Urban Fantasy (Or "How Anita Blake fumbled the ball and Harry Dresden ran it for a touchdown")

Ok, we’ve already got TV shows, games, and movies (or at least trailers) covered. Now all we need is books. Well, I’m going to cover those here and now. I wanted to tell anyone and everyone about a couple of series, including my personal favorite, “The Dresden Files”. “The Dresden Files” are, in my humble opinion, the best of the burgeoning yet relatively undiscovered “urban fantasy” genre. This genre is quite popular, but only among a certain group. These kinds of books never make newspaper headlines or get the summer movie deals (even though some would make excellent movies), but are popular nonetheless. Hopefully, this will introduce something new to you.


This genre, for those who’ve never heard of it, usually takes place in an alternate version of a modern city, such as Chicago, St. Louis, Atlanta, etc. I’ve even found one that takes place here in good old Cincinnati (more on that later). The reason I say an alternate version of our world is because in these settings, magic and the supernatural are very real. All kinds of creepy crawlies populate these cities, and the heroes and heroines usually run afoul of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghouls, and the like. Public knowledge of these creatures varies in different series, with the general public not believing in some series, while in others these beasties are given full citizenship, with all the rights and duties as such.

I first discovered this genre when I heard about the “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter” series. I’m always up for a good vampire hunter novel, so I picked up the first one, Guilty Pleasures. It’s about a vampire hunter named Anita Blake (in case you couldn’t tell from the title of the series). Or, more appropriately, a vampire executioner. See, in this series, vampires “came out of the closet”. They revealed their existence to the public at large seeking to become citizens, and are now protected by law just as you and I are. So when this happened, Anita changed her title from Vampire Hunter to Vampire Executioner, and can now only kill a vamp when the state determines it needs to die. The vampire leaders ensure that their citizens obey the laws and only feed off the willing without killing them. If a vamp acts “in the old ways”, Anita usually doesn’t have time to execute it before the vampire society enacts its own brand of justice. Since these executions are few and far between, Anita also employs her abilities as a necromancer (or one with power over the dead, for the completely illiterate in our audience). People pay her to use the magical ability to raise the dead for mundane tasks such as clarifying a will or saying goodbye to loved ones. Grandma die without passing on that family heirloom? Get Anita to raise Grandma from the dead and ask her yourself.

So there’s the premise: a vampire hunting/executing necromancer’s adventures in St. Louis. Sounds pretty interesting, huh? Well, for the first 5 books it is. It was one of the best series I had ever read. Then came book 6. I’m going to talk about events that happen in each book after 5 that I’ve read, so be warned: ****Spoilers ahead***** By book 6 Anita’s dating and is engaged to a werewolf. Well, in the end of book 6, out of nowhere, Anita has sex with a vampire. “Ok,” I thought. “I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. After all, it worked on Buffy.” In book 7 she discovered she could use sex as a weapon. “Oh yeah, that’s just as good as a stake, I guess.” Then, the backbreaking straw came in book 8. In one chapter, there was a contest between a pack of werewolves to see who could screw Anita first. I figured I’d skim through it, but to my dismay that scene lasted several chapters. That was when I put the book down. ****End Spoilers *****

Now, let’s get one thing straight. It’s not the fact that sex was present in these books. It was how gratuitous it was. Some of this stuff would have made the Marquis de Sade blush. Or, for the less learned among you, Jenna Jameson would have said “Well, that was unnecessary!” And from what I hear, the books just get more and more in-depth. I think they’re up to book 12 by now. I’m no prude, but when a book can be described as “150 pages of plot wrapped in 500 pages of sex scenes”, those had better be 150 pages of damn good plot. And to me, it wasn’t. I seemed as if the writer spent all this time on the sex scenes and then thought “Oh, I’ve got to come up with some way to get her into these situations”.

So, after the Anita Blake series nosedived from one of the best series I had ever read into the kind of book you expect to see Fabio on the cover of, where do I turn? Someone who thought the same thing suggested a book called Storm Front, the first book in “The Dresden Files”. The main character is a wizard named Harry Dresden. That’s right, another series about a wizard named Harry. The difference between Potter and Dresden is that Dresden doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s a wizard. In fact, he advertises it. In the Yellow Pages. His ad reads “Harry Dresden – Wizard; Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment”. Harry is a classic PI, updated for today with a smart-assed attitude and an arsenal of magic.

Unfortunately, Harry’s business is kind of slow, as few people believe in magic in this age of science and reason. Most of his calls involve people asking if he’s for real or requests to do children’s birthday parties. To pay the bills, Harry also works as a consultant for the Chicago P.D.’s Special Investigations unit. This is kind of like Chicago’s “X-Files” unit. Any cases that can’t be explained neatly by science go here. In this novel, Harry gets a job helping with an SI case where two victims were found with their hearts exploded from their chests, apparently from the inside. He also takes on a separate case involving finding a woman’s missing husband, who she fears is getting caught up in “black magic”. When it rains, it pours. Harry also has his share of woman troubles. In addition to dealing with SI’s chief, a tough-girl cop named Karrin Murphy, he has to deal with a Hispanic reporter named Susan Rodriguez, who has an interest in Harry’s cases, and maybe in Harry himself. (There’s just something I like about an author who admits that the two main females in his story are based off of Eliza Maza from Disney’s Gargoyles.) A date between Harry and Susan leads to one of the funniest scenes I think I’ve ever read. It’s not very often a book can have me laughing out loud, but so far every book in the Dresden Files has had that effect on me. Most of these laugh out loud moments come from Bob the skull, Harry’s perverted helper spirit. Bob is sort of the magical equivalent of a Google search engine, in that he provides Harry with all kinds of information. You’ve just got to read the books to find out how great this character is.

You can tell that this is the author’s first book (the mystery isn’t too hard to figure out), but the characters and situations were enjoyable enough to get me to read the rest of the books in the series. It’s neat to see how the author’s writing improves with each subsequent book. Since then I have purchased every book in the series, and I eagerly look forward to the next. Harry’s a really likable character. The story is told from a first-person perspective, so even if he doesn’t say it he usually has some sarcastically funny reaction to any situation or comment. (One example; A guy keeps asking him if he’s “an actual wizard, Spells and potions? Demons and incantations? Subtle and quick to anger?” His response; “Not so subtle.”) He seems like he’d be fun to hang around with, which is part of what makes these books so enjoyable.

I’d recommend anyone who like fantasy or old noir-ish stories to check these books out. And even if you don’t really like the first one, give the second one a try. If by then you’re not impressed, it’s probably not the series for you. They’re all mystery novels, just involving vampires, demons, werewolves, ghosts, fairies, holy warriors, fallen angels, zombies, necromancers, zombies, black magic, one man polka bands, mob bosses, and a literal talking head. Plus, you’ve got to love a series of books whose audio CDs are narrated by James Marsters. (Yeah, that James Marsters. That man’s got range. It wasn’t until I heard a bit from these audio CDs that I realized that Spike’s British accent isn’t natural for him.) All the elements combined, this may just be my favorite series ever.

So those are the two most popular urban fantasy series. However, even if you don’t like these, there are many others out there. I hadn’t realized how large this genre is until I started looking. I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. I’m currently reading one set here in good old Cincinnati. (I also hadn’t realized there were so many vampires in Covington.) So, if you like fantasy, give one of these books a try. You might just be pleasantly surprised.