OMG I udaerstnnd perfectly your peeves here. I adore urban fantasy but discovering a good author can be so darn hard. A lot of these authors tend to write incredibly nauseating Mary Sues (unpronouncable names, death-defyingly beautiful + amazing superpowers+unbearably cutesy and spunky) with lousy verse development and plot holes so big you can drive an Airbus through them. Instead of using the supernatural elements to create a fantastically imaginative verse, it is employed only to create super Mary Sue and Gary Stu characters that are gorgeous, rich and cannot die. WTF?However, don't let a few rotten eggs spoil your enjoyment. I highly recommend Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series; she's a werewolf DJ who inadvertently started an advice show for the supernatural monsters. (Q: My husband turn furry at full moon! Should I leave him? A: Only if he starts drinking out of the toilet. )There's also Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series: she's a skinwalker who fixes VW for a living who had to contend with shapeshifter, fae and other supernatural monsters' politics. A regular person with regular worries (paying her bills, living in a double wide trailer) who got mixed up with stuff simply because of where she lives.Try Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series. You don't get a Mary Sue; but a damaged, kick-ass killer with unexpected conscience who is competent at getting things done. Her Karma Girl series started out great (superhero/supervillain world) but the characters in the second book annoyed me beyond belief that I dumped it. Don't forget Simon R Green's Nightside (A side of London where it is always 3 o'clock in the morning where gods and monsters live side by side with saints and prophets and all pleasures are available for the right price) series featuring the intrepid private investigator John Taylor. With characters like Dead Boy, Shotgun Susie, Razor Eddy the Punk God of the Straight Razor and many other blasphemous characters, the series are a fun and rollicking read of pure fantasy enjoyment. My dream is to one day write a Malaysian based urban fantasy, but I'm terrible at plot development. Oh well.
OMG I udaerstnnd perfectly your peeves here. I adore urban fantasy but discovering a good author can be so darn hard. A lot of these authors tend to write incredibly nauseating Mary Sues (unpronouncable names, death-defyingly beautiful + amazing superpowers+unbearably cutesy and spunky) with lousy verse development and plot holes so big you can drive an Airbus through them. Instead of using the supernatural elements to create a fantastically imaginative verse, it is employed only to create super Mary Sue and Gary Stu characters that are gorgeous, rich and cannot die. WTF?However, don't let a few rotten eggs spoil your enjoyment. I highly recommend Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series; she's a werewolf DJ who inadvertently started an advice show for the supernatural monsters. (Q: My husband turn furry at full moon! Should I leave him? A: Only if he starts drinking out of the toilet. )There's also Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series: she's a skinwalker who fixes VW for a living who had to contend with shapeshifter, fae and other supernatural monsters' politics. A regular person with regular worries (paying her bills, living in a double wide trailer) who got mixed up with stuff simply because of where she lives.Try Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series. You don't get a Mary Sue; but a damaged, kick-ass killer with unexpected conscience who is competent at getting things done. Her Karma Girl series started out great (superhero/supervillain world) but the characters in the second book annoyed me beyond belief that I dumped it. Don't forget Simon R Green's Nightside (A side of London where it is always 3 o'clock in the morning where gods and monsters live side by side with saints and prophets and all pleasures are available for the right price) series featuring the intrepid private investigator John Taylor. With characters like Dead Boy, Shotgun Susie, Razor Eddy the Punk God of the Straight Razor and many other blasphemous characters, the series are a fun and rollicking read of pure fantasy enjoyment. My dream is to one day write a Malaysian based urban fantasy, but I'm terrible at plot development. Oh well.
OMG I udaerstnnd perfectly your peeves here. I adore urban fantasy but discovering a good author can be so darn hard. A lot of these authors tend to write incredibly nauseating Mary Sues (unpronouncable names, death-defyingly beautiful + amazing superpowers+unbearably cutesy and spunky) with lousy verse development and plot holes so big you can drive an Airbus through them. Instead of using the supernatural elements to create a fantastically imaginative verse, it is employed only to create super Mary Sue and Gary Stu characters that are gorgeous, rich and cannot die. WTF?However, don't let a few rotten eggs spoil your enjoyment. I highly recommend Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series; she's a werewolf DJ who inadvertently started an advice show for the supernatural monsters. (Q: My husband turn furry at full moon! Should I leave him? A: Only if he starts drinking out of the toilet. )There's also Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series: she's a skinwalker who fixes VW for a living who had to contend with shapeshifter, fae and other supernatural monsters' politics. A regular person with regular worries (paying her bills, living in a double wide trailer) who got mixed up with stuff simply because of where she lives.Try Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series. You don't get a Mary Sue; but a damaged, kick-ass killer with unexpected conscience who is competent at getting things done. Her Karma Girl series started out great (superhero/supervillain world) but the characters in the second book annoyed me beyond belief that I dumped it. Don't forget Simon R Green's Nightside (A side of London where it is always 3 o'clock in the morning where gods and monsters live side by side with saints and prophets and all pleasures are available for the right price) series featuring the intrepid private investigator John Taylor. With characters like Dead Boy, Shotgun Susie, Razor Eddy the Punk God of the Straight Razor and many other blasphemous characters, the series are a fun and rollicking read of pure fantasy enjoyment. My dream is to one day write a Malaysian based urban fantasy, but I'm terrible at plot development. Oh well.