ext_40109 ([identity profile] alg.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] alg 2006-03-17 08:40 pm (UTC)

Re: Urban Fantasy//Dark Fantasy/Paranormal

These are fantasy novels. Period. That is the genre. You will also hear "paranormal" or "supernatural" or "supernormal" -- those are not the official genre, but they are descriptors of elements within the novel.

Next you have the descriptors: contemporary, urban, dark. Other descriptors for fantasy novels include: historical, epic, high, quest, sword-and-sorcer.

Contemporary/urban fantasy is a pretty big subgenre -- fantasy novels set now, or close to now. John M. Ford, Terri Windling, Charles de Lint, Laurell Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher... These are authors who incorporate fantastical elements (magic, vampires, fairies, etc.) into contemporary city-settings.

Where books are stocked in a bookstore isn't as black and white as I've made it seem -- for example, in some places, Laurell Hamilton is stocked in romance, because the bookstore manager knows that the majority of people buying LKH's books are romance readers, and that makes it easier for the romance readers to find the books.

Does that make more sense?

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