look forward to with gusto and anticipation. Perhaps by then we might have gotten over the horrible cover gal fiascos that is so prevalent nowadays and also urban fantasy might have significantly distanced itself from its amorous sub-genre cousin; paranormal romance (PNR). These are weighty things to anticipate and might entirely come to pass soon enough, but as with most fantasy fans hope runs ever eternal that they might happen sooner than later.

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NOTE: It has come to my attention that I've done a great disservice to female authors in the urban fantasy genre. These authors have been the central pillars of urban fantasy and have had a big hand in its progression until now. So I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my mishandling of the topic.

When I wrote this article, I wasn’t looking to downgrade the impact of female authors in urban fantasy. I was hoping to put into focus the need for urban fantasy to explore outside of its comfort zones. Patricia Briggs, Kelley Armstrong, and Kim Harrison, for example, are three big names that have helped this sub-genre. However, I reckon Armstrong's books are more PNR oriented than UF. I’ve also read both Briggs and Harrison, but by my estimation they are more inline as direct successors of the aforementioned Laurell K. Hamilton's story format. It's for that reason, that I unintentionally overlooked them and deprived them the well deserved credit they've earned in regards to furthering the urban fantasy genre, and inspiring the great majority of what seems to be found in urban fantasy today. As with others worthy of mention are mentioned in the comments by others and me.

Nevertheless, what I’m trying to get at is that I was attempting to mention authors who had written stories within the genre, but have done something different irrespective of their gender. Something crucial to differentiate their stories from what has been written so far in the genre abundantly. Kelly Gay was an author that I should've mentioned, and whom I completely overlooked, and is someone whose books I enjoy very much. As was Kari A. Stewart who writes the wonderful Jesse James Dawson books. K.A. Stewart on the other hand seems more of "descendant" to what Jim Butcher is doing, so maybe for that reason I failed to mention her as it's the same reason I overlooked the Briggs and Harrisons of the world. It looks like Kate Griffith might have also been worthy of mention, but I haven't read her.

So my apologies if the intent of this post seems misleading and handled shoddily as I did. I wish for urban fantasy to be read further and I want the authors to challenge reader perceptions and go beyond the impressions of what currently abounds in urban fantasy as detailed in the recent group of urban fantasy guest posts from readers who dislike the subgenre. Since PNR and Romance were two of the main complaints indicated in those posts, I shied away from certain series/authors, but now it has become apparent that I was wrong to do so. With that said, it is my hope to see more stories that break from that mold and help with the diversification of the subgenre.