Maester Llama Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 'Fraid not. Well, one of them is. Felix was born and raised in Liverpool and a lot of book 4 takes place there, because he has to go home to deal with stuff. 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all in and around London as I recall. I haven't read that much British uf, but the tendency toward London is pretty extreme so far as I can tell: Carey, Aaronovitch, Griffin, and Cornell all set their series there mostly or entirely. Trying to think ... but no, sorry, not coming up with much. In historical fantasy set in a single city ala uf there's Brian Ruckley's The Edinburgh Dead, which is set in, um, Edinburgh; I have that but I'm afraid I haven't read it. On tv there's Being Human, which is set in Bristol and then in Cardif when the BBC decided that worked better for them. Fantasy for children is also great at getting out of London: Alan Garner's first kids' fantasies are set in Kent, the parts of them that happen on Earth anyway, and his The Owl Service is set somewhere in rural Wales the name of which escapes me and, to the ignorant North American reader, feels very wrapped up in Welsh / English issues and conflicts. Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series has installments set in someplace in rural England that I've never been able to quite place, Cornwall, and Wales. But so far as modern uf for adults I can't think of much, which is crazy -- there are numerous cities in the UK, the whole UK and Ireland, not just England, that are crying out to be explored in this way. I'm stoked for Aaronovitch's The Hanging Tree and I haven't even read Foxglove Summer yet. I'm kind of bracing myself for The Hanging Tree to be delayed a bit, though; the US publisher has no listing for it yet and Aaronovitch's novels have been delayed before, though never by much. I can't help with the "more books like Bryggs and Vaughn" I'm afraid, since I haven't read them yet, but I can mention that I get a very cozy mystery vibe off McGuire's October Day books. I should clarify this: I don't mean their topics are cozy; their topics include things like abducted children / broken families [a theme of the series] and fantasy drug-use, and much, much blood is spilled. The characters are constantly confronting great danger. But, and McGuire may change this up in future, it's the kind of series where things usually work out pretty well. Occasionally somebody'll die and there'll be some genuine sad, but McGuire applies this with a pretty light touch, and for the most part I find it's a series I can relax into with a reasonable expectation that the protagonist and her deep bench of lovable bantering friends are probably gonna save the day. Very elfy, though. M. L. Brennan's Generation V books are great; I'm still very sold on them. Some reasonably grizzly stuff and some moments that are actually pretty brutal for light uf reading, but a lot of humour and emotionality to the characters and their interactions, and the series is built on a partnership that's one of the most enjoyable relationships I've read in uf. The surrounding cast and world are great, but if this series has a central selling point I think that point is its central two-hander. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 'Fraid not. Well, one of them is. Felix was born and raised in Liverpool and a lot of book 4 takes place there, because he has to go home to deal with stuff. 1, 2, 3, and 5 are all in and around London as I recall. Reading that book was kind of weird for me because that plotline was almost identical to one in Mike Carey's run on Hellblazer, which I'd read shortly before that novel came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Has anybody here read A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab? But so far as modern uf for adults I can't think of much, which is crazy -- there are numerous cities in the UK, the whole UK and Ireland, not just England, that are crying out to be explored in this way. Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey and And Blue Skies From Pain are amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emberling Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Sarah Rees Brennan Unspoken takes place in some random probably made up English village. I read it and remember nothing. It was okay, I guess? (YA UF) Stina Leicht Of Blood and Honey is set in Ireland somewhere (does Ireland count?); there was a lot of good buzz around it a while back but I never read it. I can think of at least two YA series set around boarding schools somewhere on the southern coast of England but they were both utterly terrible. Katherine Farmar Wormwood Gate is a mediocre cute-YA-lesbians-in-wonderland set in Dublin. Skyler White And Falling, Fly is a weird, problematic, beautiful magic-realist-ish succubus thing set mostly in Ireland. I read it years ago and it was unlike anything I'd ever read, but I've read a lot more widely now and I dunno if I'd still like it and I definitely didn't fully understand it. I'm sure I've read one or two set in or around Edinburgh, and at least one in Wales, but nothing comes to mind. Except the one Dresden book set mostly in Edinburgh (but entirely in the White Council HQ) and a C.E. Murphy book that's like seventh in a series and set in Wales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puntificator Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Has anybody here read A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab? I have, and I liked it a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puntificator Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Out of interest, are there any notable or recommendable British UF not set in London? Yes. The Ritual Crime Unit books by E. E. Richardson take place in North Yorkshire. There are two books so far: Under the Skin and Disturbed Earth. This is dark urban fantasy, and the main protagonist is DCI Claire Pierce of the North Yorkshire Police, who is in her mid-fifties, and who heads Northern England's Ritual Crime Unit — unusual and unusually good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Yeah, I was thinking more of real urban fantasy, where the city gives a lot of weight to the story. Seems no reason you couldn't set one in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, or Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast. Dublin too of course.Has anybody here read A Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey and And Blue Skies From Pain are amazing. Yes. The Ritual Crime Unit books by E. E. Richardson take place in North Yorkshire. There are two books so far: Under the Skin and Disturbed Earth. This is dark urban fantasy, and the main protagonist is DCI Claire Pierce of the North Yorkshire Police, who is in her mid-fifties, and who heads Northern England's Ritual Crime Unit — unusual and unusually good.These sound interesting though, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Has anybody here read A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab? It's good, though it's not really urban fantasy in the sense usually meant by the term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Has anybody here read A Darker Shade of Magic by .Yup. Loved it. And I think it could qualify as urban fantasy. The cities themselves are practically characters. Just because there isn't a werewolf/vampire/human love triangle doesn't mean they can't be UF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanna Stark Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Got Generation V btw, and really liking it. Good rec peterbound et al. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Yup.Loved it. And I think it could qualify as urban fantasy. The cities themselves are practically characters. Just because there isn't a werewolf/vampire/human love triangle doesn't mean they can't be UF. It's not about that, so much as while if you take the term literally it obviously is urban fantasy, what is usually covered by the term are works set in a real city and/or a magical reflection of one, and the structure of the city, both physical and social/political/whatever else, shapes the plot. The other Londons here don't really have any relation to the real one, which is pretty sidelined, and in any case it's more a game of princes and empires more than what I usually think of as UF tropes- down-on-their-luck lone wolf investigators, law-enforcement, often protecting-the-masquerade type of thing. Got Generation V btw, and really liking it. Good rec peterbound et al. :)Really love that series. It's a bunch of things that I normally wouldn't be interested in at all (vampires, booooooooooring), and yet it's sprung to right near the top of my favourite UF list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I've been on the lookout for Robert Jackson Bennett and Christopher Buehlman's novels. I bought Buehlman's, Those Across the River, yesterday. I've only read City of Stairs and Between Two Fires(neither urban fantasy) but American Elsewhere, The Troupe and The Lesser Dead are all on my TBR list. Some of those novels aren't exactly urban fantasy, but readers may enjoy them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puntificator Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I've been on the lookout for Robert Jackson Bennett and Christopher Buehlman's novels. I bought Buehlman's, Those Across the River, yesterday. I've only read City of Stairs and Between Two Fires(neither urban fantasy) but American Elsewhere, The Troupe and The Lesser Dead are all on my TBR list. Some of those novels aren't exactly urban fantasy, but readers may enjoy them. I highly recommend Buehlman's The Necromancer's House. I think it's the best of his four novels, yet it's the only one you don't mention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 I highly recommend Buehlman's The Necromancer's House. I think it's the best of his four novels, yet it's the only one you don't mention. My mistake. I didn't mean to exclude it, simply forgot to include it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 I have, and I liked it a lot. Yup.Loved it. And I think it could qualify as urban fantasy. The cities themselves are practically characters. Just because there isn't a werewolf/vampire/human love triangle doesn't mean they can't be UF. It's good, though it's not really urban fantasy in the sense usually meant by the term. Great. Thanks guys. I think my definition of UF is broader than most peoples'. The synopsis made me think it was more UF in the vein of Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence (although I've only read Three Parts Dead). Yes. The Ritual Crime Unit books by E. E. Richardson take place in North Yorkshire. There are two books so far: Under the Skin and Disturbed Earth. This is dark urban fantasy, and the main protagonist is DCI Claire Pierce of the North Yorkshire Police, who is in her mid-fifties, and who heads Northern England's Ritual Crime Unit — unusual and unusually good. Those do look cool, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 She described “Uprooted” as a story that takes place in a Poland that has never existed but in her imagination based on the fairy tales her mother, an immigrant from Poland, told her as a child. So I guess fairy tale fantasy. It sounds interesting.Just going back to this, because I remembered it and am currently most of the way through Uprooted- it honestly doesn't feel all that Polish to me. Perhaps I'm being unfair, as I'm only a bit moreso than she is (both my parents were Polish, but I grew up in England), so my judgement isn't flawless, but although some of the Polishness is cool, some of it feels a bit false (from names- for example the main character is Agnieszka, a real Polish name obviously, but shortens to 'nieshka, which is just wrong in every particular- to founding myths of the fictional nation). And the bulk of the book feels far more Dianne-Wynne-Jones/TH White/the evil tree bits from Rothfuss than anything I'd recognise as Polish.It is, however, an utterly wonderful book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted July 2, 2015 Author Share Posted July 2, 2015 Just going back to this, because I remembered it and am currently most of the way through Uprooted- it honestly doesn't feel all that Polish to me. Perhaps I'm being unfair, as I'm only a bit moreso than she is (both my parents were Polish, but I grew up in England), so my judgement isn't flawless, but although some of the Polishness is cool, some of it feels a bit false (from names- for example the main character is Agnieszka, a real Polish name obviously, but shortens to 'nieshka, which is just wrong in every particular- to founding myths of the fictional nation). And the bulk of the book feels far more Dianne-Wynne-Jones/TH White/the evil tree bits from Rothfuss than anything I'd recognise as Polish.Interesting. I think Novik sort of acknowledged that by saying it takes place in a Poland that has never existed but in her imagination. Despite my father's family being 100% Polish I grew up with none of its traditions. His family was not tellers of tales and stories, they were very determined to fit into America and shed their culture when they came here. Quite the contrast to my mom's family which was full of tales and stories of Ireland despite having come here generations back. My great aunt would tell me stories that her great aunts told her and they would have gotten those stories from their parents. And of course the stories and images it created in my head in no way resembled anything real as what I had been told was a bittersweet recollection that had been embellished over the course of numerous generations. So in the same way I can see where Uprooted would have sprung from and how it might not at all ultimately resemble the inspiration. When you get to the end of the book, there are the acknowledgements. There Novik writes that the heroine's name, "comes from a fairy tale that I demanded from my mother endlessly as a child called Agnieszka Skrawek Neiba (Agniesszka 'Piece of Sky'), the version by the wonderful Natalia Galczynska. The heroine and her wandering yellow cow make a small cameo appearance here, and the roots of the Wood are planted in the wild, overgrown las of that story." I'm not familiar with that story but I'd be curious to read it and see what images that story creates in the reader's mind. I actually just finished Uprooted for the second time last night. I raced through it the first time and was very on the fence about it. Took a much slower read through on the second time. I liked it better the second time through. But I don't OMG love it in the way so many reviews I've read have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncalagonTheBlack Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 A few more British UF books/series: The Rook (The Checquy Files #1) by Daniel O'Malley The Oversight (Oversight Trilogy #1) by Charlie FletcherMike Shevdon's Courts of the Feyre seriesAlex Verus series by Benedict JackaSuzanne McLeod's Spellcrackers series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 When you get to the end of the book, there are the acknowledgements. There Novik writes that the heroine's name, "comes from a fairy tale that I demanded from my mother endlessly as a child called Agnieszka Skrawek Neiba (Agnieszka 'Piece of Sky'), the version by the wonderful Natalia Galczynska. Yeah, I might be curious to read it (though it should be 'fragment of sky' really, tsk).However the acknowledgements also say that Agnieszka is pronounced Ag-NYESH-kah. And, like, while I'm aware that it's impossible to actually convey what it sounds like to an English speaker without demonstrating, that's not how it's pronounced! 'sz' and 'sh' are not interchangable. I know, the acknowledgements aren't really the place for a linguistics debate, but it bugged me. Even a 'near enough' would have been fine. It was also kind of annoying that she used 'sh' throughout the novel for both 'sz' - which it's not - and 'si'- which it is, but for the main character and her best friend, she used the proper form of each (Agnieszka, and Kasia). But, aside from those concerns which most people aren't gonna notice, I thought it was a genuinely fabulous book. Though, in case anyone gets the wrong impression, it's not Urban Fantasy. I loved the Felix Castor books. Those were amazing. I recommend them to people who try to shove the Dresden Files down my throat :-p Ooh yeah, the Felix Castor books are great. Have you read Mike Carey's run on Hellblazer? My favourite British UF is the Matthew Swift novels by Kate Griffin aka Catherine Webb aka Claire North, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 My favourite British UF is the Matthew Swift novels by Kate Griffin aka Catherine Webb aka Claire North, though.I really should read those, because her Claire North books are fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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