Urban Fantasy discussion

Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, Demons and Fairies.

We know them, we love them or chances are we might have never become interested in Urban Fantasy at all.

But what are your favorite non tradition monsters?

I am currently fascinated with The Mare,an evil little bastard who "rides" the chest of a sleeping victim feeding them nightmares that can even leave their victims paralyzed for a short time after awakening.

Harry Connolly has some completely original stuff in his Child of Fire series. It blows me away.

I really love it when an author takes a fairly traditional monster and makes it into something completely original. Rob Thurman does this well in the Cal Leandros series with several of the monsters they encounter but my favorite is the bridge troll from the early books in the series. Very creepy!

But nobody has quite amazed me with the originality of their monsters quite like China Mieville did in Perdito Street Station. It might be more fantasy than really UF though.

I like Charles de Lint because he uses Native American spirits who take on animal and human shapes. Like fox, crows, etc.

Gargoyles I recently found on in Black Wings by Christina Henry. He is so much fun.

A completely different treatment of the Sidhe, also called the Fae or Fairy Folk

The Telepathic Clans

BR Kingsolver

I am not sure I can think of other creatures per say but I like it when mythology comes in... so you get gods like coyote or the norse crew like Thor, Loki, Odin, Asgard and series with fallen angels which when done really well make me uncomfortable because it seems like such a possibility.

Examples would be
Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs
Iron Druid by Kevin Hearne
Nikki Glass by Jenna Black
Remy Chandler by Thomas E. Sniegoski

One of the reasons I liked this month's book so much is that The Golem and the Jinni is that it is about creatures we don't often see, or see this way, or see divorced from their original environments/ cultures...

I've read a lot of urban fantasy. Some of the nontraditional monsters I've come across and the books they were in are:

Banshees:
My Soul to Take

Barghests:
Tempest Rising

Furies:
Red Hot Fury

Gargoyles:
Baba Yaga's Daughter & Other Tales of the Old Races
Alchemystic
Heart of Stone

Genies/Jinni/Djinni:
Heart of Stone
Baba Yaga's Daughter & Other Tales of the Old Races
The Secret of Ka
The Golem and the Jinni

Golems:
The Golem and the Jinni
Joe Golem and the Drowning City: An Illustrated Novel

Gorgons:
Sweet Venom
Tempest Rising

Grim Reapers:
Once Dead, Twice Shy
Croak
First Grave on the Right
My Soul to Take

Nightmares:
My Soul to Take
Blink Once

Selkies:
Tempest Rising
Heart of Stone
Rosemary and Rue

Dawn wrote: "I am not sure I can think of other creatures per say but I like it when mythology comes in... so you get gods like coyote or the norse crew like Thor, Loki, Odin, Asgard and series with fallen ange..."

Oh I have to agree about mythology! They're already stories that say so much about ourselves as societies and then there's new room to explore. Have you read S.C. Mitchell's Son of Thunder? Norse mythology 2nd generation!

I also like when an author just creates something completely new, like one of the races in the Calderon, Cursor series by Jim Butcher...cant recall what their name was but found them creepy.

The Vord is what they were called.

OMG, 'The Mare' is terrifying.

This isn't really qualified as "UF" but if you read UF you probably read Zombie and Dystopia?

This is free today at Amazon.com - http://tinyurl.com/n5oejw7



Don't know if it is any good, but hey, who knows? It sounds like it might be different than your "typical" zombie thriller?

One of my favorite places for freebies is http://www.bookbasset.com/

also you can watch freebooksie.com and several others.

I'm loving the idea of sirens and selkies. Sort of on a mer kick lately - I think I'm very ready for winter to be over *-^

I'm a big fan of Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series. Lots of cool, non-traditional monsters and creatures, my favorite being the Aeslin Mice. But also bogeymen, cuckoos, madhuras, and tanuki, and a whole host of others. She has a fun Field Guide on her website that describes them all.

D.Michele wrote: "I'm loving the idea of sirens and selkies. Sort of on a mer kick lately - I think I'm very ready for winter to be over *-^"

I think you might like these. I don't think anyone has mentioned them before? Jane True is a selkie . . .

So, I Read This Book Today wrote: "D.Michele wrote: "I'm loving the idea of sirens and selkies. Sort of on a mer kick lately - I think I'm very ready for winter to be over *-^"

I think you might like these. I don't think anyone has..."

Thank you for these *-* I'm all over this Jane True business <3

Also, the covers on the 1st and 2nd are fabulousness.

They are really cute, have unusual creatures, and Jane is sort of a hoot - you know, being a seal sometimes, they are short and cuddly looking? Well, so is she. Half the time I want to pick her up and hug her!

The covers are great too, and since it is way into the series now, you can enjoy them in order without having to wait. And just wait until you meet the other creatures in the story. There is the obligatory vamps of course (not all that interesting) but wait until you meet the dog! ;-)

J.B. wrote: "I just posted a topic under the "Self-Promotion" group about a collaborative UF series entitled The Twin Cities Series. It contains a book cover link to my latest addition, a novella entitled "Magp..."

J.B. Send me a link? Thanks!

While it's slightly further off-topic than so far, I'm a huge fan of some of the monsters in a few RPGS, particularly the ones from Genius the Transgression. Orphans, abandoned wonders of mad science that actively hunt for more of the madness that created them, are creepy enough, but the real hat goes to the manes. Created when ideas are abandoned and forgotten, they can only exist as long as they feed on imagination, but they don't technically exist. This means that anyone inspecting one is more likely to find static than blood and that said inspection is likely to kill them.

The ones that scare me though are the Clockstoppers, people who've rejected science so completely that they can shut it down. Some of them have such colossal loathing for science that they're immune to rocks (being an 'invention'), let alone bullets.

I created a version of Hyde, which is non physical, but needs physical life force, like a vampire, except that it sucks energy, leaving the body an empty shell.

I created a shape shifter dragon type that is also intelligent.

I think there's lots out there.

J.B. wrote: "In a book I'm currently writing, I'm reworking the traditional Chinese jiangshi vampire, giving it a more supernatural aspect. It's just making its presence known to my characters in the scenes tha..."

I watch a lot of the Chinese movies and find their hopping vampires very amusing, but fun to watch. The Chinese have come up with a lot of horror concepts that are just spectacular and any author who loves fantasy out to check them out...for pure love of fantasy...and for other ideas of how things can be done.

My favorite right now are from "The Beautiful & the Cursed" which are stone gargoyles.

Remember the Gargoyles cartoons on TV that starred the voice of Commander Riker from Star Trek Generations. The heroes were gargoyles.

Tina wrote: "I'm a big fan of Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series. Lots of cool, non-traditional monsters and creatures, my favorite being the Aeslin Mice. But also bogeymen, cuckoos, madhuras, and tanuki, and a ..."

The Aeslin Mice are sheer delight!