432pages (paperback)

Publishedon: August 15, 2011

Publishedby: Tachyon Publications

Thanks to the publishers for sending me a copy of this book to review. 

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It’sno secret that I’m not a fan of most urban fantasy. I tend to find problemswith almost every urban fantasy book I’ve tried to read. When I got this bookin the mail, I kind of rolled my eyes and shot it to the top of my “to be read”pile so I could get it over with fast. I didn’t expect to actually enjoy thisbook. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d open this anthology and think,“hot damn, this is good stuff…” but I did. I cracked open this book, startedreading, and shocked myself by enjoying it.

Aswith every anthology, not every story will be a hit. Where this book seems todiffer from many other anthologies was the fact that the stories all appealedto me differently due to their plots, not due to their quality, which is thecase with many anthologies. This book is filled with some heavy-hitting authorslike Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Patricia Briggs, Emma Bull and many more.With names that infamous in the speculative fiction genre, the stories betterbe quality, and they are.

Anothersurprise with the Urban Fantasy Anthologywas the fact that each story was so different than what I expected it to be. Despite what the cover shows, there really weren’t any tattooed heroines who were overly tough yet jaded by love fallinghead-over-heals for the first mysterious hunk they come across. No, thisanthology was broken into three distinct sections, Mythic Fiction, ParanormalRomance and Noir Fantasy and none of them are what you’d expect them to be(except maybe Mythic Fiction).

Eachsection starts with a brief essay discussing the history and importance of thespecific portion of urban fantasy that they are highlighting, after which thestories begin. For a great breakdown of each story featured in this book, checkout Neth Space’s review here. Mythic Fiction and Noir are really filled withsome incredibly powerful and well-written stories that will stick with thereader long after they finish reading them. However, Paranormal Romance suffersquite a bit beside those two sections. The stories included are rather awkwardand don’t really seem to fit in with the section they are supposed to be partof. None of the stories are very romantic, and the endings are pretty grim, whichisn’t the case for most paranormal romance you’ll find in book stores. I’m notsure if the editors were trying to broaden the paranormal sub-genre or what,but the stories, while good, left me feeling like they were the genre’s awkwardstep-children who had no real place to belong.

The Urban Fantasy Anthology is dark.Mythologies and common perceptions of the genre are turned on their heads.There are more dismal endings than happy ones, which may surprise some readerswhen considering the genre this book is part of. While I don’t really feel likeI have a better understanding of current urban fantasy trends, this book didmake me realize that if more urban fantasy books were written like thesestories, I would probably be a huge fan of the genre instead of the poo-pooerthat I tend to be now. That being said, I do feel that the editors includedstories in the book that seek to broaden current urban fantasy, rather than storiesthat show what current urban fantasy trends are.

Inthe end, this is a strong book. I enjoyed it immensely, more for the fact thatI didn’t expect to enjoy it rather than the feeling that any of the storieswere absolutely mind blowing or amazing. While I do feel that this anthology doesn’tshow the current urban fantasy trends, it does show what urban fantasy could be(and is, if you search hard enough for the right books). This book isn’t whatyou’d expect it to be, and for someone as jaded with urban fantasy as I am,that’s the absolute highest compliment I could ever pay it.

4/5stars