| Our vampire protagonist (let's call her Haley) has roused herself during the day via a herculean expenditure of willpower. All of the humans have been disabled. Her boyfriend, Jason, has been dusted. Only Haley can light the fuse that will detonate the make-shift bomb and close the portal to Hell that opened in the middle of Quinton's Hallmark at the local mall. One problem - she has no matches, Jason's lighter appears to have dusted with him, and none of the Zippos in Spencer's have any lighter fluid in them. How do we resolve the situation? Vampire + Sunlight = Fire. Haley shouts a few obscenities as she "makes fire" by holding her hand out the front door of the mall. If her writer is feeling particularly nasty, then her flaming hand goes out on the way back to the Hallmark store... twice. Okay, so what was all that about? It's an illustration of one of my favorite things about Urban Fantasy. A scene like that one (silly as it is) can work in the genre. But in almost any other genre, it would be rejected out of hand. Urban Fantasy allows the writer to take elements of the mundane and mix them with the supernatural while taking tropes from horror, mystery, action, romance, or even comedy and turning them on their head... Whether it's werewolves wielding holy symbols, zombies craving chocolate cake, or wizard private eyes named Harry... it works. So that's my favorite thing about Urban Fantasy, now what's yours? |
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My favorite thing about UF is that it toys with the what-ifs that *might* really be there; whereas much of fantasy and most of sci-fi is set in an alternate reality, a galaxy far, far away, or both. UF pushes the suspension of disbelief envelope, daring to suggest that maybe, just maybe, these things happen all the time, just down the street.
Hmmm... the dark humor, the twisting of the 'established' creatures/monsters, seeing how they reshape the known world... etc, etc, etc.
Hmmm, rename Haley to Anastazia, mall is in New Orleans during Katrina, merge werewolves with Geico cavemen...Hey, wanna hear about my brand new WIP? LOL
Mmm...I have to agree with what Ryoko and Amber said. I love reading about vampires and werewolves (and other supes) in my reality.