When I think "urban fantasy" I tend to go in general terms for the idea you mentioned - that it's a fantasy story, high or low, that is particularly centered around a city; so some Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories count towards this definition and others don't (I still consider them the forerunners anyway), the Dresden books count (those books are as much about living in Chicago as they are about Harry, at least in the beginning), and books like, say, PALIMPSEST also probably count (on the other hand, that doesn't mean they're readable).
One thing that makes an "urban fantasy" book different from, say, a fantasy story that happens to involve a city, though, is that the story is heavily influenced by noir style, to the point where many of them - like the real early Dresden books, f'rex - are almost tipping into straight-up noir pastiche or neo-noir with fantasy trappings. I don't think it necessarily has to involve a "real" city to evoke that noir aesthetic, but most people find it easier to achieve that style if they're basing it in a familiar backdrop (either to themselves or to he genre; Dresden's Chicago counts either way). (PERDIDO STREET STATION is more "urban fantasy" in my mind than "New Weird" or whatever that means because it's pretty much neo-noir to the bone.) I think this is where the conflation with the "paranormal romance" genre comes from, because of the strong romantic/sexual streak that runs through noir storytelling that "urban fantasy" inevitably inherited, but that conflation really seems to miss the forest for the trees.
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chiming
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Date: 2010-10-07 08:30 pm (UTC)From:One thing that makes an "urban fantasy" book different from, say, a fantasy story that happens to involve a city, though, is that the story is heavily influenced by noir style, to the point where many of them - like the real early Dresden books, f'rex - are almost tipping into straight-up noir pastiche or neo-noir with fantasy trappings. I don't think it necessarily has to involve a "real" city to evoke that noir aesthetic, but most people find it easier to achieve that style if they're basing it in a familiar backdrop (either to themselves or to he genre; Dresden's Chicago counts either way). (PERDIDO STREET STATION is more "urban fantasy" in my mind than "New Weird" or whatever that means because it's pretty much neo-noir to the bone.) I think this is where the conflation with the "paranormal romance" genre comes from, because of the strong romantic/sexual streak that runs through noir storytelling that "urban fantasy" inevitably inherited, but that conflation really seems to miss the forest for the trees.