Guest Post by Matt Boone, East Campus Libraries
Have you ever wondered about how the urban fantasy subgenre functions in its own unique way? Urban fantasy can take a typical fantasy story and give it a twist by setting it in a more modern setting. It can also have the fantasy elements interact with each other in different ways. This subgenre allows for interesting takes on fantasy archetypes and creatures. Examples would include a wizard detective, a vampire accountant, and ancient gods or other legendary figures interacting with and adapting to the modern world. Stories can have characters who operate within the more ‘realistic’ side of the setting react to the ‘fantastical’ side of the setting in different ways.
What goes into Urban Fantasy?
If the supernatural elements are supposed to be a secret, how and why do they stay hidden? Alternatively, if they are known, how has the supernatural elements affected society and its development? This can include how the creatures have been integrated into society. It can also be shown in how magic has been integrated into the day-to-day life of the characters. Examples would include characters utilizing cleaning spells to clean their homes, law enforcement utilizing actual oracles or seers to help solve crimes, doctors and nurses utilizing healing magic, or the entertainment industry hiring actual magic users to save on special effects.
Urban fantasy may be a good way to open new avenues of entertainment and encourage people to read more by finding books that they could enjoy and consume. The urban settings may also be more appealing for people who might not like the world-building in the regular fantasy genre. In an urban fantasy story, like The Dresden Files, supernatural elements are adapted to our modern society and technology. A classic fantasy story, like The Lord of the Rings, has kings, queens, knights, and wizards in a medieval setting.
The popularity of urban fantasy grew in the 1980s. This was encouraged by the success of Stephen King and Anne Rice. Their success likely helped to encourage both writers and publishers to see the potential of the subgenre.
Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the present
This book is a survey of urban fantasy/fantasy writings/literature set in London between the Victorian era to the 21st Century. It discusses different works of multiple notable historical authors, such as Dickens, Wells, Orwell, and Peake. It also discusses how the authors’ different methods influenced what they wrote. For example, Wells had an imagination that was based more on science and preferred to state things in a more matter of fact way. Read more about Elber-Aviram’s book
This book gives readers an introduction into the genre of science fiction. It goes into detail explaining what science fiction is, its history, the representation of race and gender in the genre, and how the technology appearing in science fiction works correlates with our real-world technology. For example, cyberspace is typically portrayed as being more ‘exciting and dynamic’ in fiction than reality’s more limited digital environment. Read more about Roberts’ book
This book was written to explain how the fantasy genre can be relevant and meaningful to our world and lives if it is not a realistic representation of said world. Another question the book sets out to answer is what sort of changes the genre can have in the world. The book goes on to how fantasy can represent truth in a metaphorical manner. Read more about Attebury’s book
This novel takes place in late 19th Century America where a newly awakened golem whose master died en route and a newly released jinni must try to fit into different subcultures of New York City and not to draw attention to themselves. The novel delves into how each of them have trouble fitting in due to their different, supernatural natures. They do eventually encounter each other and learn how to interact with the other and eventually form a small group of people who they trust. Read more about Wecker’s book
Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination
This book was written with the intention to help its readers to better appreciate the possibilities that that the fantasy literary genre can unleash for creativity. It goes over how the genre has evolved over time and includes the names of authors and their works that have impacted the genre in major ways. This includes J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, and Ursula K. Le Guin and the Earthsea Cycle. The book goes on to describe how the different works and authors that it describes have had an impact on the fantasy genre in their own ways. Read more about Mathews’ book
The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature
This book discusses various aspects of the fantasy genre, including its history, the different ways of reading the literature of the genre (thematic, political, psychoanalysis, etc.), and the various clusters of the genre (urban fantasy, historical fantasy, magical realism, etc.). It covers urban fantasy in chapter 17 with four main sections of the chapter. Read more about Chapter 17
Genres of Doubt: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Victorian Crisis of Faith
This book describes how the fantasy and science fiction genres got a start in 19th Century Britain. Also discussed in this book is how speculative fiction that was published at the time, such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, had started to challenge what society at the time was used to reading and the norms of the time. This was likely influenced by the relatively recent geological findings and the writings of Charles Darwin. Another factor would be that Britain was also being exposed to more and different cultures from around the world. Read more about Sanders’ book
Look for another blog post on The Exciting World of Urban Fantasy: Films. It’s coming soon!
The cityscape in the feature image is a section of “Clouds- Hong Kong” by carloyuen. See the full image on Pixabay.
Thanks for this! I haven’t learned this much about a subject since graduate school! I’m glad this’ll stay up as a blogpost because I’d like to make use of this when questions arrise. Really informative.
What a fantastic overview of Urban Fantasy! I totally agree that the genre shines in how it seamlessly integrates magic and the supernatural into our often mundane world, making everyday cities pulse with hidden wonders. It clarifies so well why so many are drawn to these stories; who hasn’t dreamed of discovering a hidden society or fae realm just around the block?
I’m particularly intrigued by your point that urban fantasy balances “a tight-rope” and “avoids the traps that these genres sometimes have.” Could you perhaps expand a bit on what specific “traps” urban fantasy successfully sidesteps from paranormal romance or traditional detective stories? That really piqued my curiosity about your insight into genre definitions and evolutions.
Also, expanding on the “urban” aspect, does the setting absolutely have to be a large city, or have you found that contemporary but less densely populated or even slightly more rural magical enclaves sometimes blur the lines and still offer that unique urban fantasy feel? I find that distinction endlessly fascinating!
While I am not super familiar with paranormal romance, from what I understand, the romance and romantic elements are more of the focus of the story than in urban fantasy works. Also, a paranormal romance work could be set in medieval times with a romance between an elf and a human, for example, while an urban fantasy work would have a more contemporary setting, like early or mid-20th Century to the present. Urban fantasy also has more of a focus on the problems the supernatural beings and elements can cause, and sometimes the fear that they can cause. With paranormal romance, however, the focus is probably going to be more on at least one romantic relationship. You can read more about the differences between these two genres here: https://fictionlit.com/urban-fantasy-vs-paranormal-romance/.
For the differences between traditional detective stories and urban fantasy, the line is probably clearer. In the typical detective story, the plot is focused on solving a crime or mystery while the plot for an urban fantasy story is focused on solving the supernatural secrets of the setting and/or otherwise handling the supernatural elements. Urban fantasy can also feature conflict influenced by humans and non-humans living in such proximity with each other and how their separate agendas can clash with each other.
For your final question, urban fantasies do not necessarily have to take place in cities. One of the more ubiquitous examples would probably Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv show, which takes place in a small town in California instead of San Francisco or LA. Also, American Gods is not set in just one location, the characters in fact travel around America, which allows the readers to see different locations, people, and how they are affected by the deities, including a small town. The Hum and the Shiver is a book about the descendants of Irish fairies (called Tufas in the book) living in a remote valley in Appalachia. All these here are urban fantasy stories that are not set in cities, but in more rural settings or the characters going on road trips.
What a fantastic blog post! It succinctly captures the magic of urban fantasy, really hitting home why that blend of the mundane with the supernatural is so endlessly captivating. Your point about heroes needing more than just power, relying on wit and a sense of belonging in their city too, really stuck with me.
I confess, reading about all these great examples just tempts me to drop everything and delve into them! I’m genuinely curious, given new and fresh voices entering the genre all the time, if there’s any particular evolving trend or perhaps a subgenre within urban fantasy that you’re seeing emerge you’re particularly excited about? Alternatively, is there any trope or setting you feel is surprisingly underutilized in modern urban fantasy stories that you wish more authors explored?
I have not really thought about either of these questions before. For your first question, it does look like there are growing trends for a diverse cast of characters and tackling more complex social issues and themes. I have also noticed the incorporation of real-life mythologies and folklore into urban fantasy stories. These trends would allow for interesting world building, explore complex social issues and themes, and depict characters of different backgrounds, identities, and cultures. They would also allow for people to see more of different human cultures and more of ‘the human experience’ to be represented in stories.
As for your second question, I do think that having more urban fantasy road trip-based stories might be interesting. This style would allow for the audience to see how different places and communities are affected by and incorporate different fantasy/supernatural elements and characters and vice versa. It would also allow for the exploration of different cultures, mythologies, and folklore, like Krampus or Perchta living in or near areas with a large Germanic population, Irish fairies living near areas with a larger Irish population, or Baba Dochia living in or near areas with a large Romanian population if the story is set in America.
This post really opened my eyes to the depth of urban fantasy! The way it blends the supernatural with the everyday is fascinating. Can’t wait to explore some of these titles!