Dear readers, by accident I stumbled across an article summarizing the folkloric roots and recent growth of that strand of mythic fiction that publishers are dubbing "urban fantasy": take a look. The article is (well) titled "The City Fantastic," and it appeared in Library Journal a few days ago.For those studying, reading, or hoping to write urban fantasy, the article also includes an impressive bibliography of recent work, from Charles de Lint's short stories to the Anita Blake vampire novels to the recent hit Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. The list is definitely worth a look.
This already-thriving genre is quite vigorous. My own first encounter with it was a Charles de Lint story in which a street youth was picked up by the police for freeing the captive urban bicycles with a pair of chain-cutters, so that the bicycles could return to the wilds of the inner city streets. The narrator hears, or imagines she hears, the sound of bicycle bells in the rain, as the freed bicycles wheel away into the dark....
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2 comments:
I am sad to say that I haven't nearly read enough Charles de Lint this year, which is one of my reading goals. I could literally devote a whole month of reading to him and him alone and not make a dent in the pile of de Lint books that I long to read.
I look forward to checking out that article, it sounds interesting.
He is prolific!
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