[ SECRET POST #5128 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5128 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 20 secrets from Secret Submission Post #734.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

06. https://i.imgur.com/8x3AK5c.png

[(Anonymous)]

I blame Laurell K. Hamilton

[(Anonymous)]

I was just going to post to bitch about her. I loved the first few Anita Blake books. Bad ass female characters are my thing. But as soon as she got into a "relationship" with that vamp all her badassery was gone. He dickmatized her.

[(Anonymous)]

This. I t she's far more responsible than Anne Rice.

[(Anonymous)]

Same.

Fun fact. Jim Butcher ambushed LKH's agent at a con to pitch his Dresden series and got signed. Sigh. (Most advice is like, don't do this.) Because LKH was the ONLY author he could think of doing what he was doing at the time.

[(Anonymous)]

The most annoying thing about LKH is her first few books were solidly detective fiction! There was a romance element but it was mainly noir, mainly detective fiction, and a lot of us got hooked on that... aaaaaand then she took a hard swerve into the porny end of the romance pool.

Which is fine if that's what you've been given to expect from the beginning, like her fairy books, but boy that was annoying from Anita Blake.

[thewakokid]

You're not wrong. She isn't patient zero, but she is a damned prominent typhoid Mary of this sickness.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree totally about what urban fantasy has become.

But how do you blame Anne Rice? Lestat falls in love with everyone, sure, but he's a far cry from the formulaic romance novel-esque story that plays out in a lot of urban fantasy.

[feotakahari]

The urban fantasy that isn’t romance is about a snarky antihero mage who’s either John Constantine or just barely legally distinct from John Constantine. I’ll take the romance, myself.

[(Anonymous)]

I blame female authors imitating Buffy. Every book has to have a smartass main character.

It's sad but but true that urban fantasy by men tends to be more imaginative and less romance-y.

[(Anonymous)]

This secret is horseshit.

No one is to blame for this state of affairs, and in fact, there's nothing wrong with the fact that urban fantasy romance mystery is a massively popular genre. It's that popular because it has a massive readership. Other forms of urban fantasy are less popular because they don't. None of that is anyone's fault. It sucks that other kinds of urban fantasy aren't as popular! I totally agree with that part of the secret. I love good non romance urban fantasy.

But "this genre of popular literature is too popular and I blame women"? Fuck outta here with all of that

[(Anonymous)]

I don't really blame female authors for this at all. I blame agents and publishers who saw LKH and Jim Butcher and to an extent Kim Harrison flying off the shelves and asked their already established authors to write LKH style stories. Or signed err... buffy fanfic writers.

I mean, good for these female authors. They're getting signed. They're getting paid. They're getting sales. And there are also plenty of male authors in the genre who are getting paid and getting sales.

My issue is it's either edging into Paranormal Romance with a not what it says she is on the tin MC or it's Noir with a Male Power Fantasy MC. And like nothing else? It's power fantasy either way. Surely it could have more breadth as a genre than that? And Cozy Urban Fantasy Mystery is worse b/c that's MOSTLY indie and has indie book problems. And I was so excited I mean, cozy mystery with fantasy and no. Sigh.

Right now, UF is dead on arrival. No one is signing new debuts for the genre as far as I know. So, I guess we have to wait until the next wave to get something new/interesting.

[tabaqui]

I keep thinking about the Borderland books...I wonder if you would enjoy them? I don't remember romance/relationships being a huge part of it. It existed, but it wasn't the end-all, be-all.

"Bordertown is the name of the shared universe created by Terri Windling, and a fictional place within that universe. The premise of the Borderland books is that the "Elflands" - a realm of magic populated by post-Tolkien elves have "returned" to "The World". The region of juxtaposition of the Elflands and the World includes Bordertown or "B-Town", and the "Borderlands" which lie between Bordertown and the World. In the liminal environment of Bordertown and its environs, neither magic nor technology functions "normally", and unpredictable combinations of the two may emerge."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderland_(book_series)#Novels

[(Anonymous)]

If you want a Rec, anon, the "Nightwatch" series by Sergei Lukyanenko are urban fantasy (originally russian) and are excellent and are not romance at all. Some people have romantic situations/relationships but that's not the plot at all and I LOVE them so much. Mainly cause the lead character isn't overly special, and never becomes overly special. People around him due, but he never becomes a 'chosen' one.

[(Anonymous)]

The idea of someone whining about too much romance in their fiction and then going for noir, of all things, is cracking me up.

Romance is a huge part of the noir genre. And a lot of it is just as formulaic as romance targeted towards women, it just hits a different set of tropes that appeal to a different audience.

[(Anonymous)]

at least Seanan Macguire is queer romance?

Rivers of London

[(Anonymous)]

I'd describe myself as basically romance-allergic and I'm really enjoying the Rivers of London series (up to Book 3 so far). Admittedly, there was some minor romance in Book 2, which I rolled my eyes at and thought was really unnecessary. But it's mostly about the actual mystery-solving and trying to figure out how the hell the supernatural works in the first place. Although he's an aspiring wizard, I'd say Peter Grant doesn't really fit the John Constantine type -- he's not cool and his magical abilities are very low-level. I especially like the fact that he keeps trying to figure out things pseudo-scientifically.

[meadowphoenix]

Does The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires have a romance? I guess that would be suburban fantasy tho.

[arashinoookami]

Have you tried Charles de Lint? Admittedly, some of his books do have romance, but it's not usually the main focus.

[(Anonymous)]

Ever read Kate Griffin's books? They're set in London, urban fantasy, male protagonist in the Matthew Swift series and a female one in the Magicals Anonymous one. Very little romance, mostly because everyone's a bit too busy with the crisis of each book.

There's also the Kat Richardson Greywalker series, which is a bit more romance orientated with a female PI protagonist but the focus is absolutely on the situation at hand, not whether or not she's in a romantic relationship.

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar - I genuinely don't remember much but I'm pretty sure it doesn't sit in the paranormal romance genre. It's a bit weird.

At a reach, The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder, Puppet Master by Joanne Owen, maybe John Courtenay Grimwood or Charles Stross? Like, none of those really fit urban fantasy that well but they might be of interest?

Would avoid the Fated series by Benedict Jacka, Holly Black, and Into the Nightside by Simon Green, even though I like the books there's a lot of what you're trying to avoid re:romance.

Disclaimer - it's been a while since I read these, YMMV.

Agree with Ben Aaronovitch and Sergei Lukyanenko and Charles de Lint, they write good books.

But blaming women because you can't find what you want to read is trash.

[(Anonymous)]

I still love first-person female protag urban fantasy lit, sorry not sorry

They're also ever-so-slightly less heterosexual than ones that have male protags, which is a bonus

[(Anonymous)]

Anne Rice writes dreamy gothic vampire stories and makes no pretense of writing anything else. Her books have always been about exploring relationships, what it is to be human, and who we become when we lose that human-ness.

What I'm saying is: If you're blaming Anne Rice it's because you haven't actually read Anne Rice.

Or you have read Anne Rice and you didn't get it.

Blame YA. Blame Laurell K. Hamilton. Blame... I dunno. Anything with a love triangle. I don't know what to tell you.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a great big fan of Tanya Huff's Blood series! It comes in two sets. The first set five book series that focuses on a female lead detective and her romance book writing author vampire friend. They do kind of date, there is romance, but the focus is almost entirely on the mystery at hand. I'm like you, I find the romance aspects of urban fiction (an already tiny genre) super fucking annoying, but here it was good. Lowkey. Very tension-y. And we were mostly focused on plot. A+. Very workable romance.

The second set is my absolute FAVORITE though. That's one that has next to no romance. (Attraction and desperate gay pining almost exclusively until the very end of the last book.) This follows Tony Foster, a side character from the first series. He's working in... I dunno. Toronto Hollywood. Just living his life, trying to get his feet under him after living on the streets for most of his teenage years. Bein' a dude. Bein' not very good at most things adults are supposed to do. The usual. Then demons start happening. And then he kind of turns into a wizard. He's a terrible wizard. Failing grades in Survival Wizardry every single book. It's great. It's really funny. It's well written. And I recommend it to literally anyone.

[thewakokid]

:)

[(Anonymous)]

Every time I see a secret complaining that all is , my unkind thought is "you're really not reading the mags for reviews, are you?"

Yes, people are still doing urban mythic and resettings of grisly folklore where making deals with fairies is a very bad idea.