Looking for Recommendations: Between Two Worlds

[Rainy]

Any suggestions for urban fantasy books where one or more of the chars actually go between the modern world and a fictional world?

[JanetteJ]

Hello Rainy,

I would suggest the Dark Swan series by Richelle Mead the first book being Storm Born. Book 3 was just released a month or two ago.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

Another UF could be Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison if you like dragons. It came out last month, a debut novel.

There is always classics like Kim Harrison with her Hollow series.

Less known and less liked:
Greywalker series by Kat Richardson
Ghostland by Jory Strong but it's heavy on the sex scenes.

[Joseph]

I'd suggest Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld series. It starts with Witchling.

[Lisa O.]

The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa goes between the real world and Faerie.

[Julia]

Welcome to Bordertown this shared universe is set where the human world and the elfin realm have come together at the Border. It's a place where elfin kids and human kids run away to find themselves, where neither magic, nor technology are reliable. It's been gone for thirteen years for those of us in the human world. It's been thirteen days at the Border...

[Mindy]

It is funny, I just read this book and it is about the main character traveling between the Urban Fantasy world in NY to a Fantasy world. It is a vampire book and I TOTALLY love it. Both earth and the fantasy world have vampires and in the fantasy world, humans are extinct. So when she travels there every time she goes to bed, she is protected & hidden by 5 vampires because they are worried of what will happen to her if she is found by the rest of the vampires.

I absolutely LOVED this book!

[Tasula]

How about:
Sunny- Mona Lisa Awakening-she and others travel to Hell
Liz Williams- Snake Agent- heroes travel to Heaven & hell
Jim butcher- he goes to Faerie
Richard Kadrey- Sandman Slim- he comes from Hell- demons travel both ways
Lilith St Crow- Working for the Devil- she goes to Hell
Simon Green- Something from the Nightside- he travels to "the Nightside"- supposedly somewhere in London

[Rainy]

Awesome suggestions, looking forward to reading most of them :)

Any suggestions where the alternative world is more industrial instead of mythological or traditional fantasy?

//R

[Joseph]

Rainy wrote: "Awesome suggestions, looking forward to reading most of them :)

Any suggestions where the alternative world is more industrial instead of mythological or traditional fantasy?

//R"

You might like Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. It's about an alternate history where people are able to literally enter books and the worlds within them. The first is The Eyre Affair.

[Tasula]

I liked and read the first 3 Fforde Thursday Next books- then kind of moved more into DUF. but very interesting concept of characters in books having real lives, real people being "erased" and punctuation being DANGEROUS. Raw Shark Texts was a bit similar- also very good.

As for "industrial" world, seems more of an SF concept- can't think of anything that would qualify.

[Julia]

Rainy,

Where I live in the Northeast it's the post-industrial world. Do you know people in North America who still work in factories? I don't. There are old factory buildings, with villages desperately hoping to sell them and other town's old factory buildings that are reverting to wildland.

That's the kind of world Charles de Lint writes about in his Newford and southwestern books. People living in squats, homeless, or on the verge of homelessness, creating art, music, writing books and there's magic for those who can see it alongside.

Wen Spencer's Tinker and Wolf Who Rules are set in a Pittsburgh that's kinda like that. (Or maybe it's Philadelphia, I confuse thise two "P" cities in Pennsylvania.) It's a former industrial city, that magic and faery have taken over...

The Welcome to Bordertown shared universe is on the border between the modern human world and the Faery Realm. Neither magic or technology work predictably there. There are four anthologies set here that you might find at a used bookstore and three novels set here. You don't need to read these before the new book. All are quite wonderful.

[Tiphaine]

There's also The Edge serie by Ilona Andrews starting with On the Edge.
There's actually 3 worlds, a "normal" one, a "magic" one and one between those two "the Edge". Each book has its characters and story.
A bit on the PNR side but totally awesome!

[Josh]

Terry brooks - magic kingdom of landover series

[Rose]

Maybe Robin McKinley's Sunshine or Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere? I'm not sure they count as UF, but they have world-changing (at least a bit, in McKinley's case? Eh, maybe not) but I AM sure they're very good books.

More advice than was asked for, but if you're open to non-UF world-changing books, I'd also consider Tana French's Faithful Place, where the protag switches between the successful-detective world he's built for himself and the impoverished world he grew up in (not quite the same, I know) or McKinley's The Blue Sword, where the heroine has to work with her own anglo culture and the hero's nomadic-ish one.

[Michelle]

Does Sunshine go between two worlds? I can't remember it that well. I thought it was just a post-apocalyptic setting, but I could be wrong.

But I agree with Neverwhere. That's an excellent book, and I would definitely call it UF.

[Chrysoula]

just released today. I haven't read it yet but I plan to; the character moves between our world, a fantasy world and a steampunk world, apparently.

[Therese]

I am so thrilled that people are recommending the Bordertown series, because I have loved those books since I was a teenager. I would definitely recommend Elsewhere and Nevernever by Will Shetterly (two of the novels set in Bordertown) as a great place to start out.

I would also suggest Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente. It features characters who travel to a strange city in their dreams and return with part of the map tattooed on their bodies. It's a wonderful story.

[Regan]

Trying not to spoil this, but Sunshine does have a secondary world sort of overlaid over the real world. The real world, however, isn't the real world as we know it, but a sort of alt history/mild dystopia.

And, yes, seconding Neverwhere. A very realistic real world, and fantastical second world.

Michelle L. wrote: "Does Sunshine go between two worlds? I can't remember it that well. I thought it was just a post-apocalyptic setting, but I could be wrong.

But I agree with Neverwhere. That's an excellent book..."

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

Moonbeams has this theme. Three college students stumble onto a doorway into a faerie world.

[Tammy]

I'm pretty sure that in the October Daye series she goes between two worlds...the first book is

I second Storm Born

[Chrysoula]

I'm currently reading and the protagonist has moved from Boston to a faerie land called the Barrowdown.

[Michelle]

I would also add Charles deLint's books . There's a very nice dreamworld in this series.

[R. Scott]

Storm Born and Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead are both good reads. Travel between Earth and Faerie

[Julia]

How about the Fearie Realm and Shakespeare/ Queen Elizabeth's realm, not modern, but fun. It's by Sarah A. Hoyt and the first book is Ill Met by Moonlight.

[Michelle]

That sounds really good, Julia! I'm adding it to my list. Is it like alternate history?

[Julia]

Weeelllll, what we actually know about Shakespeare's and Christopher Marlowe's lives is very little. For there to be alternate history, doesn't there first need to be agreed upon history?
It's unlikely, let's say, that the reason that the Shakespeare wrote so much about fairies, is because he'd been to fairy, as this book suggests. It is fun though!

[Michelle]

Julia wrote: "Weeelllll, what we actually know about Shakespeare's and Christopher Marlowe's lives is very little. For there to be alternate history, doesn't there first need to be history?
It's unlikely, let'..."

Good point. I saw the movie Anonymous last fall and really enjoyed the unique take on Shakespeare's life. I don't think it happened that way, but it was entertaining, lol.

[Shomeret]

Well, my favorite alternate history by Harry Turtledove Ruled Britanniadoes have Shakespeare as its central character, but he's definitely human.

[Michelle]

I'm reading which is definitely set between two worlds. This is one of the most creative books I've read in a long time.

[Jalilah]

Freda Warringtons Elfland and Midsummer Night take place between our world and an alternate one. So do many of Charles De Lint's Novels.

[Andrew]

The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix is amazing. There is a modern world with technology below the wall and then one of fantasy and magic above it.

[TheThirdLie]

Imperium by Nicholas Olivo sports two different worlds that the main character can travel between.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

was a lot of fun to read. Steampunk paranormal romance, parallel world travel (back and forth), time travel and fortune telling. Trish comes to a world where bloodsuckers are opressed by humans. Really, it was different enough from what I normally read to rate high even with some minor debut novel problems.

[Barry]

Neverwhere (Gaiman) was amazing.

I liked the first Fforde book (Thursday Next?) but then it got to be like taking the Never-Ending Book Quiz, with all the clever references to other books sort of taking over the plot. ;)

[TheThirdLie]

I'm not sure if Imperium by Nicholas Olivia was listed, but the main character travels between our world and the world where he is a god.