Good Urban Fantasy?

[JD]

Recently, I've read the first Dresden Files, and I am in the process of reading the first Southern Vampire novel. I've really liked both books, and so now I was curious to check out some other good urban fantasy. Anyone here have recommendations? I also loved the Harry Potter books, but I don't know if they would be considered urban fantasy.

[God Magnus]

A series I recently got into are the adventures of Marla Mason (http://marlamason.net/). They read more like comic books than novels at times, but I find them fun.

[T'Baio]

I think there's quite a few girls around here that have good Urban fantasies. Why don't you ask them? You can spot them by the avatar...

[Klaus]

Tim Powers was the first thing that came to mind... The Drawing of the Dark is medieval urban fantasy [and one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time], and the excellent "Fault Lines" trilogy -- Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather -- are set in 80s California and Las Vegas...

His newer ones Declare and Three Days to Never also qualify.

[Allyn Gibson]

I don't generally read urban fantasy, but I liked Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready. It's about a radio station where the deejays are vampires. It was different and fun.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I haven't read any of them yet myself, but I hear good things about Simon R. Green's Nightside series, Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series, and Liz Williams' Inspector Chen series.

[Mysterion]

Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm.

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

Mysterion wrote:

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Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm.

Awesome book. Just excellent. Also, check out Moonheart, Someplace to be Flying, and some of the other novels of Charles de Lint.

[jadcox@mindspring.com]

And, at the risk of being a little self-serving:

Raven Wakes the World

;-)

[Bob The Skutter]

The Dresden Files just gets better as it goes along, in my opinion. Hope you enjoy the rest of them.
It's not Urban Fantasy but Jim Butcher's other series, Codex Alera is great too. It's set in a world where various species have appeared and made home, the humans on the planet are descended from Romans who were unlucky enough to get stuck there. Everyone has magic (of a sort) granted by beings who bond with them called Furies. They control various elements, wind, earth, fire, metal, water etc. and they're at war with various other species on the planet, Canim (giant dog creatures), Marat barbarians who bond with animals, Ice Men, and it's the story of one young man who doesn't have any Furies of his own.

I've read all of Simon R Green's The Nightside books so far, I like them a lot but I wouldn't say they're as good as The Dresden Files and they get a bit samey in the middle. It's the story of John Taylor and a secret city within London called The Nightside, where all sorts of supernatural and technological things are possible.

I read The Devil You Know the first Felix Castor novel by Mike Carey which I enjoyed enough to go out and buy the other three, but I haven't got round to the others yet. It's about a freelance exorcist and investigator called Felix Castor working in London.

David Mack's The Calling was a good read, started off slow but I enjoyed it, hope he gets more in the series. It's about Tom Nash, an every day kinda guy who just happens to hear people's prayers, and helps out when he can.

The Remy Chandler books by Thomas E. Sneigoski. Remy Chandler is an Angel who decided after the war between heaven and hell that he didn't want to be part of it any more and came to Earth to live life as a human, but he keeps getting drawn back in to the affairs of heaven and hell.

They're the only ones I can think of right now.

[Mistral]

OK, two(or more) suggestions no one touched on.

Ariel by Peter Boyett. Just re-released with new cover art. Great story, stunning. There's a unicorn and Japanese sword play, gangsters and magic set in the ruins of our world. Great story long out of print.

Glen Cook's Metal series. Red Iron Nights. Deadly Quicksilver Lies. Sweet Silver Bells. Detective Noir in a fantasy world. Very urban and gritty.

Also, Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick.

[JD]

Cool, thanks for the help. Quite a few of those sound pretty interesting. I forgot about David Mack's The Calling, he's one of my favorite Trek Lit authors, and I've been meaning to check it out.

[Klagg]

Skutter(deceased) wrote:

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The Dresden Files just gets better as it goes along, in my opinion. Hope you enjoy the rest of them.
...

I read The Devil You Know the first Felix Castor novel by Mike Carey which I enjoyed enough to go out and buy the other three, but I haven't got round to the others yet. It's about a freelance exorcist and investigator called Felix Castor working in London.
...

I am also a big fan of urban fantasy and must second the Felix Castor novels. The fourth and fifth books in the series are out in the UK and I had them shipped overseas so I did not have to wait.

Another tact you might want to take as a Dresden Files fan is to get the Mean Streets anthology. There is a Dresden Files short story in it with three other shorts. Be warned, though, you should not read this anthology until after Small Favor.

[sojourner]

Mistral wrote:

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OK, two(or more) suggestions no one touched on.

Ariel by Peter Boyett. Just re-released with new cover art. Great story, stunning. There's a unicorn and Japanese sword play, gangsters and magic set in the ruins of our world. Great story long out of print.

Glen Cook's Metal series. Red Iron Nights. Deadly Quicksilver Lies. Sweet Silver Bells. Detective Noir in a fantasy world. Very urban and gritty.

Also, Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick.

Ariel is by Steven R. Boyett. One of my favorite books. A really nice coming of age story.

Edit: Awesome news! Boyett is finally putting out a sequel! http://www.elegybeach.com/

For high magic and hi-tech you can't go wrong with the Shadowrun books.

[Canadave]

The first thing that came to mind was Neverwear, by Neil Gaiman.