What's Hot?

I was asked this question while in Auckland last week—the perception is that vampires and paranormal urban fantasy may be close to saturation and so the question was: what's coming up next?

My response was that I think the next wave is already on us and the answer is "steampunk"—but I also entered the caveat that I don't necessarily think that we're done with paranormal because there is quite a lot of steampunk out there already that has a strong paranormal dimension: the zombies in Cherie Priest's Boneshaker, vampires and werewolves in Gail Corriger's Parasol Protectorate series (Soulless, Bloodless etc) and angels in Cassandra Clare's new-out Clockwork Angel.

So what do you think? Do you agree that steampunk is the hot new trend? Am I right to detect that paranormal fantasy is morphing into this genre? Do you think paranormal urban fantasy will continue unabated in parallel—or are you "over it" already? Or maybe there's always a place for a good story well-told in any genre?

To help the discussion along I have a copy of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel to give away to one lucky commenter who posts here today.