When I first read about Harlequin starting a fantasy line, I wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or wary. After all, category romances are no longer the most exciting reads. Even the sales figures reflect that fact, with 'big' multi-character novels like The Ya-Ya Sisterhood and crossover genre novels like the romance thrillers of Kay Hooper doing much better business than straight romances in the past decade or so.
But there was something about Luna Books that made me hopeful. If it was anything like Harlequin's Mira line, with much stronger characterization, more realistic plots, and multi-cultural backgrounds, it would be worth checking out. But I still wasn't going to buy a Luna Book just to try out the series--it had to be a title that was interesting enough in itself, regardless of the imprint. After all, like most book lovers, I buy books, or maybe authors, not publishing imprints or lines.
So it was something of a surprise when I happened upon Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy. Because I didn't come across it while browsing for a romantic fantasy novel. I happened upon it while checking out the latest titles in a sub-genre of fantasy I've started to grow really, really fond of lately: urban fantasy thrillers. If you know anything about Harry Potter, you know the genre. Urban fantasy covers stories placed in contemporary settings with realistic characters living relatively ordinary, everyday lives. They live among us, and to all intents and purposes, they are us. Except for that one key thing that separates them from the rest of us.
That key difference could be that she's a private investigator specializing in esoteric supernatural investigations, as in Laurell K. Hamilton's hugely successful Anita Blake series of novels. (Although, to be accurate, the Anita Blake novels are set in a world significantly different from our's, in that vampires, werewolves, and assorted ghoulish creatures co-exist side by side with us, but they still fit the general bill of urban fantasy.)
Or a wizard for hire in mid-town Chicago, like Harry Dresden in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, my absolute favourite ongoing series in the urban fantasy sub-genre. Or the near-future police procedurals by Stephen Woodworth that began with Through Violet Eyes about psychic consultants who can communicate with the dead and aid detectives in solving their murders (the psychics all have violet eyes, hence the title of the first book). Or the Stookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. And so many others. (There's a selection of some covers in some of the major series below, if you want to check them out. These are my picks of the best of the genre.)
Article comments
1 - gypsyman
Damn that Coyote he keeps showing up in the darndest of places...misreable trickster he promised he'd stay put for a while so I could write about him. I guess he was feeling ignored...
Hey Ashok that sounds like a cool book, the theme of mixing Irish and Native stuff has really gotten popular over the last ten years in North America. It's sort of a new age trend, one way non natives can justify their appropiation of native culture by saying look how similar we are.
However there is a really strong mix of Irish and Native blood in North America. After the Metis (French Native mixbloods) the Irish Native mixture is the most common.
One of the weirder offshoots of this was the irish fur trappers who would come over here in the 1800s work for a while, take a native bride, and than return to Ireland. Only too have the family immigrate to Canada a generation latter.
This happened to so many families it's ridiculous. My wife's mother's family was like that. Her great great grandmother was born in Northern Quebec, a Cree Indian. She travelled with a fur trading party to Colorado in the 1800's where she met and married an Irish fur trader.
They then returned to Ireland, set up a family, who in turn immigrated here the following generation.
The world moves in mysterious ways
2 - Ashok K. Banker
Hey, Richard. That's really interesting. I had no idea that such 'mixes' were that common, but when you describe the historical reasons, it makes perfect sense. This is one of the things I find so fascinating about America, the polyculturalism of the country. Just when you think you've got her figured out, she throws you a curveball!
Thanks for that enlightening comment.