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

[Lisa™]

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

*Curiosity peaks*  Are these any good?  The only Cthulhu Mythos stuff I've read is Brian Lumley's.  (Yes, I'd recommend it.)

[RMatthewWare]

Imagine if Jim had stopped Dresden Files after a trilogy.  Imagine all the good stories we'd be missing!

Aside from that, what I would like to see (or even write myself) is fantasy given the Unbreakable treatment.  Or in other words, yes, there are supernatural creatures, but they're not really out there.  They're in the same world as and are trying to evolve to a newer world.  I think Jim's done a good job of that, but I'd like more.

I'd like to see new (or even old) takes on classics like vampires and werewolves.  I'd also like to see some of the lesser-known creatures given a bigger role.

I'd like to see less sex for the sake of sex.  I know people do it, I don't need to see it.

And I'd also like to see some darker stuff.  Real life gets dark.  Stories should follow suit.

[Qualapec]

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...

You may be interested in Nightlife by Rob Thurman. It fits all those qualities...kind of.

[Shecky]

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

That troll would last about ten minutes before getting his ass kicked by pigeons.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

*Curiosity peaks*  Are these any good?  The only Cthulhu Mythos stuff I've read is Brian Lumley's.  (Yes, I'd recommend it.)

I like them a lot.  The Atrocity Archives, which is the novel The Atrocity Archive plus the novella "Concrete Jungle", is readily available in paperback, and Jennifer Morgue is currently in hardback.  They are about the division of the British intelligence services devoted to containing Lovecraftian threats, who these days mostly tend to pick up and recruit hacker-types who are innocently fiddling around with obscure bits of mathematics.  The office politics is really something; it's like Dilbert with necromancy. Specifically, Atrocity Archive is pastiching Len Deighton, and Jennifer Morgue parodying Ian Fleming, though the central character is more of a Neal Stephenson type.  There is at least another one coming.

Disclaimer: I have beta-read for Charlie, though only one not-yet-published novella in this series.

[ballplayer72]

You may be interested in Nightlife by Rob Thurman. It fits all those qualities...kind of.

I second that nightlife is good.  It is in fact great, and i highly recommend it.

[meg_evonne]

So we have series and trilogies and stand alones.  What do you call a duo of books?  I've a set in the hopper.  the first book is 1st person, but the 2nd is more complex, which is why I haven't combined them.  The second will either be from two other points of view or I'll have to figure out one heck of a way to get two crucial major scenes already written and at least one more to go into that 2nd voice. And worse yet, the first ends in a Burroughs style.  Sometimes stories take their own route.  the first book is 90,000....the second is half done, sitting abot 45,000.  I'm forcing myself to leave the 2nd alone until I've perfected (as well as I can)...

I might be able to swing the two other voices into one with a unique writing gimmack, but no way can I get these two other POVs into the orginal voice for covering both books as a stand alone.

The thing is, I have no interest in writing any more after these two.  Others are possible, but not by me.  i'll be ready to move on.  I wrote them in scifi so i could engage readers into action on Darfur. 

Any suggestions, greatly appeciated!   

[redneckwitch18]

I like stuff that is more like Anne Rice's old works yet in a modern sense. Hence, I am addicted to David Wellington's online published books.

http://www.brokentype.com/ Thirteen Bullets, Monster Island, etc.

[Kali]

So we have series and trilogies and stand alones.  What do you call a duo of books?

A duology, I believe.  At least, that's what Mercedes Lackey used to call her Tarma & Kethry books.  Y'know, before she finally published a third a decade-plus after the first two.

The thing is, I have no interest in writing any more after these two.  Others are possible, but not by me.  i'll be ready to move on.  I wrote them in scifi so i could engage readers into action on Darfur. 

I don't think you need to write more.  Let the publisher tell you that.  Also, and this is just me, I wouldn't mention ANYWHERE that your book is in any way connected to Darfur. Not that people don't need to know more about the genocide and the god-awful conditions, but if you have to mention it in a cover letter, it looks pretentious and preachy.  Let the editor/agent/publisher discover the connection for themselves, let them ask you about it.  Done properly, I always think such things should be as subversive as possible, teaching without anyone ever realizing they're being taught.

[meg_evonne]

Thanks Kali!

[JamiSings]

More realistic humans. I'm tired of the perfectly in fit human woman or man being the hero. Make them short. Make them fat. Make them have a limb missing. Heck, just make them acne prone for all I care. Just make the humans seem more - human! Why should all heros and heroines be good looking? Why can't they look like some cross between The Phantom Of The Opera and The Elephant Man? Or at least be rather plain.

Fat women can kick vampire butt too, you know.

[Shecky]

More realistic humans. I'm tired of the perfectly in fit human woman or man being the hero. Make them short. Make them fat. Make them have a limb missing. Heck, just make them acne prone for all I care. Just make the humans seem more - human! Why should all heros and heroines be good looking? Why can't they look like some cross between The Phantom Of The Opera and The Elephant Man? Or at least be rather plain.

Fat women can kick vampire butt too, you know.

We need a Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in one.

[LizW65]

I'd like to see the New England vampire legends explored a bit more - to my knowledge, only one YA author has tackled this subject, and not in a fantasy/supernatural context.

[ailishsmom]

More realistic humans. I'm tired of the perfectly in fit human woman or man being the hero. Make them short. Make them fat. Make them have a limb missing. Heck, just make them acne prone for all I care. Just make the humans seem more - human! Why should all heros and heroines be good looking? Why can't they look like some cross between The Phantom Of The Opera and The Elephant Man? Or at least be rather plain.

Fat women can kick vampire butt too, you know.

I think that's what I loved about Shaun of the Dead. If some supernatural apocalypse did happen, the average population wouldn't form well-oiled platoons to take them out. The survival of the world really would depend on a couple of slacker, beer drinking buddies that thought it was all a joke initially.
Are there any books along those lines?

[LizW65]

I think that's what I loved about Shaun of the Dead. If some supernatural apocalypse did happen, the average population wouldn't form well-oiled platoons to take them out. The survival of the world really would depend on a couple of slacker, beer drinking buddies that thought it was all a joke initially.
Are there any books along those lines?

Yep.  Terry Pratchett has written most of them.