Books tagged with: urban

Dan Shaper is a wreck, a private "fixer" who takes on jobs for those people who won't or can't go to the police. Constantly haunted by an event in his past life while working as a violent underworld enforcer the only way he can keep those crippling memories at bay is by a growing cocktail of drugs....

Raylene Pendle (also known as Cheshire Red) is a renowned thief who steals everything from priceless art and rare jewels to people's dirty secrets. She also happens to be a vampire but apart from an aversion to the sun and not ageing, that doesn't stop her in the slightest. A bit of a loner, not pla...

Book of Secrets is a fantasy novel by Chris Roberson. Book of Secrets by Chris Roberson is a weird mix of things you’ll have come across before. Written in the first person it tells the story of Spencer Finch, a journalist down on his luck who is following some leads which could become a good paying...

Broken Homes is the fourth novel in Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series and each one gets better and better - this one though has a completely unexpected twist at the end that I guarantee will leave you breathless and have you clambering through the book looking for the clues along the way. One of...

Dead by Dawn is the 7th novel in the Jason Dark series by Guido Henkel. A woman in good health dies overnight, and to make matters worse it's Jason Dark's next door neighbour who's snuffed it, something wicked is at work in London town. As his investigation leads him down to the seedy underbelly of...

I’m going to start by saying that this isn’t usually a book I’d consider reading, my usual reads being Sci-Fi and Fantasy (usually humorous), or history books, but I was very surprised and really, really enjoyed it. The book is seen through the eyes of a Collector, Sam Thornton, who collects the sou...

Christopher Golden is an acclaimed American Author. He has worked in Horror, Fantasy, Teen and Young Adult fiction. He's known for his tie in novels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his collaboration work with Mike Magnolia, Nancy Holder and Amber Benson. His latest book ‘Dead Ringers’ is a standalo...

Dead Things was one of the few books I bought with post-christmas vouchers, after first seeing the author on twitter where he regularly trades jokes with Chuck Wendig. It's an urban fantasy adventure that follows the life of Eric Carter. Eric's a necromancer, an angry young necromancer who finds the...

The fifth book in the Dresden Files following the adventures of that intrepid wizard Harry Dresden. It begins as Dresden books often do, with attempts on Harry's life and that pretty much sets the pace for the whole story. If you've read the previous books you will be familiar with the ongoing probl...

Death Most Definite is an urban fantasy novel by Trent Jamieson. Steven de Selby has a most unusual career, he helps spirits pass to the underworld, and stops Zombies (stirrers) walking the earth. He and his parents are necromancers, also known as "pomps". This being the 21st century, these pomps ha...

There have been thousands of years of conflict between humans and parahumans, a war that's been happening in secret has finally reached an uneasy truce. But now this peace is threatened by the awakening of an unspeakable evil, a sadistic serial killer who is slaughtering teenage shapeshifters and ri...

Dodger, a young sewer "tosher" who works beneath the streets of Victorian London is guided along series of events that will transform his life and those around him. It all starts when a young women is beset upon by two ruffians and Dodger rescues the young lady from certain death. I was quite surpri...

Fool Moon is the second book in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and once again we meet up with Chicago's only professional wizard and one of only a dozen of his power in the country. Since we left Harry business has been pretty non-existant and he's been unable to find any kind of work at all munda...

It's difficult to write a review of Ghost Story without giving spoilers away about the previous book, Changes . Having said that, I'd recommend reading Changes before attempting Ghost Story , while any of the Dresden Files novels can be read individually, read this one without knowing the history wi...

I meant to read this festive novella last year however time got the better of me (as it often does). God rest ye merry Gentlepig is a festive tale featuring the angel Bobby Dollar who acts as an advocate for souls sitting in judgement after death. And so on Christmas Eve night he is summoned to act...

Unclean Spirits is the first in a new shared-universe series called Gods and Monsters. Gods (and Monsters) are real. In the past this Pantheon were content to keep the world at arms length, sucking up the belief and devotion of mortals to provide them with the power to wage war against each other. B...

Set in an alternative world where the supernatural have the same rights as we do, Hard Spell is an urban fantasy novel by Justin Gustainis and follows the adventures of Stan Markowski, a detective of the Scranton PD’s Occult Crimes Unit. The "Supe" unit handles any crimes that have a supernatural el...

Hellbent sees the return of the sassy super thief Raylene - also known as Cheshire Red - who is back to her usual tricks, hired to retrieve a valuable magical artifact. This time however she is up against a very powerful Witch and must team up with x-Navy SEAL and fabulous drag queen Adrian deJesus;...

The first Pratchett book that I've read in a long time. I kind of overdosed on Pratchett a few years ago and haven't read anything of his for a while. As it often is with Pratchett's books, they are rather hard to describe or even retell – it's very easy to fail miserably to convey just what really...

One of the newer books in the (never-ending) Discworld saga. I'm finding it extremely hard to say anything interesting about this book – not because it's bad, but it's a Discworld novel and …well that's it. It's no worse and no better than all the other Discworld novels. Pratchett is funny, as alway...

King Maker is an Urban fantasy novel by Maurice Broaddus, retelling the the ancient Arthurian legend through lives of Indianapolis street gangs and the first in "The knights of Breton Court" series. The story involves the principal character of King, son of Luther and destined to try and unite the f...

King Rat is the debut of the award winning British author China Miéville. The novel begins with Saul returning from a camping trip to the top floor flat he shares with his father, deciding not to wake him he goes straight to bed. In the early hours of the following morning he is rudely awakened by t...

King’s Justice is the second novel in the Knights of Breton Court series and the sequel to the phenomenal novel King maker by Maurice Broaddus. From the drug gangs of downtown Indianapolis, the one true king will arise. Spurred on with ever more urgent visions by his mystic advisor Merle, King attem...

Kraken is essentially "grown up" urban fantasy - and when I say grown up I don't mean littered with expletives but with a deal of maturity and written without compromise (as all Miéville's works are). You won't find any soppy vampires or angst ridden werewolves here, Kraken is a complicated mix of m...

Meet Thaddeus Blaklok, mercenary, demonist and down right violent thug-for-hire who uses his fists the way most people use punctuation. He is dragged out of semi-retirement to "retreive" a very mysterious key for his equally mysterious benefactors. He isn't the only one after the artefact however an...

In Mistification Kaaron Warren creates a character called Marvo the magician; a stage magician whose magic is real. It’s a world where a small number of true magicians use the “mist” to keep the horrors of reality hidden from the world. It starts with Marvo trapped in an attic with his grandmother....

A man falls from the roof of a building, pursued by agents unknown and Lawbringer Narin is asked personally by none other than a god to investigate the matter and help find a cure to the unconscious mans poison, thus begins Moon's Artifice. What follows is a powerful, rich fantasy tale that hits all...

Anthologies from Alchemy Press specialise in bringing myth to a contemporary setting and general involve adult characters living adult lives. Music in the Bone is no exception to this. It’s quite a varied collection of Marion Pitman’s work from a number of different sources and spans a long career o...

San Francisco Homicide detective Bryan Clauser thinks he may be losing his mind. What other explanation could there be for the dreams he keeps having, dreams where he witnesses some really gruesome murders that also happen to be actually carried out all over the city. As he and his partner Pookie Ch...

Perdido Street Station is the second novel published by China Miéville, after the quite brilliant King Rat and again we are within the urban / weird fantasy world. However where King Rat was set within our own fair city of London, Perdido Street Station takes place within an alternate universe of Ba...

A continuation of the story from the comic books, Powers: The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim is a standalone novel, that links into the comic book story arc. Fans of the Playstation Network TV series may notice a few inconsistencies in terms of the background of its principle character, Deena Pilgr...

It’s the kind of heist Karyn Ames has dreamed of—enough to set her crew up pretty well and enough to keep her safely stocked on a very rare, very expensive black market drug. Without it, Karyn hallucinates slices of the future overlapped with her present until she’s incapacitated and completely over...

Pretty Little Dead Things is a urban horror novel by the author Gary McMahon. Thomas Usher used to be a fairly normal guy, a family man with a wife and child, all this changed when a tragic accident took his family away from him. He began to see the dead, and they him, all the lost and lonely souls...

Living amongst us are a group of creatures who prey on the vulnerable and the weak, guiding them to commit suicide and living off this energy released (known as "span") of a life snuffed out before its time. These Tormentas look just like a regular human, often taking the guise of a ravishing seduct...

Serial Killers Incorporated is a dark urban fantasy novel by Andy Remic and published by Anarchy Books. Callaghan is a drug and drink fuelled, womanising, amoral, hardcore photographer for the tabloid rag Black & White. He's a guy with very few redeeming features (if any) and his journey on the road...

Shadows of Self, the fifth in the Mistborn series and the sequel to Alloy of Law, shows Mistborn’s society evolving as technology and magic mix, the economy grows, and religion becomes a growing cultural force. The bustling, optimistic, but still shaky society that came out of the first Mistborn tri...

No one's tried to Kill Harry in almost a year and the worst problem he has faced in that time is trying to get stains removed from carpets caused by his bungling apprentice. Anyone who knows Harry knows that this is too good to last. The person to put such a spanner in the wizards life is Mab, Queen...

If you like your urban fantasy dark and gruesome with an added touch of horror, Splintered and its predecessor Premonitions are right up your alley. This sequel picks up shortly after the first book, following Anna Ruiz and the rest of the crew. Since the events of the previous novel, Karyn is out o...

Storm Front is the first novel introducing the wizard P.I. Harry Dresden to the world, a gritty urban fantasy that manages to captivate right from the start. We join Harry as he's going through a bit of a slow patch and so when the Chicago PD asks for help with a double homicide he jumps at the chan...

Storm Thief takes place in the fantasy world of Orokos, a city on an island run by a totalitarian government, ravaged by chaos and by the probability storms that re-order the world wherever they strike. It has been this way for so long that history has forgotten it, and its citizens don’t believe th...

Hank Mondale is a rough and ready P.I. who likes to drink and gamble more than he should, a lifestyle choice which has led to his landlord threatening to evict him and bookie threatening a great deal worse, he desperately needs a break. When the real estate mogul Thomas Blake calls with a paid job o...

The Bullet Catcher's Daughter is set in a world that is steeped in steampunk style. Not only full of arcane machines but with a clear nod to the Victorian society and strict sexist views. This style is perfectly captured by the series name "The Gas-Lit Empire". In this tightly controlled Empire it i...

Framed for Murder and on the run, Detective Inspector Cass Jones gets unwelcome attention wherever he goes, including being hounded by his former colleagues. As he works desperately to save his kidnapped nephew and gain answers he finds himself going up against The Bank and its sinister employees on...

For me Tad Williams sits right up there with the very best fantasy story-tellers, I read his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series many years ago and it still ranks as one of the most memorable fantasy series, even after all that time. If you haven't read the series and are a fan of the fantastic then I...

One of my favourite series has now reached book four and continues to astonish and astound in the quality and conviction of the writing, the continued building of the rich tapestry that is The Courts of the Feyre and the journey of the complex characters that inhabit Shevdon's urban fantasy. The nov...

Charlie Higson is probably best known as part of a series that for many in the UK was one of the funniest things to watch on TV in the 90's - the Fast Show (known as Brilliant in the US). The irreverent and often off-beat humour was guaranteed to make me laugh and still does. Until this year I didn'...

Following the horrific murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a dis-used graveyard populated by ghosts and other undead creatures of the night - completely unaware of the death of his parents. Taking pity on the innocent child the ghosts agree to raise him as their own, naming him Nobod...

Sometimes a book comes along that reminds you of the pleasure of being a reader and/or a writer, a book that you start at the right time and cannot fail to admire. In a measure, The Relic Guild is this kind of book. From the first page, the description crackles and draws you into the story and certa...

The greatest city in the Thirteen Lands, Rigus stands as a radiant hub of grandiose manors and sparkling citadels. It's a place where nobility rules and disagreements are settled with honourable duels. In the shadow of this glory sits Low Town, a vast warren of dark, narrow streets, dirty alleys and...

One the greatest advantages of this ever shrinking world is being able to read stories that break out of the "western" mindset. Initially The Throne of the Crescent Moon may seem like a traditional sword & sorcery that was a stable of fantasy in the 80's however look a little deeper and you will fin...

The 25th. Discworld Novel the cover proudly states. And that makes it a fitting moment to take a closer look at Pratchetts Discworld and ask if there's something to be proud of. In my opinion (and I seem to be the only one writing this piece): Yes! I've read most of the Discworld novels, and while t...

The Twyning is the story of young ratling Efren, born into a time of change for the Kingdom of rats that live beneath the city streets. After the King is assassinated by a human scientist Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon the whole rat society is in turmoil. This death is just the start though, with the Doctor o...

Do not read this review if you haven't read The Gunslinger and The Drawing of The Three. Turn off your computer and start reading. If you don't have these books run to your nearest bookstore and get them! Continuing where The Drawing of the Three ended, The Waste Lands takes us through the forest an...

Tomorrow the Killing returns to that hive of villainy that is Low Town and to our guide through these mean streets, the Warden. Following on from The Straight Razor Cure and the Warden is back to his usual tricks, that is until he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a missing persons case that opens up...

Turn Coat is the eleventh book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and as ever, events have a habit of turning against Harry Dresden. This time his help is being sought from the most unlikely of people - Morgan, the warden who has persecuted Harry mercilessly in the past. Morgan is on the run after being...

White Knight marks the ninth book in Jim Butchers urban fantasy series featuring Chicago's first and only Wizard P.I. Regular visitors to SFBook may be aware that we are (slowly) reviewing the series. Those who haven't read any of the Dresden Files would be better starting at the beginning with Stor...

Aislinn has always seen faeries. They are powerful, cruel, and dangerous. She and her grandmother have avoided them all of their lives—don’t stare, don’t speak, don’t attract their attention. But now, faeries have started to stalk her, including Keenan, the Summer King. Keenan has searched high and...

Zoo City is an Urban fantasy novel by the South African author Lauren Beukes. Zinzi December is a woman with a gift, and perhaps a curse - over ten years ago a remarkable and disturbing event changed the lives of many, and the world in general. Those who have committed the crime of murder, or otherw...

Angela thinks she knows her boyfriend Vince pretty well, that is until he goes missing. She quickly learns he has a hidden employment, his boss the infamous London crime lord Frederick Meloy (known as Fat Frederick, but nerver, ever as Fat Freddy). His secret job? tracking down arcane relics succh a...

Lies Sleeping is the seventh book (eighth if you count The Furthest Station) in the impressive River of London urban fantasy series, following Peter Grant - detective constable for the metropolitan police and apprentice wizard. It looks like time may finally be up for the Faceless Man (Martin Chorle...

I picked this book up as I was looking for more urban fantasy to try. I love the Dresden files and given that new books in that series only seem to appear infrequently, I was getting an urban fantasy itch. This book stood out as it was recommended by talented and under-appreciated author Dave Hutchi...

A fantasy writer needs to be aware that they could fall into a rut. Another trilogy of books set in the same world, with similar characters doing similar things. This may appease those fans that fear change, but to drive themselves as a writer it is important to evolve; even if evolving within the f...

A brief admission to start. I've just finished Twelve Months and realised, slightly to my embarrassment, that I never actually got round to writing a review for Battle Ground . So here, six years late, is that review. I will keep this one largely spoiler-free; the events of Battle Ground are by now...

Life in a Fantasy novel is often epic. A grand journey to destroy a ring or a fight to the death against an invading force. Our heroes rush from one end of the land on a mission , but if you look behind them you may see some of the normal people pass in a blur. The shopkeepers, the local police, the...

One of the wonderful things about genre fiction is that an author can take their imagination anywhere and run with it. I can imagine a lot of things, but an alternative urban fantasy that has Knights on motorbikes. That is a new on me. Laure Eve’s  Blackheart Knights  takes some of the essence of th...

I am not a gambler. All I do is look at how rich the casino and betting companies are to see that the odds are stacked in their favour. If you play the odds, eventually you will lose. However, there are games that require skill. Poker is one. It has elements of luck, but a skilled player is far more...

What is Comfy Fantasy? It is a new name for the type of fantasy that does not have you on edge all the time. As a genre fantasy can often feel epic, but also stressful. The heroes on the run from a darkness they cannot fathom, or a fellowship were hardly anyone can be trusted. Sometimes you just wan...

Advances in forensic science can feel like magic from the discovery that we all had unique fingerprints to the use of DNA to catch criminals, but what would you do in a world were magic exists? Can science be used to solve crimes committed by magic? The Undetectables believe so, they use their scien...

There are two ways of writing fiction set in the Victorian era; set a fictional book in the real era or write within the Victorian multiverse. This is a playground that I have read many books in, a world where Sherlock Holmes can investigate new cases, but also one in which he can work alongside Mr...

You should be careful what you wish for, but also careful what you promise. Are you going to be able to live up to the hype? Arcadia Books are pretty pumped with James Logan’s The Silverblood Promise stating that it is the best fantasy debut of the year. Let me be the judge of that and having read t...

I always forget how unpleasant some of the antiheros were in Victorian era fantasy and science fiction. In my mind I think of the era being full of ladies and gentlemen, but there were plenty of loathsome people too. Looking back on the working conditions and how society treated its poor, perhaps I...

There are shifts in the Fantasy genre that perhaps only the ardent fan will notice. The epics of Tolkien and the 80s are still being written, but now there are more intimate stories that follow one or two characters as they graft in their small way among the wider Fantasy world. These are often cosy...

A large part of fantasy novels is not really the destination, but the journey. The camaraderie that builds among a troop of characters as they travel to their destination, but what happens once they have arrived? In T Kingfisher’s Clockwork Boys four mismatched social pariahs set out to survive the...

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, but in Shay Kauwe’s The Killing Spell , words will very much hurt you. In fact, words can be fashioned into spells to kill. Not the best in an everyday family situation where words can fly thick and fast, nor in a society where a fe...

If you read and review genre fiction long enough you start to be able to tell what the trends are in current fiction. Some of these trends will come and go, whilst others will stick around as their own subgenre. Is Romantasy a keeper? I am not convinced myself, but I do like its cousin the Cosy Fant...