What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?

[Qualapec]

My question is: What do you guys wish was done more, or hasn't been done at all and you wish would be done, in the urban fantasy genre?

[DragonFire]

Less neurotic sex, more updating for today.

I'd like to see more myths updated, but not in a parody way (ala the Logical Magician).

More stuff about how various mythical creatures have grown and adapted.

[Lisa™]

More stuff about how various mythical creatures have grown and adapted.

I've just realised the story I've been writing for NaNoWriMo fits this bill.  Cool.  And yes, I second that.

[Richelle Mead]

This is the most generic answer, but well, here it is: something different.  I feel like a traitor, but I'm kind of burned out on my own genre.  Jim's doing good stuff, so are Kat Richardson, Rachel Caine, and a few others.  But, I don't know.  I think I'd like to see darker stuff--and more than just private investigators.  We already have some who are being written very well (ahem), and I'd like to see a new model for this genre.

[Shecky]

I'd like to see full-bore technomancy... done right.

[Suilan]

There is one thing I would wish LESS. A little while ago, I got exasperated by some urban fantasy novel, don't know which, but I found myself thinking: why oh why is there always vampires AND werewolves? If you have one you can be sure the other will appear soon. And loads of other supernatural things. I would prefer one supernatural species but fully fleshed out with a complex culture and a good reason for being.

Less cliché would also be nice. If you have vampires, why not the real historic vampires for a change, instead of just another variant of tall elegant handsome Count Dracul? Do some research. (My favorite book on vampires: "Vampires, Burial, and Death, Folklore and Reality," by Paul Barber.) Same goes for werewolves. Explore the real myths from around the world instead of just copying ideas other fiction writers had before you.


One last point, concerning fantasy in general: I would like to see more trilogies. Nobody writes trilogies anymore. They just write and write and write and a decade later, the series still isn't finished, and then the author dies before ever finishing it.  Maybe it's just me, but I LOVE trilogies. Give me one story, with a strong story arch leading from the beginning to an exiting finale, and then the characters get their well-earned reward and live happily ever after (or not) -- and make room for new characters and fresh ideas. Why are writers so afraid of the finale? Why would they rehash their own tired old ideas volume after volume rather than explore new ones?

[Shecky]

About vampires and werewolves... I'm not sure if this has been done before, but it would be nice to see vampirism/lycanthropy as a disorder suffered by people through history, people who (with rare exceptions of people who just can't control themselves) try their best to hide, lie low and NOT prey upon normals. Make the stay-under-the-radar approach one of self-perceived shame and not just as a cover for predation. In other words, make the "exception" vamps (like Thomas or like P.N. Elrod's protagonist) more the rule, and the predators the exception.

[Torvaldr]

One last point, concerning fantasy in general: I would like to see more trilogies. Nobody writes trilogies anymore. They just write and write and write and a decade later, the series still isn't finished, and then the author dies before ever finishing it.  Maybe it's just me, but I LOVE trilogies. Give me one story, with a strong story arch leading from the beginning to an exiting finale, and then the characters get their well-earned reward and live happily ever after (or not) -- and make room for new characters and fresh ideas. Why are writers so afraid of the finale? Why would they rehash their own tired old ideas volume after volume rather than explore new ones?

I absolutely agree. Jim is one of the few authors that I have broken one of my cardinal rules for. I do NOT read an unfinished series! For years and years I have stood by this rule. I did it for all the Davis Eddings books, and 99% of all others. One of the things I do like about Jim's books is that they are stand alone books. By that I mean that you can read any book without having read the others and it makes sense. You may not understand some of the references about things that happened in earlier books, but the one you are reading will make sense and has a definitive start and ending.

The 3 novels I am writing all are stand alone books. In fact not all of them are set in the same world. One is very specifically historical fantasy (Beowulfsdrapa). The other two are classical fantasy and are in the same world, but unrelated. One focuses of a human kingdom, the other on a dwarven kingdom. Neither involves the other.

In urban fantasy I would like something that does not focus so much on the standard supernatural. Yes, vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, and angels. Those have been done to death. How about one that deals with Bigfoot in the Native American sense. Native Americans believe it to be at least partially supernatural.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

One last point, concerning fantasy in general: I would like to see more trilogies. Nobody writes trilogies anymore. They just write and write and write and a decade later, the series still isn't finished, and then the author dies before ever finishing it.  Maybe it's just me, but I LOVE trilogies. Give me one story, with a strong story arch leading from the beginning to an exiting finale, and then the characters get their well-earned reward and live happily ever after (or not) -- and make room for new characters and fresh ideas.

I'd go even further;  I don't want more trilogies, i want more good standalones.  [ Though that said, with Borders and B and N getting picky about the maximum price they are willing to sell a hardback for, and consequently the maximum size of hardback they will take, if you write a 120,000 word genre fantasy novel, there's a good chance that the publishers will insert two superfluous pieces of cardboard half way through. ] If you have a big complicated interesting universe I'd rather books that were loosely if at all connected, exploring different corners of it, like China Mieville (well, OK, like China Mieville without the persistent thuggishness) than a linked series.

What I would like to see more of in urban fantasy in particular: multiculturality; in particular, more recognition in books set in NorAm cities of Native American/First Peoples powers alongside the imported European ones, rather than books focusing on one or the other. When I finish a couple of the things I'm currently working on I intend to have a shot at something like this set in Montreal.

[Qualapec]

What I would like to see more of in urban fantasy in particular: multiculturality; in particular, more recognition in books set in NorAm cities of Native American/First Peoples powers alongside the imported European ones, rather than books focusing on one or the other. When I finish a couple of the things I'm currently working on I intend to have a shot at something like this set in Montreal.

You may want to check out the Urban Shaman series by C.E. Murphy. She has quite a bit of Celtic influence in the stories, as well as the Native American mythology that plays a VERY strong part in it.

Personally I would like to see gods as characters more. I would actually like to see more people going back along the lines of old mythologies. I would also LOVE the East Asian and African mythologies to be a little more prominant.

Also, maybe a character that is actually in a different country than the U.S. or U.K.

This is the most generic answer, but well, here it is: something different.  I feel like a traitor, but I'm kind of burned out on my own genre.  Jim's doing good stuff, so are Kat Richardson, Rachel Caine, and a few others.  But, I don't know.  I think I'd like to see darker stuff--and more than just private investigators.  We already have some who are being written very well (ahem), and I'd like to see a new model for this genre.

So, what would you like to see instead? I mean, I would like something a little bit different. But I do think that there has to be some level of mystery in the story to really make it interesting. What would you prefer to P.I.? Someone who just stumbles onto something because of natural curiosity?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

You may want to check out the Urban Shaman series by C.E. Murphy. She has quite a bit of Celtic influence in the stories, as well as the Native American mythology that plays a VERY strong part in it.

Thing is, I have a very very high bar for Celtic-type fantasies because of having lived the first twenty years of my life in Ireland and hating, with a passion like unto a thousand exploding suns, certain kinds of twee romanticism that show up in a lot of Celtic-influenced fantasies, particularly by USAn authors; will keep an eye out, but it will be a wary one.

For what it's worth, the only Celtic-influenced fantasies I can think of that have actually worked for me are Ian McDonald's utterly excellent King of Morning Queen of Day, and some recent Lisa Tuttle, The Mysteries and to a lesser extent The Silver Bough.  And the Celtic gods in Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword work right, it's not at all urban but it's a classic founding work of twentieth century fantasy that everyone should read.

Also, maybe a character that is actually in a different country than the U.S. or U.K.

There's a Liz Williams series with is a buddy-cop premise with one cop in a future Singapore and the other a demon from a complicatedly bureaucratic Chinese hell which I am currently looking out for the first volume of. 

Also, though they are marketed as straight mysteries, you might want to look up Colin Cotterill's The Coroner's Lunch and sequels, about an elderly doctor in Laos who becomes coroner in
the 1976 (IIRC) communist takeover and who has a peculiar relationship with the spirits of the dead that helps him solve crimes.  Very funny and sweet in a peculiar way.  Sweet without sentimental's a very difficult balance to get right.

What would you prefer to P.I.? Someone who just stumbles onto something because of natural curiosity?

Or someone with a backstory or family history that gets them entangled with whatever odd stuff is going on. Or someone working within a mortal organisation that has a stake in the supernatural world, like Bob Howard in Charlie Stross' Laundry books.

[carpathic]

I would think a story told from the perspective of an evil monster. Not one that is good in anyway and not apologetic for being bad. And not a bloody vampire. The mummy book by Anne Rice started to look that way, then they stopped.

A troll in Today's New York city that really does eat children who pass over a bridge. That would be kind of interesting.

Failing that, a story that focused on a more nuanced view of good and evil...

[fivestyle]

Someone could modernize the cthulu mythos.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Someone could modernize the cthulu mythos.

Like Charlie Stross has in The Atrocity Archive and The Jennifer Morgue ?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Less neurotic sex, more updating for today.

Oh, and on the "less neurotic sex" front, more sex that people are civilised and sensible about and do not either angst over or get all stickily romantic and centre their lives around, but then I want that in most genres.