Non-heroic non-save-the-world UF

[Fergus]

I have been reading the suggested books for BOM in Feb.
Feeling downhearted...

I love magic and the idea of fantasy elements in an Urban situation but I think I am a bit tired right now (probably a cyclical thing) with heroes and heroines that need to save the world while having turbulent dramatic relationships with dangerous men...

So I am looking for recommendations of books that might have a little bit of magic but major on real life issues or themes.

Maybe I should explore magic realism. I am not sure about that.

Probably a good description of what I am looking for is what it would look like if Barbara Kingsolver wrote UF.

Any ideas?

[Lauren]

Try Charles de Lint. A lot of his books are about magic in the mundane, without the world ending and the alpha men.

Try Nina Kiriki Hoffman as well. A Fistful of Sky for example focuses on a family with extraordinary abilities and very ordinary issues. The main character is a girl and there's a special boy, a very normal, sweet, special boy.

I'm looking forward to more recommendations. I'm getting tired of all the drama and the dangerous men myself.

[Tasula]

The Rook

Bitter Seeds

Daughter of the Sword

The Devil You Know

[Fergus]

Lauren wrote: "Try Charles de Lint. A lot of his books are about magic in the mundane, without the world ending and the alpha men.

Try Nina Kiriki Hoffman as well. [book:A Fistfu..."

Hi Lauren. I have heard de Lint mentioned a few times now. Will give him a go. Thanks for that! Any good starting books you'd particularly recommend?

As for the Nina Kiriki Hoffman... I started the thread recently... :-) She is definitely in the direction I want to go!

Fergus

[Fergus]

To be clearer...
No love polygons
No detectives.
No secret agents.
No knights.
No dragons.
No six pack abs unless the possessor is competing in a body building competition or an aspiring model.

If there be librarians let them be concerned with budget cuts not the long lost magic book stored in the basement.

If I were playing Dungeons and Dragons I would say let it be a low magic world.

I do love dragons and detectives, werewolves and witches, but I am longing for subtle and mundane with emotional depth right now.

I think one of the appeals UF and magic has for me is that I suspect magic is in some way real at very least as a metaphor for the wonderous variety and complexity humans find in each other and the world around us.

When two people trust each other and that trust makes both of them bigger than they could have been by themselves then I think something magical has happened!

UF makes that magic bigger and bolder and less figurative. I guess right now I am wanting something that nestles closer to the real magic in life and perhaps adds a sparkle, a glimmer in the corner of one's eye, to the beautiful, mundane, glory of our world in the way we experience it.

Here endeth the rant.

[Lauren]

For de Lint I would try as an intro to the author. It's 1st in his Newford series, but the series can really be read in any order and I never did read them all in order, and there are tons I haven't gotten to yet as well.

I know you're looking for UF, but if you want to veer into fantasy for a bit can I recommend Patricia A. McKillip? The books are fantasy, but rather than being all swords, knights and kingdoms they leave you feeling like this could have been us a few hundred years ago. and are two of my favorite books. I still go back to them when I need a break from bodice ripping werewolves and vampire P.I.'s.

[Lauren]

Oh, and let me add to my list of UF recommendations. It's fantasy and magic in the mundane in a world runaways and escapees run to when they need a little magic. The problem is the world with magic can be just as sad and scary as the world without. Rather than big world saving magic it's about smaller magics. I've never gotten the chance to read the older books - hard to come by and expensive, but this is the newest in the series and man it makes me want to read the rest! It delivers magic in the mundane for sure!

[Mary]

The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman doesn't save the world. (Arguably, it's also urban SF, not fantasy, but very, very, very soft SF.)

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen for magic realism

[Scott]

The Devil You Knowis one I am reading right now; also liked Sandman Slim; would think both fit the bill; not at all into the heavy drama and prefer to avoid them myself....

[Julia]

I get it Fergus. Lauren's right about Charles de Lint. Other titles you might look for are: Memory and Dream (Newford Book 5), The Mystery of Grace, Someplace to Be Flying are novels. He also writes short stories, all set in the same cities as his novels: Moonlight and Vines, Dreams Underfoot, and Waifs and Strays. Oh and The Very Best of Charles de Lint.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman is another one I think you will like.A Fistful of Sky, A Red Heart of Memories, Past the Size of Dreaming.

Also the Borderlands books including this novel, but mostly they are short storiesElsewhere, Welcome to Bordertown, Finder another novel, The Essential Bordertown.

[Michelle]

I agree with Charles de Lint! I love that man's books. I'd also recommend Maria Schneider's series.

[Megan]

First, since no one has yet mentioned it and since no thread is complete without the requisite Gaiman recommendation, Neil Gaiman. Although it is not my favourite of his, his newest, The Ocean at the End of the Lane would probably fit this category best.

I second your own recommendation (query?) to read some magic realism but want to say that the thing about that genre is that the magical aspect of it is usually significantly smaller than you would see in a UF novel. Having said that, I rather like the genre. None of the books I'm going to list would I normally recommend in this group, but they all have at least some aspect of the fantastical.

The most popular authors would be Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Haruki Murakami -- but I won't bother saying much about them.

Andrew Kaufman -- (Particularly Born Weird) -- Hands down my favourite new discovered author of 2013. Born Weird is his newest. Not necessary the best known (The Waterproof Bible would be that one), but it features five siblings who all have a unique special blessing that really turns into more of a curse.
José Saramago -- (Particularly Blindness) -- It's a translation, which bothers some people (if I remember correctly, this one doesn't use quotation marks) but I personally love the style.
Drew Hayden Taylor -- Motorcycles & Sweetgrass -- He writes mostly about the First Nations culture, but his books also contain hints of the supernatural. One I haven't read features vampires and this particular one that I adore has a trickster figure waging war on racoons.
China Miéville - The City and the City -- This one does break your "no detectives" rule. The main character is a police officer, but to me the story always felt to be more about the politics of being than solving a mystery.

I would also suggest you check out the Speculative Fiction genre -- there were several promising books/authors on that one but they're also ones on my TBR list so I can't give you concrete recs.

[Patrick]

Blessed and Cursed Alike by Kiarna Boyd fits that bill nicely.

Motorcycle messengers, old tribal shamanistic magic, a curse, and a very unconventional story all around.

I met the author at ReaderCon last year, and I can't say enough good about the book.

[Domino]

Oh man, I love this post. Saving the world is a pet peeve of mine. I don't know if this is kosher, but I recently wrote a short blog post about this very subject.
http://dominofinn.com/killing-clichs-...

To me, putting the world in danger is over-compensating in the story. Subtle conflicts resonate so much more.

[Eliot]

Fergus wrote: "I have been reading the suggested books for BOM in Feb.
Feeling downhearted...

I love magic and the idea of fantasy elements in an Urban situation but I think I am a bit tired right now (probably ..."

Troll: A Love Story is a book that is very short, beautiful, unsettling, and very different, one of my favorites, written by Johanna Sinisalo, one of Finland's top writers and probably the main fantasy author here. I prefer the Finnish title more (Not Before Sundown), as the title really misrepresents all the psychology, folklore, and gritty urban fantasy involved, but that's my only qualm with this book.

Troll: A Love Story

Outside of that, listen to everything Megan said, she's spot-on. Agreed, saving the world gets old. Within two years I think it's going to go the way of the vampire romance.

[Fergus]

Well I was feeling a bit disillusioned so hadn't checked this thread for a while.

SO thanks everyone for the recommendations!

This is going to provide me with a bit of a reading list !