Covering Covers: Side Jobs by Jim Butcher

Typically every spring marks the release of yet another entry in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. This spring is no exception with the debut of Changes, the 12th novel in the series, coming April 6th. But fans of the series will be excited to know that they don't need to wait another year to get more Dresden. Roc has decided to release all of Butcher's Dresden short stories to date in an HC anthology entitled Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files this October, along with a few brand new stories.

Here's the cover.

Cover Artist: Chris McGrath

 Here is the ToC

• "Restoration of Faith" - (Read Online)
• "Vignette" - (Read Online)
• "Something Borrowed" -- from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
• "It's My Birthday Too" -- from Many Bloody Returns
• "Heorot" -- from My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
• "Day Off" -- from Blood Lite
• Backup -- novelette from Thomas' POV, originally published by Subterranean Press
• The Warrior -- novelette from Mean Streets
• "Last Call" -- from Strange Brew
• "Love Hurts" -- from Songs of Love and Death
• And exclusive, all-new material!

Regarding the cover, it's the standard Dresden cover by Chris McGrath which typically focuses on mostly on Harry. I don't love the focus on a single character but the point of this cover is to say "HEY DRESDEN FILES OVER HERE" and it that respect it succeeds tremendously. Butcher has reached the point where you could put almost anything on the cover. It breaks no new ground artistically or stylistic but it's commercial perfect. I'm not an author but I can guess which one most would choose (especially M.C. Newton). I do love the implied textures in the cover, giving it a very gritty, noir feel. Most Urban Fantasy covers don't have any stylistic direction. McGrath knows what he's doing.

Regarding the collection, I'm excited to get all of these short stories in one place. I've got a few of the Urban Fantasy anthologies in which they originally appeared but they are expensive when you only really want to read a few of the stories. [Confession: I've read a few of these stories in a Barnes and Noble coffee shop without buying the book]. Butcher is a great name to have on your anthology cover but the tone and content of his stories is decidedly different than the majority of the stories in those anthologies (paranormal romance anyone?). The stories themselves are as much fun as the full length adventures albeit more tightly focused. I've read probably 75% of them but The Dresden Files are fantastic enough for a reread.

If you haven't read The Dresden Files yet and aren't completely opposed to Urban Fantasy (some people hate vampires in all their forms), you are really missing out. You might have even read the 1st or 2nd novels and then gave up. The 1st and 2nd books (Storm Front and Foul Moon) are without a doubt the weakest books in the series (focusing on fairly generic vampire and werewolves) and they only get better. Butcher had some issues with plotting early on even though his narrative voice was there. In my opinion, I would say that Butcher's/Harry's voice is best male POV in Urban Fantasy. Butcher has progressed tremendously in his writing over the years and his books are fun, fast-paced, and addictive as hell.

Changes comes out April 6th and Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files hits shelves October 26th.

YetiReview: Darker Angels

21 Words or Less: Another well-written series installment set in voodootacular New Orleans that balances the normal with the bizarre by utilizing relatable characters

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Good: Strong first person narration balances the paranormal with the mundane, Well written characters that feel like old friend; New Orleans setting/culture intrigues without being overwhelming or unnatural

The Bad: Lack of over-arching plot movement; Subplot is fairly predictable (and spoiled by back cover); Some awkward foreshadowing disrupts an otherwise seamless voice; Cover still sucks

My experience reading urban fantasy is a lot like my experience with family reunions. It’s not so much what you are doing but who you’re doing it with. If you don’t get along with your family you aren’t going to have a good time, regardless of what vacation spot you choose. On the other hand, the right group of people can make even the most mundane of destinations memorable. But what happens when you get both? In Darker Angels, the second novel in M.L.N. Hanover’s Black Sun’s Daughter sequence, Jayne, Aubrey, Ex, and Chogyi Jake make the trip to New Orleans, Louisiana for some rest, relaxation, and just the slightest bit of hunting for a serial-killing body-switching voodoo demon. There may be more of the latter and less of the former but that doesn’t make Darker Angels any less fun.

The strongest part of this series so far has been the characters. One of my favorite aspects of the Unclean Spirits (Book 1) was how real the characters felt. Unlike many Urban Fantasy series (Dresden Files, Felix Castor, etc), Hanover made the decision to start Jayne's story at the beginning. Rather than starting out as the experienced guide to the supernatural world for the reader, Jayne is as clueless as the rest of us. So many times you see characters make the transition into the larger fantastical world behind their own mundane lives with little hesitation. So it's a relief to read a character who asks the same questions and has the same doubts that I imagine any normal twenty something would have when placed in the same situation. Even the little things like looking for a good wifi connection, making small talk over dinner and drinks, and seeking familiar comforts at a coffee chain work to normalize a cast of characters that are immersed in an otherwise abnormal world of possession, magic, and monsters. The absurdity of the supernatural elements balanced with the normal problems of maintaining relationships and mixing work with life reminded me of some of the best of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

As notable as Hanover's cast of characters is the location he places them in. From the fairly nondescript Denver setting featured in Unclean Spirits, Jayne and Co end up in New Orleans, LA. New Orleans is undoubtedly one of the most supernaturally charged cities in America and Hanover does an excellent job meshing the character of the city into the book without betraying the first person perspective of Ms. Heller. Some books only make token references to the setting, enough to ground the action and little more. Other stories lay on the detail a little too thick, trying to work their research into the story where it doesn’t belong. Darker Angels presents the city and its mysteries as Jayne sees them. As she journeys through water-logged ruins and the re-emerging tourist district in a hunt for voodoo cults and lost children we witness New Orleans through her eyes rather than some omniscient out of place narrator. I would say that the voice has improved from the first book in which Hanover (actually Daniel Abraham) seemed to have the occasional difficulty writing from the female perspective. While the majority of the narration is clear and consistent, there are a few places where it feels out of sync with the rest of the story. At times Jayne makes references to things people said that she misunderstood at the time of the story but that she now understands clearly in the future world from which she narrates her adventures. These points feel more like teasers than natural extensions of Jayne’s voice.

At the same time, that may have been my frustration with the overall arc of the series. While I appreciated Hanover’s skill at balancing his characters and his world-building, I couldn’t help but be irritated with the lack of answers to questions presented in Unclean Spirits. The plot itself feels light and somewhat predictable (especially if you read the back blurb) and the majority of the novel deals with fleshing out Jayne’s character rather than moving the bigger story forward. There are a few more tantalizing hints to a larger story involving her uncle, her tattoos, a vast fortune, innate magically ability and a possible destiny but little follow-up.

I drew parallels earlier to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and if I had to provide an analog for Darker Angels, it would be to the early episodes of the classic genre show. The characters have been introduced and hints at a larger story have been provided but the second or third episodes always seem somewhat stand-alone, serving as an additional jumping on point rather than aggressively pushing the story forward. There isn’t anything wrong with this per say. In fact, it’s more realistic than every episode dealing with the same evil force lurking in the background and single-mindedly building toward a season finale. But when you’re dealing with books, it’s not a matter of days or weeks until the next installment; it’s a matter of months. When you get to the end of the last chapter and you don’t feel like you don’t know any more than you did at the beginning of the book, it’s difficult to call the book a complete success. I’d like to see a better balance of subplot and superplot in future volumes.

Despite the disappointing lack of revelations regarding Jayne’s strange inheritance, this installment was another fast-paced fun read that returned to the enjoyable, relatable characters introduced in Hanover’s 1st work. I eagerly anticipate the release of Vicious Grace, the next book in the sequence. If you are interested in the series, I’d recommend picking up all three books and mainlining them like your favorite TV series on DVD.

Urban Fantasy: Best and Worst

Good Urban Fantasy: Barnes and Nobles Best Urban Fantasy of the Decade

Glad to see many of my favorite series up there in addition to a few I may need to check out. I would say that Mike Carey's Felix Castor series is missing. No love for the Brits?

What's your favorite Urban Fantasy of the decade? Did B+N do a decent job?

Bad (and also hilarious) Urban Fantasy: Urban Fantasy Cover Art Awards

While I'm happy M.L.N. Hanover got nominated for the cover of his/her/its Darker Angels, that many Urban Fantasy covers in one place leaves me speechless. I just don't know how to react. I recommend taking a look over there and sharing your favorite cover/ title in the comments.

My personal favorites:

• Spider Touched
• Lover Avenged
• Succubus Heat
• Midnight Cravings

The only thing better is the categories:

• Best Male/Female with Animal Cover
• Best Floating Head Cover
• Best Partial Body Cover 

I'd be really depressed if I wasn't laughing so hard.

Please note that I don't mean any offense to the writers of these books or the cover artists. The titles/covers are definitely oriented to what sells and publishing books with a certain feel guarantees sales. I would like to point out that 7 out of 13 books on the Barnes and Noble best of the decade list don't have typical UF covers.

Covering Covers: Darker Angels

I was looking through my Amazon Wishlist's today at upcoming books and I saw that a certain book had updated it's cover profile. To quote M.L.N. Hanover (a.k.a. Daniel Abraham):

"I've seen the cover for the second book, and lemme tell you, it's totally going to fail for you too."

FTW! or is it FTL? We've got the Improbable Top^TM, the Tramp Stamp^TM Wrap-Around Edition, and the Deadly Object^TM. Plus Leather! Who doesn't wear leather? In New Orleans?

I must say though, knowing that I'm going to read this book regardless of the cover makes the Epic TropeFail of this cover almost entertaining. It's laughably bad. The sad thing is that it's actually not that bad for a Urban Fantasy cover.

I expect the story will more than make up for the travestacular cover, just like Hanover's 1st offering, Unclean Spirits, did.

A Discussion with Daniel Abraham

As anyone who has been following my blog is undoubtedly aware, I’ve recently reconsidered some of my bias toward certain types of Urban Fantasy books, thanks in a large part to author Daniel Abraham. After some back and forth discussions via e-mail, Mr. Abraham agreed to answer a few questions about his new Urban Fantasy series (Black Sun’s Daughter) and his opinions on the subgenre in general.

---

SoY: What’s in the future for Jayne? Is there a set story arc with a defined conclusion or is her future fairly open-ended at this point?

DA: One of the things that was really hard about writing Unclean Spirits is that about half the things happening in it aren't what they look like. I have a very clear idea where Jayné's headed. I know the last scene of the last book. I know some of the things that need to happen to her between here and there. I know the secrets about herself and her past that she needs to confront. I'd like the series to read kind of like watching a season of Buffy. Some books stand alone, some are part of a larger arc story, with all of it coming together at the end. I'm aiming toward ten books right now, but it could be more or fewer, depending on the market.

I'm one of those folks who thinks that the best stories end. If I get to actually go through my whole plan, the story we started in Unclean Spirits will definitively end.

SoY: Black Sun’s Daughter is somewhat late to the game in the Urban Fantasy market. Why should readers pick up your series instead of the some of the more established series out there?

DA: In part because it isn't an established series. Someone coming to the genre new doesn't need to track down the previous twenty books in a series. Or, for folks who've already read all those, Unclean Spirits is a slightly different take on the material.

Plus, it's got bones in parasitology and fringe Christian theologies. How much fun it that?

SoY: Many Urban Fantasy series start off with the protagonist already within the world of the weird. Why did you choose to start Black Sun’s Daughter where you did?

DA: There are advantages and disadvantages in both strategies. If you start with the protagonist knowing the score, you can dive straight into the action and the story of the individual book. But then you have to go back and backfill a bunch of the details of the world, and that's awkward. If your heroine knows all about vampires -- how they work, what their vulnerabilities are, that if you poke them in the neck with the Cross of St. Christopher, they break into showtunes, whatever rules set the book uses -- you still have to find a way to tell the reader all the things she knows. By having Jayné come into the supernatural world fresh, the reader learns about it along with her. All I need to do is make sure it moves fast enough that she doesn't seem dim. *You* know she's in one of those books with the tattooed girl on the cover, but *she* isn't aware of that. So you, as the reader, know more than she does. My job is to catch her up to you in a way that's still fun to read.

SoY: Based on the quality of Unclean Spirits, it appears you are well read in the genre. What are some of the tropes that annoy you most in Urban Fantasy and what did you set out to do when you started writing Urban Fantasy.

DA: Oh, there's a hell of a question.

Without naming names, there are a lot of traditions within urban fantasy that I find very problematic, some of which I've done in Unclean Spirits. The confusion of empowering women and weaponizing them. The "powerful" woman who is acceptable because the power was forced on her; God forbid any of these people have ambitions. There is a really great analysis of what the genre is about at:

Carrie's Analysis of Urban Fantasy: Part 1 (The Formula)
Carrie's Analysis of Urban Fantasy: Part 2 (When Things Go Wrong)
Carrie's Analysis of Urban Fantasy: Part 3 (Deconstructing Urban Fantasy)

And yes, the Black Sun's Daughter books are supposed to be both a bunch of entertaining adventures with characters we all grow to love and admire, and also my response to the things I think are unhealthy about this setup.

SoY: Why did you pick a female protagonist rather than a male? What were the biggest difficulties in writing a cross-gender perspective?

DA: For me, urban fantasy started with Laurel K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures and season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's certainly broadened out since then, but that core conversation about the problematic relationship between women and power is what turns my crank. So when I took a swing at it, it just made sense to me that I'd start out with something that looked like the things that got me started on it. Plus which, I always wanted to write the Hellblazer comic book by killing off John Constantine and putting in his niece, Gemma Masters, investigating his life and death. Jayné really got her start there.

SoY: Similiarly, your past work in the Long Price Quartet has been described at times as “feminist”. Are there some larger themes that you like to address across even series boundaries?

DA: Anything I write is going to come out of my head. I don't have an overt political agenda or anything like that. But between being on the one hand skeptical of the traditional limits we put on ourselves because of our genders and on the other wanting to write believable characters, I think there's a kind of intellectual and psychological common ground anything I do is going to have. Just by default.

SoY: The cover to Unclean Spirits is guilty of several sins of stereotypical Urban Fantasy covers. You’ve got a female with her back to the reader, complete with lower back tattoo. She’s also holding a dagger which I don’t remember from the book. What are your feelings on the lack of cover diversity in the sub-genre? What would you like to see in the future?

DA: The covers of any book is supposed to do one thing: sell the book. I knew pretty well how the book was likely to be marketed when I wrote it, and you'll notice that, for instance, I gave Jayné a tattoo on the small of her back. It was going to be there anyway. Might as well make it matter in the plot.

I have to say I like the cover of Unclean Sprits better than you do. It does the two things I wanted it to do: it said this was an urban fantasy book (or as I often describe it "the books with the girl looking over her shoulder with improbable top and the tramp stamp tattoo") and it got people to pick up the book.

In the future, I would like to have more covers that do both of those things. It's less important that the images be illustrations of the literal story than that they set the right expectations for the readers and talk people into picking up the book. The thing I actually like best about the cover of Unclean Spirits is the spine of the book. They have a little square with Jayné's face in it. It's high contrast, it's a face, and it's on the spine so it shows even if the book is spine out. As a piece of design, it's just sweet.

SoY: What was your reasoning behind writing Unclean Spirits behind a pseudonym?

DA: It turns out I have no hesitation in picking up pseudonyms. I know some people do. I'm just not one.

I wanted to do this under a different name for a couple of reasons. First, it's such a different project from the Long Price books that anyone picking up Unclean Spirits expecting it read like An Autumn War would be disappointed no matter how good the new book was. It's like forgetting that you ordered a Coke, and expecting iced tea. It can be a really great Coke, but as iced tea it's just *wrong.*

SoY: M.L.N. Hanover is both gender neutral and conveniently positioned between Lauren K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris, arguably two of the most prominent (and female) Urban Fantasy writers in the market today. Who made the decision to choose the name M.L.N Hanover

DA: MLN was my choice. The gender neutrality was a big part of it. I've had several people write to me or leave comments on the blog that they wouldn't have picked up the book if they'd known I was a guy, but having read it, they liked it.

As far as the placement on the shelf . . . well, one of the things I've learned as Daniel Abraham is that people don't browse in alphabetical order. I think the middle of the alphabet is a more likely place to get picked up at random than the folks up in the As and down in the Zs. The placement between Laurell K Hamilton and the Charlene Harris/Kim Harrison complex is either a blessing (because I have books kind of like theirs close to where they are) or a curse (because my one little book is getting swamped by the shelves and shelves and shelves of other people's more popular titles). I'll tell you how that plays out when I know.

SoY: In a recent interview, Ginjer Buchanan (editor-in-chief for Roc and Ace) said they were receiving too many Urban Fantasy manuscripts. Has Urban Fantasy reached its saturation point? How long do you forsee the golden age of Urban Fantasy lasting?

DA: I've been proclaiming the End of the Golden Age of Urban Fantasy for about ten years, and I've been wrong the whole time. I don't think it's reached its saturation point because people keep buying it. That popularity has the seeds of its own destruction. If writers and publishers start thinking of this as an easy-A kind of genre, we'll be in trouble. When we as writers stop turning out good stories, readers will stop reading them.

SoY: Ignoring sales figures, who is writing at the top of the Urban Fantasy market today? Who should we be reading?

DA: You may have picked up on the fact that I'm a Carrie Vaughn fan. She reads like fluff, but she's doing some of the most interesting, subversive work in the field. I think Patricia Briggs is also doing some things I find interesting. I want to see how they play out over the next few books.

Branching out from my particular project, Mike Carey's Felix Castor books are great, and Diana Rowland (full disclosure: she's a friend of mine) is doing some fairly mind-bending work putting paranormal romance together with police procedural. Diana is both an ex-cop and a long-time serious fangirl, and the combination makes for some really interesting writing.

---

That’s all for now but I’m definitely interested in continuing the Urban Fantasy discussion and potentially expanding it if some other authors are interested in joining in. I’d also like to express my thanks to Mr. Abraham for both initiating this dialogue and taking the time to provide some insight on the state of the sub-genre. There are a lot of authors who write well but can’t take criticism well or shouldn’t be allowed to speak in public and there are the nicest authors in the world whose books just plain suck. Daniel Abraham has proven to be an author who impresses both on and off the page and one I will continue to support where possible.

I’d encourage anyone who enjoyed this to comment and let me know and if there are any Urban Fantasy related topics that you would like to see discussed in future interviews with genre authors.

YetiReview: Unclean Spirits

21 Words or Less: An Urban Fantasy offering that doesn’t try to reinvent the genre but is so well written it doesn’t need to.

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Good: Excellent Urban Fantasy, great characters I want to see more of, natural dialogue, fast-reading prose.

The Bad: The cover, some gender specific details are jarring, a few “paranormal romance” tropes, the cover

Unclean Spirits is the debut novel in the Black Sun’s Daughter series. The story itself is simple: Jayne Heller inherits her uncle’s fortune and accepts his legacy as well, setting out to finish the job he died attempting and to kill the man responsible for his death. We get the typical cast of characters complete with questionable loyalties, mysterious pasts, and more than a hint of sexual tension.

Sounds like a typical Urban Fantasy book, right? In some respects it is; Unclean Spirits doesn’t break a whole lot of new ground. But what it lacks in innovation, it more than makes up for in quality. There’s a lot of Urban Fantasy books out there, some good, some bad, most falling somewhere in the middle. Unclean Spirits reads like Hanover/Abraham consumed everything he could, both good and bad, really thought about what worked and what didn’t, and then sat down and wrote a novel. There’s angst without being whiny, humor without being cliché or punny, inter-character chemistry that is subtle and natural. The bad guys don’t summarize their plots while waiting for the characters to recover and there isn’t a leather trenchcoat with bottomless pockets of just the perfect solution for the situation at hand. All of the characters are interesting and mysterious enough to want to see more. Unclean Spirits is everything that’s right with the genre with almost none of the wrong.

Abraham makes it look easy. The dialogue feels realistic, like something you might actually hear real twenty-somethingse say while moving the story quickly along with a “show don’t tell” style that is a lot more rare than you’d think. Like most Urban Fantasy, the story is very character driven and my enjoyment of the book really stemmed from their interactions. All of the characters worked as they were really written but I felt like Midian really stole every scene he was in. His dark humor and calm collectedness really complemented Jayne’s gradual entry into the world of “riders” and magic. His aptitude for cooking and poker prowess were also brilliant touches, a natural result of two hundred years of life experience.
In the end, the dialogue, the characters, and everything else really worked well together, making Unclean Spirits a fun, fast read that was well worth my time.

The only grievances I had with Unclean Spirits were more on my end than on Hanover’s/Abraham’s. The story is written from a first person perspective and in most FP narratives, it’s extremely easy to get into the main character. Unclean Spirits is no exception. There's nothing wrong with that but Jayne’s a woman. I’m not. The only problems arose when there was a distinctly feminine detail that I couldn’t identify with. For example, at one point, Jayne is picking out some clothes and realizing that none of her shirts would hide any of her clean bras. That’s not a problem I’ve ever had. Now there isn’t anything wrong with these details, they just made the book occasionally (and it’s very very occasionally at that) jarring for me as a reader, compounded by my awareness that it was a male writer writing a female perspective. But again, this was my issue as a reader not a problem with Abraham’s/Hanover’s writing. In much the same way, I had a few problems with the pace at which some of the relationships in the story developed. They were a little fast for me, but again that’s my own personal bias. It’s most likely not an issue for most readers.

I also had some minor qualms with how the magic system (and Jayne’s seemingly innate abilities) were’t fully fleshed out in Unclean Spirits and some of the character back stories remained untold. These aren’t necessarily bad things as I’m sure these details will come to light in future volumes. While Abraham/Hanover probably could have provided more detail, the results might have felt forced or unnatural especially considering that no one was fully aware at the full extent of Eric Heller’s work before his death. Again, it boils down to the Show don’t Tell writing philosophy that Abraham deftly utilizes. Not to mention that the hints at a deeper story leave the reader looking forward to the next volume. I know I am.

As I mentioned in my apology earlier, the first book was a gift from Mr. Abraham. I’ll definitely be buying the next one myself.

Additional Apologies to Daniel Abraham

When I originally heard that Daniel Abraham was writing Urban Fantasy under the pen name M.L.N. Hanover, I was intrigued. I like Urban Fantasy. I like Daniel Abraham. After a quick google search, I found the publisher’s blurb to be interesting enough to add the book to the Amazon wishlists I use to track release dates.

Then I saw the cover.

I’ve hated the stereotypical Urban Fantasy covers since I started noticing the trend. Attractive girl with a lower back tattoo facing away from the reader while holding a weapon, et cetera, et cetera. While not ever thing fits the exact description, 90% of the Urban Fantasy books featuring female protagonists have covers with at least a few if not all of the trademark clichés. Covers I would be embarrassed to be seen reading. Covers I was determined not to purchase.

So I had a decision to make, either I could succumb to my desire to read the book. Or I could hold out and stick to my principles. I chose my principles.

So I wrote this post, and said I wasn’t going to pay to read Unclean Spirits in protest over the lazy covers, while offering my apologies.

Somehow, Daniel Abraham actually ended up reading the post on my fledgling blog and he very professionally and politely responded:

“Your objection to the cover is well-taken. It is very much an urban fantasy cover, and it ain't breaking any new ground. And if it turned you off the series, I certainly respect that. I've seen the cover for the second book, and lemme tell you, it's totally going to fail for you too.

As far as your promise to never put your money into that kind of cover art . . . well, should you ever choose to shoplift a book, please keep me in mind.”

I thought this was exceedingly cool and we kicked a few e-mails back and forth and talked a little about the book, about urban fantasy in general, and about the covers. In the end, Mr. Abraham ended up sending me a review copy of the book, allowing me to read it without “putting my money into that kind of a cover art.”

YetiNote: It’s also important to note that this isn’t something that he normally does. Please don’t swear off his work in some attempt to get free books from him. It would negatively affect his sales, which would negatively affect his ability to sell more books, which would negatively affect my enjoyment derived from reading them.

So I read it. And I enjoyed it.

I would like to offer my apologies again to Daniel Abraham for judging his book on its cover. He should be proud of the way he was willing to stand behind his work and challenge my opinions in a professional and productive manner. And he should be proud of Unclean Spirits. It's a great read. He’s got one more person who is going to pick up the next installment in his Black Sun's Daughter series.

Regardless of how bad the cover art is.

Look for a review of Unclean Spirits and a discussion with Daniel Abraham regarding the Black Sun’s Daughter and the state of Urban Fantasy in the coming days.

The Next Big Thing...

Over on the Odyssey Workshop Livejournal, they've got an interview with Ginjer Buchanan. Ginjer Buchanan is the editor-in-chief of Ace and Roc, two rather prolific publishers.

The interview is short but interesting, go check it out.

I found the most interesting comment to be the following:

OW: Which subgenres do you see way too much of? Which subgenres do you not see enough of?

GB: These days, we have a deluge of Urban Fantasy. As to what we don’t see enough of—I guess I’d say military sf. It works well for us in mass market.

So Ginjer is suggesting that Urban Fantasy has reached it's saturation point. Coming from the editor of Ace and Roc thats a strong statement. Roc and Ace publish almost every genre sub-genre out there, including Urban Fantasy heavy hitters The Dresden Files (Jim Butcher) and the Nightside books (Simon R. Green), so it's fairly safe to say she's got her fingers on the pulse of genre fiction.

I would concur with the opinion that there's plenty (on the side of too much) of Urban Fantasy out there. I've got my series (the aforementioned Dresden Files and Nightside, along with Felix Castor and Joe Pitt) so my plate is just about full when it comes to Urban Fantasy. I'm sure everyone else has their series as well. While I'm sure some of the new stuff has merit, it's not going to sell as well as the established stuff.

Regarding Military SF, my plate is almost empty. John Scalzi isn't writing any books in the Old Man's War series (for the time being at least), I believe Robert Buettner's Orphan series is wrapped up, and I'm not sure whats left in Jack Campbell Lost Fleet sequence (which is published by Ace, coincidentally). Those are the Military SF series I'm reading currently and even those aren't exactly flagship titles (minus Scalzi who isn't writing that series currently). So there is room for more Military SF.

However, I wouldn't say that a Military SF Renaissance is upon us. I'm tempted to say the next big thing is Historical Fantasy / Steampunk , similar to what Stephen Hunt (The Court of the Air, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves) and George Mann (The Affinity Bridge) are doing but I don't know if the market for that is as high as that of Urban Fantasy. Urban Fantasy got a huge boost from Harry Potter and a life extension from Twilight. I don't know if there is any subgenre out there right now with a feeder system like that. We might just see a rebalancing of subgenre publishing (and hopefully no more vampires).

Can Military SF make a comeback? Will Urban Fantasy sales level off? Whats the next big subgenre?

Comments are encouraged. I'd love to hear some opinions as to what the next big thing is.

YetiPreview: Nekropolis

Hopefully by this point I'll have finished Moxyland and moved on to Tim Waggoner's Nekropolis. Nekropolis, like Moxyland, is a debut title from new publisher Angry Robot Books.

The publisher's description:

Meet Matt Richter. Private eye. Zombie.

His mean streets are the city of the dead, the shadowy realm known as Nekropolis. In this first case, Richter must help a delectable half-vampire named Devona recover a legendary artifact known as the Dawnstone, before it’s used to destroy Nekropolis itself. That is, if he can survive the myriad horrors that infest the city itself.

Pulp and proud, cracking wise like we just dug up the rotting corpse of Dashiell Hammett and put him back to work at his typewriter, Nekropolis is just the first of a trio of fabulous urban fantasies Angry Robot will be bringing you from the mighty Tim Waggoner.

Originally published as a limited run novella, the expanded Nekropolis is the definitive version of this massively entertaining series opener.

At first glance this appears to be part-Jim Butcher/part-China Mieville. Supernatural detective in a supernatural city. I'm expecting something fast-paced, fun, and profoundly weird.

Based on the description, it appears that we've got some vampires and zombies running around the city of the dead. Vampires and Zombies are some of the more overused elements in urban fantasy, so it will be interesting to see what unique spin, if any, Waggoner uses. This will also be my first book by Waggoner so I'm not sure what to expect from him.

Nekropolis will be available in the UK on August 1st but doesn't hit US stores until January 2010.

YetiReview: The City and The City

20 words or less: Engrossing murder mystery combining masterful worldbuilding with one heck of an idea piece with a very fulfilling ending.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Pros: Imaginative worldbuilding that had me thinking about the book even when I wasn’t reading it, very strong ending that flowed naturally from the set-up.
Cons: Character depth/backstory a little lacking, occasional infodumping

The Review: China Mieville has written some weirdly wonderful stories. His latest offering, The City & The City, is no exeception. In his first few works, Mieville established a reputation for creating astounding cities almost beyond description emphasis on the word “almost.” Mieville has now taken his talent for urban worldbuilding and raised the bar, weaving a murder mystery in, over, and through the cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. Without getting into the particulars (which is half the fun of the story), it is clear the two cities are closely intertwined in ways that are not fully understood by even the denizens of the two cities themselves.

When Detective Tyador Borlu discovers the lifeless body of a young woman in Beszel, he refuses to let it go. His quest for answers eventually leads him across borders and boundaries he never planned to cross: some physical and some something else entirely. Soon it is not one but two mysteries that drive this story forward; why was this young woman murdered and what does her murder suggest about The Cities?

While less overtly fantastical than some of his other novels, The City and The City captured my imagination pretty much from the get go. It started off a little heavy as Mieville tries to relate the rules of the world he’s writing in quickly and succinctly, at times resorting to the dreaded info-dump. However, as soon as I finally felt like I understood the rules of the story, Mieville started breaking them. Just trying to wrap my mind around the potential solutions became increasingly difficult as the twin mysteries began to intertwine. As the clues surfaced, I began to doubt everything I thought I knew about these strange exotic cities. The twists kept coming until the very end and I was impressed with Mieville’s ability to make me fluctuate between potential answers without ever feeling manipulated. Some mysteries lay it on too thick and characters act in irrational ways, solely for the sake of throwing the reader off the trail. In interviews, Mieville describes his feelings toward the whodunnit genre and what he believes is its intrinsic flaw: that the questions are always more interesting than the answers the author provides. If this is true, then he has managed to combine his attempt at noir with his penchant for the fantastic into something that rises above perceived genre trappings.

While strong, the mysterious plot and the imaginative world Mieville has concocted often dominate the story to the point where the characters seem less important than the settings and situations they find themselves in. While I am glad he didn’t resort to such tropes as the alcoholic divorced cop who only lives for the thrill of the case, the characters didn’t have much back story of their own. This seemed strange and off putting at first, the more I considered the missing characterization the more I was glad Mieville didn’t try and force a specific vision of Borlu or any of the other characters on us. By visualizing my own character concepts, I really got into the story itself and imagined myself walking side by side with Borlu down the city streets. Without realizing it, I had gotten lost in The City and The City and I was glad I did.

My apologies to Daniel Abraham

Like a lot of readers out there, I enjoy Urban Fantasy. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Mike Carey's Felix Castor Novels are two series that I place in the illustrious DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) category. I also enjoy Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Novels and Simon R. Green's Nightside series. I've also heard good things about Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries although I haven't had the chance to try them out. There is a veritable plethora of Urban Fantasy out there, just waiting to be read.

Enter M.L.N Hanover, author of Unclean Spirits and Darker Angels, the first two books of the Black Sun’s Daughter series. If you aren’t aware, M.L.N. Hanover is a pen name for Daniel Abraham, whose Long Price Quartet is extremely well written and equally well covered. I enjoy Daniel Abraham’s books and eagerly anticipate the release of The Price of Spring (The Long Price Quartet) this summer.

I will not read M.L.N. Hanover.

First off, I am ignoring the fact that Daniel Abraham is publishing under a pen name. Different type of book, different pen name. Authors have done it before and will do it again. This one is particularly troubling because the “M.L.N Hanover” moniker is specifically targeted to confuse the targeted reader (i.e. women) into thinking that the book is written by a woman (at least hiding the fact that it was written by a man). Who cares what the author’s gender is as long as it’s engaging and well written? Regardless, that’s not why I will skip this series.













I’m not reading because the cover is beyond terrible.

It's a textbook generic Urban Fantasy cover. If you don’t know what I mean, watch this video:



See?

I made a vow to myself years ago when Urban Fantasy flooded the market. I swore to never buy a book with a cover like that. I refuse to give a single dollar of my money (and I buy enough books to keep several publishers in business) to a publisher who puts out a cover that bad. It’s a disservice to the readers AND the authors. It's saying this book is no different than any of the dozens of others out there and expecting us to develop some Pavlovian response mechanism. Since publishers apparently only understand money, we’ve got to speak to them in a language they can understand: sales. This is a trend that needs to stop.

On Unclean Spirits, I count at least 4 Urban Fantasy Cover Sins.

1. Female character facing away from reader
2. Lower back tattoo (more commonly referred to as a tramp stamp)
3. Leather Pants
4. Weapon at the ready

Throw a moon in there and swap the tank top for a corset and you have a cover so stereotypical it’s sickening.

Now go back and look at the covers for the 5 series I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Each of them has a clear style that repeats from book to book. You could take every bit of text off a Dresden Files novel or a Southern Vampire Mystery and I would know exactly who wrote it and what kind of a book to expect. You do that for Unclean Spirits or any of the covers featured in that video and you get a very uniform result. When I see a cover like that, I expect generic trash. It doesn’t help that any well-earned name recognition is out the window due to the pen name.

My sympathies to Daniel Abraham, I’m sure this cover wasn’t your decision, and I’m guessing the name change wasn’t either. If theses books are as well written as your other work, I’m sure they are some quality fiction. Quality Fiction I won’t be reading. I made a promise to myself a long time ago. A promise I intend to keep.