Are Readers Growing Tired of New Urban Fantasy?

[Dresdenus Prime]

I was looking around good ol' Amazon this morning, seeing what other books I could add to my Kindle that I don't have time to read (lol), when I found a book which had a positive review, but the first line was, "The supernatural scene is growing unbelievably tiresome, but.....etc." (Not word for word)

That got me thinking, is this true? Maybe. Just a few months back Harry Connolly's Twenty Palace series was cancelled, and I was a big fan of it.

My current project is Urban Fantasy. I'm trying to use the best of both worlds - by creating my own breed of supernatural, while at the same time using inspiration from existing ones. With any luck I'll succeed and create something original but comfortable for people who are interested in the supernatual that already exist.

But it's certainly something to think about for those of us who are currently hoping to publish a book in this genre. What do you all think? 

[Kali]

Sadly, I know I am.  There are rare exceptions, but for the most part I'm over the genre and don't read it anymore.  I'm craving good epic fantasy.  And I'm half-heartedly shopping around a UF book myself.

[Shecky]

The hipster syndrome ("it's cool now, so I don't think it's cool") is a fairly basic human reaction; we crave newness. UF, for example, just plain didn't appeal to me for quite a while, because it seemed that it was all just retreading old stuff with fluffy new looks. Then TDF came along, and it rode those clichés like rented mules... and made the genre interesting to me.

And every now and then, something truly new comes along. Take my current bookstore-commando mission: Myke Cole's Shadow Ops: Control Point. Technically under the aegis of UF, but it's modern military fantasy and takes ooooooooold concepts and remixes them in a new way. I highly recommend it. http://mykecole.com/products-bibliography

[Kali]

"Then TDF came along..."  When TDF came along, Urban Fantasy had already been cranking for a few years, and "Storm Front" was published twelve years ago.

Twelve years.

Guilty Pleasures, the first Anita Blake book, was published in 1993 and I feel comfortable saying this book started the UF craze. It was not, to forestall the 'But what about _____' posts, the first UF book by any means, but I think it was the series that launched it into the public eye.  (I've been reading UF since the 80s when Mercedes Lackey published her Diana Tregarde novels, for instance.)

This is not "newness", not even to a geezer like you.

[MClark]

Harry Connolly's 20 Palace series was cancelled?

Yes it was. This news depressed me so much I stopped writing this morning.

This may not mean the death of UF. Connolly has a post on the poor sales of the last two 20 Palace books. He checked Amazon and said many of the negative reviews had comments like

 

• main character unlikeable
  
• too dark
  
• no romance subplot
  
• background world unexplained
  

So Twenty Palaces may have sold poorly because it was too unlike most other UF, though he does mention other dark/grim UF is doing well.  Last time I checked a bookstore's shelves - almost a year ago?- UF seemed to be doing very well, way better than hard science fiction. Laurel K Hamilton, Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison had more books between them than all the hard science fiction in the section.

Of course hard SF is not very popular so this may just mean a few UF authors are totally outselling a dying genre.

[Shecky]

As you point out, it started the craze, not the genre. It WAS newness for people who weren't SF/F readers before - modern fantasy existed for quite some time before it got rebranded as urban fantasy (I still prefer the name MF for childish-snicker reasons) and got snatched up and turned in some pretty specific directions... whence came the craze. Fortunately (by my estimation), it got a re-boost in a different direction, both from folks like Jim who worked within the over-genre but not in the craze subgenre, and from folks like Jim's wife who have taken the craze's direction and reappropriated it in a less craze-oriented direction.

... bah. I still dislike excessively-meticulous categorization of this sort, especially when something doesn't quite belong to one or another.

[Aminar]

Personally I feel like Urban Fantasy has stagnated itself the same way High Fantasy did.

Instead of Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs it has Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, and Faeries.  Now, I love Urban fantasy, but all in all it needs to expand those horizons.(I'm hoping to catch/start that wave wit my novel.)  I created a whole new world similar to Earth but with a definitely different history that parallels things to keep development similar.  This allowed me to create a large scale magic system unlike anything seen in Urban Fantasy(although based on elements from all over literature, video games, and What have you.) I have urban fantasy in a way I've never seen(High Urban Fantasy basically), and I can only hope that changes the genre and revives it.

Unfortunalty createing worlds like I did is a whole lot more work than Standard Urban Fantasy worldbuilding, especially considering I'm trying to mimic the scope Jim's world feels like it has.

Brandon Sanderson's "The Alloy of Law" pushed this boundary too, but he had an epic fantasy set in the world already to give it credence.

[Dresdenus Prime]

Personally I feel like Urban Fantasy has stagnated itself the same way High Fantasy did.

Instead of Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs it has Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, and Faeries. 

This is sort of what I'm hoping is the main case of why people are growing tired of the genre, if that's even what's happening. Like I said, my post is based on a few reviews of multiple books, and the cancellation of what was thought to be an ongoing UF series. Maybe it's still holding its own.

But Like you Aminar, Im hoping to think outside the box. I plan to indtroduce new creations into already existing mythology. (My main character will actually be my own creation, as will the main antagonist). At the same time, I will still use already existing creatures, but I hope to really dive deep into what exists in myth and stories and use creatures that aren't commonly used. I currently have no plans to include faeries, werewolves will feature in maybe one book, and while I will feature a vampire here or there, I have altered their history quite a bit to make them a little less stale.

With any luck this will be enough to spark an interest. If not, then back to the writing board!

Myke Cole's Shadow Ops: Control Point. Technically under the aegis of UF, but it's modern military fantasy and takes ooooooooold concepts and remixes them in a new way. I highly recommend it. http://mykecole.com/products-bibliography

Thanks for this recommendation! I placed it in my "To buy" list on amazon! 

[meg_evonne]

Sadly, I know I am.  There are rare exceptions, but for the most part I'm over the genre and don't read it anymore.  I'm craving good epic fantasy.  And I'm half-heartedly shopping around a UF book myself.

Ditto, and for sometime now. It's not that I wouldn't love a really great new one, but you trod through an awful lot of 'maybes' that don't make it and it's easier to shun the lot a bit.  Although I will give Shecky's suggestion a hard look, even though I'm not a true military sci fi fan. Does your wife like it? You and her have not lead me astray when it comes to tv series.

All the more reason to look toward the next DF!

WAIT.... I just saw the cover and the amazon description. Is there not at least one female in the shadow ops? If so, it just got a black mark from me. Military fiction can have women you know. Sincerely hope that it's just being macho sold?

[Shecky]

Ditto, and for sometime now. It's not that I wouldn't love a really great new one, but you trod through an awful lot of 'maybes' that don't make it and it's easier to shun the lot a bit.  Although I will give Shecky's suggestion a hard look, even though I'm not a true military sci fi fan. Does your wife like it? You and her have not lead me astray when it comes to tv series.

All the more reason to look toward the next DF!

That's the very reason I was gun-shy about UF back when I found TDF - there was so much (let's be honest) crap out there. Jim brought me back into the fold and I found folks like Seanan McGuire, Anton Strout, Harry Connolly and others.

As for SO:CP, yes, Sue enjoyed it. Much as with the DF TV show, it wasn't a genre she generally would've gotten into, but it surprised her. She's actually recommending Myke's book unprompted.

[meg_evonne]

And thank you once more for filling my 'wish list' with highly probable enjoyment items.

[Kali]

I'm liking Control Point so far, but I admit, I went sort of unamused when the book said "Women are usually healers..."

I've stayed unamused.

[Shecky]

I'm liking Control Point so far, but I admit, I went sort of unamused when the book said "Women are usually healers..."

I've stayed unamused.

Unfortunately, that's an easy assumption-trap to fall into. I have a VERY hard time imagining Myke being that misogynistic. I think it's more along the lines of genetic predispositions, similar to men tending to be more muscular, single-tasking and concrete-thinking and women being more dextrous, multi-tasking and abstract-thinking (and yes, there IS more to the thought-style division than upbringing/environment). So I wouldn't read into it.

[jeno]

I'm liking Control Point so far, but I admit, I went sort of unamused when the book said "Women are usually healers..."

...really? 

What I find weird about this particular stereotype is that it's not even true, historically. Maybe it's a matter of people getting two different concepts (nurturing and healing) mixed up with traditional gender roles. Are women usually mothers? Well, yeah, with the varying degrees of nurturing that tends to involve. But have women, in the past and in the present, usually been healers? No.

Except, apparently, when completely made up magic systems become involved. Then suddenly women are all about the healing. 

[jeno]

Personally I feel like Urban Fantasy has stagnated itself the same way High Fantasy did.

Fantasy in general seems like it's turning over a new leaf with authors like Rothfuss, Lynch, Abercrombie, etc. No trolls or elves to be found in that lot.

Also, I think all the paranormal YA that's out there flooding the markets has had an affect, too. Publishing runs in cycles and it kind of looks like UF's cycle is slowing down. (and given that YA has been trending more toward dystopias and the like for a while now, I wonder if we won't see a surge of similiar 'low scifi' stuff in the main genres soon.)