So now that you've defined urban fantasy to me, how is it different from a futuristic? See? I know nothing. NOTHING.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
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16 comments:
See now, that I can actually answer. Futuristics incorporate a great deal of scifi elements such as space travel, meeting "aliens", better technology and include characters like sentient robots or ships and are always set in the future. Contemporary fantasy is always set in the present time. So, Susan Kearney's Rystani series would be futuristic fantasy (psi elements) romance.
But JD Robb's Eve Dallas series is considered a futuristics and it really doesn't have that much technology or space travel.
I have no freaking clue. My agent is shopping a book I consider a futuristic (it IS set in the future but no outer space, no aliens, no sentient ships) and the editors call urban fantasy *shrug*
Anne McCaffrey IMO would fall into futuristic also (and from what I can remember, her stuff usually has a romance--keeping in mind I never could get into the Dragonriders books)
Dragonriders....er Pern Sorry
The JD Robb books are near future (within 50 years) futuristics. Note the references to space travel and offplanet resorts/penitentiaries, flying cars, holo play, sparring droids, voice-operated computers, technology-based mind control and so on.
Take your SSS series and throw in more extreme/advanced scientific developments, make those developments available as everyday technology to the general public (not just to COS and GEM), then set the story 50 to 100 years in the future, et voila! Futuristic by Gennita Low. =)
Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern is scifi, not futuristic (especially considering the regression in technology).
Futurist fantasy doesn't necessarily need to have the sf elements, it just needs to be set in the future. Urban Fantasy is fantasy touching the here and now. A master of the Urban Fantasy is Charles de Lint. If you'd like some really good examples try Jack the Giant Killer, Greenmantle or Memory and Dream.
What Monique said. *g*
I think a futuristic romance is really a sci-fi with strong romantic elements. The book that immediately comes to mind is Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair. Freakin' love that book. LOVE it.
I think urban/contemporary fantasy deals with an alternative present time, i.e., it's 2008 and here's a world where vampires are not only real but lobbying for citizenship, etc.
Futuristic, to me, lines up more with sci-fi: books like Ravyn's Flight by some chick we know, or Susan Grant's stuff, etc.
JD Robb, IMO, are futuristic lite, b/c although weird new technologies are there, they're just incidental tools, not a central point of the plot.
I'm no expert (or writer), but I would consider urban fantasy something set in the present. With different world changes (a world where witches and wizards live among us persay) but set in a world with cell phones, television and all that stuff. I also connotate urban fantasy with bustling cities, but that might just be the "urban" part.
What if, say, ahem, you a Viking who is a Time Lord and can travel using magical/fantasy means to alternate futures AND the present we know? And he speaks in first person urban fantasy style? And he likes technology and brings them with him as he collects toys as he "travels"? Huh? Huh? LOL.
Thank you, though, for everyone's answers. I'm always very interested in how readers and writers define urban fantasy, futuristic, and sci-fi romance. They tend to overlap in my head and I get very confused when I try to define them out loud.
Right now, the consensus is that JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood has moved from paranormal romance (you see? Why is this a p.r.?) to urban fantasy territory (but it's not first person? And there is no city-as-part-of-the-story?). I want to know how readers arrive to THAT conclusion.
Any thoughts? About my timetraveling futuristic Viking time lord cowboy or JR Ward's Brothah series ;-).
Right now, the consensus is that JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood has moved from paranormal romance (you see? Why is this a p.r.?) to urban fantasy territory (but it's not first person? And there is no city-as-part-of-the-story?). I want to know how readers arrive to THAT conclusion.
Paranormal romance because you have vampires as romantic leads. Left paranormal romance territory because in the latest book the romance is just a side story.
What if, say, ahem, you a Viking who is a Time Lord and can travel using magical/fantasy means to alternate futures AND the present we know? And he speaks in first person urban fantasy style? And he likes technology and brings them with him as he collects toys as he "travels"? Huh? Huh? LOL.
Talk about a pastiche! Is it supposed to be comedy? Because the standards for comic are different from kick-ass.
Kath,
No, it's not a comedy. A pastiche! Yes...I am, if nothing else, hodge-podge. ;-) I should tell that Muse of mine to keep it simple because I don't want to say I'm writing a "pastiche,actually," to an editor.
And oh, thanks for explaining how the Ward book became an urban fantasy. So, romance not focal point makes it UF. Check.
I could be wrong but this is my impression of the difference:
Any book which contains a romance where the relationship is front and center is a romance (paranormal, regency, futuristic, etc.).
Urban fantasy is set in this world or the near past or future with demons or witches, werewolves, vampires, elves, etc.
I've lately heard that lots of folks are getting tired of UF (don't know if the sales numbers support that), as they did with sheiks, babies, billionaires and westerns. So your pastiche is so different it may work.
In my reading it's the author's voice I look for, not so much the genre or subgenre.
Allie
Allie,
Really? You think people are tired of UF? I thought they were tired of vampires and werewolves, not necc. UF, which does have lots of these two creatures.
I think voice is very important too. It makes the story more interesting if the voice is distinct.
As for the pastiche (yes, I think I'm going to tell the editor it's a pastiche paranormal, heh heh), I might post a few pages when I'm done with the proposal. Maybe you can all help me form a synopsis/proposal, yeah, that's the ticket...Viking cowboy timetraveler Magic Summoner dude vs. Big Bad.
Well, OK, *I* am tired of UF, so maybe I notice the negative UF posts more than the "OMG I love UF" posts ;-). But maybe I'm misremembering and the ennui is more with vamps and werewolves (LKH wannabes).
Good luck with your pastiche!! Maybe you can start a new trend: Fantasy Pastichio! That could be loads of fun.
Allie
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