Urban fantasy

Key indicator is mix of fairy tale elements (often seen in pastoral or rural settings) with specifically urban elements; a recognizable city, skyscrapers, public transit, congestion, large populations, urban blight, etc.

The first works in the broad "urban fantasy" genre tended to involve faery or other magical intrusions into modern urban life; the genre overlaps with magical realism and with elfpunk.

Over time, the genre has come to be dominated by works drawing from vampire literature, particularly Anne Rice, frequently with a female protagonist, and featuring sexual or romantic situations. These novels may overlap with paranormal romance's, or, as with the books by Laurell K. Hamilton (one of the founders of this sub-sub-genre), a sort of paranormal "chick-lit".

Works of Urban Fantasy

elf-punk & others

• War for the Oaks and Finder, by Emma Bull
• The Kingdom of Kevin Malone & the Sorcery Hall Trilogy by Suzy McKee Charnas
• Steel Rose & Crystal Sage, by Kara Dalkey
• Tam Lin & Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary, by Pamela Dean
• many works by Charles de Lint
• Neverwhere and other books by Neil Gaiman
• Laura Ann Gilman, Retrievers series (Staying Dead, Curse of the Dark, Bring It On)
• The Dream Years and Tourists, by Lisa Goldstein
• Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson
• many works by Diana Wynne Jones
• Changer and Legends Walking, by Jane Lindskold
• Tea with the Black Dragon, by R.A. MacAvoy
• C. E. Murphy, Urban Shaman series
• Kat Richardson, Greywalker
• the Borderland and Bordertown anthologies edited by Terri Windling & Mark Alan Arnold

"paranormal chick-lit"

• Rachel Caine, Weather Warden series; Glass Houses
• several works by Mercedes Lackey
• Carrie Vaughn