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Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance v. 3.0


LugaJetboyGirl

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Have you read Lukyanenko's "Night Watch"? (Not sure how well known these are in the anglosphere.) I only read the first but there are 5 or so and they were among the most succesful books ever in Russia.

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Speaking of books with Ghost in the title, I really liked 'Girl with the Ghost Eyes.' It's set in San Francisco at the turn of the last century. The 'girl' is actually in her 20s and is a young widow and a Daoist priestess. It's gotten good reviews and I myself am very eager for the next book.

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3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

My Urban Fantasy experience is very limited so far. If The Craft Seqence counts then read those omg right now go, but other than that, uh Peter Grant I like, Benighted I liked, Dresden I hate. I have yet to really try out more. But I want to.

Dude,put these on your TBR pile ASAP! :)

Felix Castor series by Mike Carey

Daniel Blackland series by Greg Van Eekhout

Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin

Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston

Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly

Eric Carter series by Stephen Blackmoore

Shadow Police series by Paul Cornell

Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey

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6 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Most of those are on my list actually, but as I have a physical TBR pile of 400+ books I'm trying to not start new series. (It's not working).

Well, most of the one's listed in my post are complete ,only the Blackmoore,Cornell and Kadrey are still ongoing.So just start with any of the finished series.Some really good stuff in that list ,i guarantee it.:D

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43 minutes ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

The upcoming Eric Carter book got pushed back, sadly.

I'd also check out the Pax Arcana series by Elliot James.

And dear lord, that is one sausage fest of a recommended books list.

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I read one of the "Craft": Three parts dead. Good, but not great, IMO.  Is this considered one of the better or weaker ones? It's considerably better than Rivers of London, though.. Aaronovitch has great ideas (some stolen, but who doesn't) and decent characters but needs a co-author to tighten plots (and a spell and language checker as well).

The first Lukyanenko was also not much more than good (I think there's something lost in translation) but fairly original and with a considerably different "Russian" (or more precisely 1990s postcommunist broken down Moscow) atmosphere. It does not read like a recent American rom-com or thriller with witches and vampires.

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39 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Well, our views on Peter Grant do not align, obviously, but I found three parts dead to be stronger than its sequel, two serpents rise, but I thought both Pale in comparison to full fathom five, the best in the series, so far, as I have yet to read book four.

I found the Peter Grant books to be pretty poor.  The main character manages to be even more unlikeable than Harry Dresden, somehow.

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I would have missed Peter Grant but for my younger sister who lent them to me. I was sufficiently fascinated to read the first four! books and one reason I am badmouthing the series is continuing disappointment because it  does have great ideas and I would like to like them more than I do because I think it could have been much better than it was with not all that much more effort.

I mentioned these before: My problem is not the main character (although he is far too loquacious) or the supporting cast (clicheed they might be). It's that the books rely too much on gore/disgust for shock effect, that every book introduces some new critters that are never really explained (and they usually cease to be of any importance in the next book) and overall there are too many threads left dangling. There are also too many dead ends and red herrings, lots of things are introduced in a grandiose fashion without becoming important.

At least two books rely far too heavily on external stuff (jazz and architecture) and long sections tend to become boring if the reader does not share these interests. Overall they often feel "unfinished": ideas and scenes thrown together without sufficiently tightened up. (And the poor, fast work also shows in the many grammatical errors, typos, the sometimes ludicrously wrong Latin and German etc.) I am also not familiar with London having been there only once for a day which is another problem as the books rely heavily on the atmosphere of that city (or parts of it).

But overall, I think I am just not the audience for stuff that more or less reads like Harry Potter for young urban people of the 2000s. I am slightly too old, decidely un-urban and I want fantasy/SF to be as different as possible from contemporary mystery thrillers, sitcoms, romcoms. "Three parts dead" was sufficiently weird and atmospheric not to feel like that (except for the law school/practice bits).

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I never had any problems with phrases in the Grant Books, but I might have read a bit too much British SFF growing up. As for him being less likable then Dresden, well, let's just say I find you stance baffling and we will never agree.

Ive had Felux Caator on the list for a while but no bookstore here carries it. I need to do an Amazon order soon.

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I dont do the ebook thing, mainly cause all the ealry versions hurt my eyes, and now I can;t afford one at the moment plus i have a stack of books already and I like paper ok, I'm weird. (I have nothing against people who prefer ebooks, honestly, as long as they don't preach at me, same thing with vegans, heh).

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Recently I checked out Liesmith by Alis Franklin from the library. It's an urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Over the years I've gotten a bit tired of books about mythological figures brought to life as paranormal characters (in this case, Norse), so I was a bit wary. I found it to be very charming, however. I was even more wary of the 'nerdy' main character, but he turned out to be truly adorkable, also in an entirely charming manner. It was very clever and I laughed out loud at multiple points.

Plus its set in Australia. Granted, there isn't much of a 'Straya sense to the setting, but it was nice to read urban fantasy that wasn't set in Europe or the US.

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There's Jacquelyn Carey's Agent of Hel series, for example. Visitor's come to the town for magical tourism because it is located in the Norse Underworld goddess' territory. The main character (Daisy) basically makes sure that Hel's rules are followed by the magical inhabitants of the town (and that the tourists aren't eaten). 

In this case Hel isn't one of the main characters, although her presence is felt throughout the book and Daisy does go into the underworld to meet with her. In Liesmith, the Norse mythological figures have more prominent roles.

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one million at the height of the Empire in Rome itself 

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That's debatable, most sources I've seen puts Rome at around 800,000. (Similar to Constantinopole at it's height) while Baghdad being the first city in the world to reach the 1-million mark. 

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