The first book in the series is really strong; if you don't like it then you can stop. I personally loved the shit out of it but the whole "modern market as magic" is catnip to me

 

I'll second Lukyanenko's Night Watch. I loved the films, so got the books (in English), and I really liked the first one. I've not read the second yet, or read the first in quite some time, but it was an interesting world.

I fell in love with Tad William's War of the Flowers. A 30-something American man is dumped by his girlfriend, and decides he no longer wants to be lead singer in his band. Through shenanigans, he ends up in fairyland, and all sorts of stuff happens. I don't want to ruin it, but I've read it multiple times, used to have it on audiobook, and treat it as a go-to rec for anyone who likes interesting takes on fantasy. The story is, however, primarily set in fairyland, although it has gone through an industrial revolution, so it isn't all sunshine and daisies.

Tom Holt also does some good urban fantasy, although much more on the comedic side, and I've not read any in a good time.

 

Heh, the girl on the cover of that first book looks like something straight out of Fate/Stay Night.

 

I read up to Full Fathom Five and enjoyed them well enough. But I've felt no real desire to keep reading. The first was defiantly my favourite. The follow ups lost some of that early magic and got a little conceited with the whole 'look its the modern world with different words and magic!' theme. Still, I would recommend you give the first one a try. It is very unique and if you like that, the squeals should also be at least enjoyable.

 

I loved the shit out of War of the Flowers.

 

I saw it mentioned once or twice already, but I think you should give Percy Jackson another look. If you don't mind the YA spin to it, it can be a great amount of fun.

The one thing I really love about the series and the characters within it is that, though fun, it grows darker as the audience grows older. It goes from being a fun and wacky adventure to kids fighting a war where they're way in over their heads.

Plus, it's got a real MCU feel of connection to it. The other three series connect into PJ. It's not separate worlds made in separate books. They're all one and the same. Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian gods - all just different sides of the same coin.

If you give it an honest look, I think you'll like them.

Edit: What's the golden rule of book movies?

The books are always better.

 

I was not a fan of the movies at all.

The book series was pretty decent while he was still writing it (first three especially (even though the second was cowritten)), but by the seventh or eight book where he just farmed out the name to cash in on the quality was significantly worse. It also was edging closer and closer to self-parody, although the 'take that!' to the movie was amusing.

Edit: I just realized you mentioned you only read the first and second. I'd recommend stopping after the third. Read the 4th and 5th if you *really* like the world and characters.

 

War of the Flowers is simultaneously the best fantasy story I've ever read and one of the most frustrating as well. It's the single best take I've ever seen on a person being drawn into a fantasy land where he plays a key part in its political structure.

Spoiler

But it's also so damn frustrating the way Theo just seems to be along for the ride rather than the driving force of the story. He plays his part well, but he never seems to be the protagonist. He learns things and they play a part in his adventure, but he never really goes out and actually seeks to finish it. It just kinda happens to him.

I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy, but it's much like Marmite in my mind. It's a very polarising story.

Night Watch is fucking spectacular, though. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone, fantasy lover or not.

 

It's weird that urban fantasy is such a broad category of fiction and yet we're still so limited in selection.

That was over two years ago, I've been picking DLP's collective brains on the matter since, and what I want from urban fantasy doesn't exist. On the plus side, that's what got me writing again.

 

It's also caused some amazing rants about Bright...

 

And in 8 words you have successfully out-shitposted me.

 

Mishie trolled me into watching a review as long as the movie it's about. It revolves around viewing Bright within a modern racial context instead of a meta context of the wider genre, so I basically live blogged my salt at him for two hours.

On that note, while it's not an urban fantasy book, I do recommend watching Bright on Netflix. It's a lot of fun, and has some interesting premises.

 

Bright is fucking terrible and negative fun

 

The dialogue was so stilted it could be out fighting Spiderman. The characters were boring and flat. The world building was laughably poor and when explained, so on the nose and exposition heavy you'd think that the director has gotten "show, don't tell" backwards.

There is a rich genre of cop "one bad night" media out there, but this didn't even try to engage without what others have done before in terms of plotting.

This was not a well crafted film. This was not a well written film. The only thing it has going for it is half hazardly slapping orcs and elves into a bad cop movie.

 

Nah, it was a David Ayer production through and through. Which is a damn shame because he knows how to write a one bad night cop script! He practically did the single best entry in the genre! But as a director he's just terrible at directing them; it's telling that his one good film was not a one bad night film but spread over a longer period of time

 

I have to second the recommendations for the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch and Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka. Those are the only ongoing series besides Dresden Files that I keep up with.

ThePeter Grantbooks have a great use of the city of London. It gives a good sense of the diversity present in London's people and neighborhoods. If it matters, the main character is also half-black, so there's a viewpoint there that's not visited a lot in modern fantasy.

Alex Verusis also set in London, but I like them more for how useless his powers generally are in combat. His only power is being able to see the future, so he's forced to always outfox his enemies using knowledge he's gained instead of going at them head-on.

If you're up for more historical urban fantasy, there are a couple of series set post-WWI that are good:

The Vampire Files by P.N. Elrod is set in the 30s and follows a newly turned vampire named Jack Fleming who works as a private investigator. He has pretty classic Stoker powers and weaknesses, which was kind of refreshing since I started this series around the time Twilight was blowing up and it seemed like everyone was trying to come up with their own spin on vampires.

The books are focused on a case he's working, although a few of them are connected by a longer plot thread. Books 1-3 could be considered a trilogy exploring his turn and investigation into his own death and the whereabouts of his creator. 4 is a standalone case, 5-7 are another trilogy concerning a gang war, and 8-9 are standalone. 10-12 are again kind of connected.

Fair warning: the series isn't complete and she hasn't written a new book in a while. However, they're mostly self-contained so you can read quite a few without feeling like you're missing something. She's also written a bunch of short stories set in the same world, so there's probably another novel's worth of material there.

The Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia are set in the 30s and follow a world where a handful of supernatural abilities started manifesting in people in the 1850s. Each person has only one kind of power, and the series follows a man named Jake Sullivan who's a "Heavy" with influence over gravity. It's kind of a fantasy/alternate history thing, with some original characters and some historical figures who have had their paths altered by the influence of magic on world events. Some of the applications that the characters use to make the most of their powers are pretty interesting.

It's a completed trilogy with some more recent short stories I didn't realize he'd written, so now I have something to look into.