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Urban Fantasy ranting
Oct. 5th, 2011 10:28 pmI stocked up on Urban Fantasies to binge on in preparation for Nanowrimo. I got eight books from the library, and I've read the first chapters of several of them already. Some are first books, others are second or thirds. (I'm going to be writing a sequel to my own urban fantasy.)
One thing that sticks out at me as something not to do is the way some of them frontload information. In one, the first chapter is the heroine going "blah blah this is my life and me and how my world is set up." Boring as hell. Another one does this both too much and not enough. I need a bit more info to get over the horrifying sense that the author is equating every single non-Christian spirit with Christian demons. I'm also annoyed by the need these authors feel to say, right up front that, "by the way, this character is actually that famous mythological/biblical character!" This instantly sets up huge expectations which are instantly disappointed.
I've looked at three of the books so far, and the third one doesn't have the front-loading problem, and it's much more interesting and focused. I considered that part of it might be that the third book's heroine doesn't know anything about the magical world, (and it's a first book) but there are other point of view characters who do know stuff, and they do a good job of showing, not telling.
The stats so far are:
3 books
3 female authors
1 male pseudonym, 1 using initials
2 protagonists of color (though one's a bit of a cheat, since she's a shapechanger, and just picked what was most aesthetically pleasing to her. But hey, if you're going to have a shape-changing character, they might as well not be white.)
1 1st Person single narrator
1 3rd Person single narrator (so far)
1 1st Person, multiple narrators
I think all of them so far are what I'd call "closed worlds," meaning everyday people don't know about the magic stuff (unlike my own book, where everyone knows about the Hellgates opening, and having to live with that. It's a pain in the ass to worldbuild around without sounding info-dumpy.)
One thing that sticks out at me as something not to do is the way some of them frontload information. In one, the first chapter is the heroine going "blah blah this is my life and me and how my world is set up." Boring as hell. Another one does this both too much and not enough. I need a bit more info to get over the horrifying sense that the author is equating every single non-Christian spirit with Christian demons. I'm also annoyed by the need these authors feel to say, right up front that, "by the way, this character is actually that famous mythological/biblical character!" This instantly sets up huge expectations which are instantly disappointed.
I've looked at three of the books so far, and the third one doesn't have the front-loading problem, and it's much more interesting and focused. I considered that part of it might be that the third book's heroine doesn't know anything about the magical world, (and it's a first book) but there are other point of view characters who do know stuff, and they do a good job of showing, not telling.
The stats so far are:
3 books
3 female authors
1 male pseudonym, 1 using initials
2 protagonists of color (though one's a bit of a cheat, since she's a shapechanger, and just picked what was most aesthetically pleasing to her. But hey, if you're going to have a shape-changing character, they might as well not be white.)
1 1st Person single narrator
1 3rd Person single narrator (so far)
1 1st Person, multiple narrators
I think all of them so far are what I'd call "closed worlds," meaning everyday people don't know about the magic stuff (unlike my own book, where everyone knows about the Hellgates opening, and having to live with that. It's a pain in the ass to worldbuild around without sounding info-dumpy.)
