Urban Fantasy discussion

I'm looking for books that are post apocalyptic. I like dark and grity. Some that I have read and really enjoyesd are, The Fever Series, Downside Ghosts Series, Kate Daniels Series.

Linda Mooney from the top of my head. The last one is a short story but very enjoyable.

Downside Ghosts would definitely fall into that category. I'd also recommend and

My favorite dark and gritty (they are also violent) are by Jeff Somers. The Avery Cates series in order:
The Electric Church
The Digital Plague
The Eternal Prison
The Terminal State
The Final Evolution

Another favorite series of mine that falls under dark and gritty is Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series:
Already Dead
No Dominion
Half the Blood of Brooklyn
Every Last Drop
My Dead Body

Rob Thurman does dark and gritty well. I love her Cal Leandros series that starts with Nightlife.

The Hunter Kiss series by Marjorie M. Liu is a unique and dark series. The first book is The Iron Hunt, but I HIGHLY recommend reading the prequel short story in the Wild Thing anthology. You might be able to get the story free online because it is a few years old now.

The Dante Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow is great. Starts with Working for the Devil.

A little less dark and gritty, but great Urban Fantasy:

I LOVE Kim Harrison's Hallow's series, but a lot of people don't. The first book is Dead Witch Walking.

I also love the Cassandra Palmer series by
Karen Chance. Starts with Touch the Dark.

Melissa wrote: "I LOVE Kim Harrison's Hallow's series, but a lot of people don't. The first book is Dead Witch Walking."

I *love* that series, too! It's a little less gritty than some which is probably why I enjoy it.

I like all Melissa's suggestions, and would add some that are less well known:

I've heard a lot about Feed. I've wanted to read that one for a while now.

And speaking of Feed...

Here's another book called Feed. It's sci fi, but it's also dystopian. Although, the world is messed up in such a way that no one notices (until someone notices.) The weird thing is that the book is YA, but between the language, the gratuitous jokes, and the sex, I wouldn't consider it YA. It wasn't my favorite book, but the really interesting thing about it is that it was written eight years ago, and it is very prophetic in many ways.

Anyway, it's worth a read.

If it hasn't been said yet, I recommend Delirium. When it came out it was a stand alone, but got turned into a trilogy. I just checked it out and it looks like that there will be two novellas between one and two and again between two three along with a fourth novel. I have yet to read past book one, but I hope to get to the rest soon. 2.5 Comes out on December 26th.
I also recommend the Uglies series. It is finished and has four. This one started as trilogy and the author wrote a fourth after it was all said and done.
Happy reading!

Why do authors do a 2.5 etc? Are they must reads to understand the series? They seem to only come in digital format as well.

Stephanie wrote: "Why do authors do a 2.5 etc? Are they must reads to understand the series? They seem to only come in digital format as well."

I don't know why they do, but I personally like them because they give me even more of the story that doesn't normally make it into the final cut of a novel, but only as long as I get a good deal of enjoyment out of the series. I do think that they are stand alone novellas, but you will not understand what all is going on like who's who and what type of relationships the characters have with each other if you just pick up one of the 1/2 books without reading any or all of the series prior to that one. So no, I doubt that if you skip them that you will miss anything important to the plot.

The Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep is pretty good too.

Dystopian, not necessarily post- apocalyptic. Very, very good, though.

Santa Olivia next in series: .

I just finished and it was incredible.


I'm not sure if it's really dystopian/post-apocalyptic, but I highly recommend Neal Shusterman's Unwind Trilogy (but only two books out so far)

Have you tried Mike Carey's Felix Castor books -definately gritt,y UK based UF detective but not much romance and not the normal 'ass-kicking' superhero/heroine pace.
Alternatively if you don't mind YA apocalyptic, Patrick Ness' Chaos Walking series is outstanding and develops far beyond the normal YA teen love triangle in a dystopian world narrative.

I have to give a shout-out to A Canticle for Leibowitz. It shows cycles of apocalypse and re-building, the meaning of faith and re-interpretation of history. It's a bit on the heavy side, but I loved it.

Stephanie wrote: "Why do authors do a 2.5 etc? Are they must reads to understand the series? They seem to only come in digital format as well."
The ones I have come across are either cut scenes, freebies for fans or occasionally stories written for anthologies and usually posted on the authors web sites.. They are not must reads- but are usually prequels, or side stories based on minor characters or different POVs.

A very unique book is . The language can be challenging, but it is one of my all-time favorites. I'll never look at a Punch and Judy show the same way again, lol.

Christine wrote: "I'm not sure if it's really dystopian/post-apocalyptic, but I highly recommend Neal Shusterman's Unwind Trilogy (but only ..."

My daughter has just read Unwind -she said that the first half was slow but was really impressed with the second half and has gone on to book 2.

Anna wrote: "Christine wrote: "I'm not sure if it's really dystopian/post-apocalyptic, but I highly recommend Neal Shusterman's Unwind Trilogy (but only ..."

My daughter has just read Unwind -she said that the..."


I think she assessed it fairly accurately. It took me several chapters to adjust to the author's writing style and to wrap my head around the basic concept. But once he grabbed me, I was totally immersed. He doesn't give a lot of background in the first book, so you're left wondering how society came to this. I thought book two was better from the start.

this series is purely post-apocalyptic, no werewolves or fairies or vampires. They are so good! I would recommend all the book in this series.