Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Drool-Worthy New Urban Fantasy

After spending the last several weeks deep in the first round of revisions for my own urban fantasy novel, it's time to come up for air and some well-deserved reading time. I'm practically salivating over the scores of amazing new UF hitting the shelves this month; it's going to be very difficult choosing what to start first.

Of course many of the titles are the continuation of some great series, including new installments in J.R. Ward's The Fallen Angels series, another October Day story by Seanan McGuire, and a third Vampire Empire novel from Clay and Susan Griffith (yay!).

I'm also keen to check out a few anthologies. Ghosts: Recent Hauntings features works by some of my favorite authors like, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Hand, and Tim Powers. There's a neat collection that focuses on school-time mayhem called An Apple for the Creature (cute, right?), with contributions by Ilona Andrews and Mike Carey, among others.

Even more exciting are all the brand new series debuting in September. It's not hard to see how things are trending in the genre these days. There are at least as many zombie stories as vampire ones. Werewolves are more rare, although what few I saw look very promising. Gorgoyles and ancient gods are on the rise, along with some fresh and unique creatures to keep fans on their toes.

Here are my picks to look out for:

Full Blooded, Jessica McClain #1 by Amanda Carlson - Here we have another story about the troubles of being one of the only female werewolves in existence. I’m not sure why they’re always so rare, but I do like reading about them. There’s a novella available as a prequel to the series, and the second book is scheduled to release in April of next year.

The Dirty Streets of Heaven, Bobby Dollar #1 by Tad Williams - I was a huge fan of Mr. Williams as a kid, but I’ve drifted away from classic fantasy over the years. So I was thrilled when I started hearing about his dip into the UF pool. The series revolves around a wise-cracking angel, and should be a nice addition to that vein of Heaven & Hell type of stories.

In a Fix by Linda Grimes - This title looks very original and centers on a character who is an aura adaptor, something I’ve never heard of before and which really intrigues me. I was lucky enough to receive a galley of this one, so I hope to review it later this month. Did I mention there are Vikings?


Earth to Hell: Journey to Wudang, Book One by Kylie Chan- Technically, this trilogy is a continuation of the author's previous Dark Heavens books, but since I haven't read those yet, I'm treating this like a new series. I'm always on the lookout for UF that takes place in foreign cities, and this tale of Chinese gods and Demon Kings in Hong Kong looks fabulous.

This Case is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova - This one gets bonus points for reminding me of that dastardly law firm from the show Angel, Wolfram & Hart.

Dark Light of Day: A Noon Onyx Novel by Jill Archer - This one is kind of hard to pin down since the blurb reads more like a straight-up fantasy, but with mentions of Lucifer, Armageddon, and a mystical Greek river. Whatever, it sounds magically delicious.

There are even a couple of YA titles that caught my eye this month, particularly Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst with its exotic desert locale, trickster gods and sand-wolves. Another standout is The City’s Son by Tom Pollock, who recently wrote a wonderful article about urban fantasy over at The Book Smugglers.

Hot damn, these all look so good! This doesn’t even cover half the titles out this month, but it’ll be enough to keep me busy for a long time. What new releases are you most looking forward to? Or, if you have a book coming out soon, tell us about it.

Cheers!
Ella

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