Looking for Recommendations: Other Supernatural Creature Other Than Vampire or Usual Shifters

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

I have been looking for a new series to start. I looked up the listopia but could not find anything that I really wanted.

Is there a series that feature creatures that are not vampires or werewolves/cats as main characters?

Why cant I find a nice goblin, unicorn, centaur, golem book? It would be easier if I was looking for something else than Young Adult too.

Can you suggest series with less used beasties? Please do specify it it is YA.

[Brandt]

I'm not sure if i understand you correctly, you prefer YA, right ?

In that case, you might want to consider Rick Riordans books about Percy Jackson(YA).. There are a wide variety of different creatures taken from Greek Mythology in there..

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

Thanks Mab, I am so not in the mood for YA right now but I did not want to exclude it because some other might want to read it.

[Penumbra]

This is a series, I just started reading Finn is a pooka. He can shift into pretty much any creature. It's male/male romance. I'm enjoying the book very much.

[Brandt]

Ah okay :P

It's my impression that Charles De Lint writes about a variety of different creatures and beings in his Newford books (which can be read in any order), i havent gotten around to them myself yet, so i cant suggest any specific one of them, but i hear good things.. They are not YA..

[Joseph]

Check these out:
Kasey MacKenzie's Shades of Fury series stars Furies. Starts with Red Hot Fury.
Nicole Peeler's Jane True series stars Selkies. Starts with Tempest Rising.
Rachel Vincent's young adult Soul Screamers series stars Banshees. Starts with My Soul to Take.
Darynda Jones's Charley Davidson series stars the Grim Reaper and Demons. Starts with First Grave on the Right.

[Barbara ★]

Here's a few to get you started...

1. Partholon Series starts with Divine By Mistake has all kinds of fae creatures and features a centaur as the hero.
2. A Familiar Face has a snake shifter (ebook)
3. Delicate Freakn' Flower has a bear shifter and a panther shifter.
4. Gods of the Night series has all kinds of dinosaur shifters. starts with Eternal Pleasure.
5. The Lords of Satyr series has a group of brother/cousin satyr shifters with dual penis's (penii?) starts with Nicholas3
6. The Maximum Ride series (YA) has hybrid bird shifters. starts with The Angel Experiment3
7. The Fane series has various shifters (Lord Of Legends has a unicorn shifter). Starts with The Forest Lord3
8. The Alchemy of Stone I really disliked this book but some people love it. It has gargoyles.
9. The Les Gargouillen is about gargoyles and starts with Carved in Stone.
10. Daughters of Arianne has a bunch of strange critters including a squid (or maybe it was an octopus) shifter in the second one. starts with A Mermaid's Kiss which has a mermaid and an angel.
11. Pendragon gargoyles starts with Primal Hunger.
12. Midnight Matings a M/M series with various off-the-wall shifters. starts with Squeak And A Roar.

[Joseph]

Another I just remembered:
C.E. Murphy's The Negotiator Trilogy has Gargoyles, Selkies, Dragons, Genies, and Vampires.
Heart Of Stone, House of Cards, Hands Of Flame

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

Great suggestions...I have read some but most are new to me.

[new_user]

Hey, Val! I love to see other creatures too!

Sea Witch - Selkies. Kantra's setting differs from other PNR in that it's based on an island, so there's that atmosphere and small island drama, and the characters are less hard-edged, more relatable.

A Mermaid's Kiss - Actually dark! You'd never guess from the cover, I know. LOL. Angels and mermaids. A little kink, but great story.

Pleasure Unbound - Demons. So much going for this series.

Shadowfae - Succubus in first book.

I've read others, but none that I can recommend. Are you interested in superpowered people?

[Sandy]

C.E Murphy's The Walker Papers. The first book is Urban Shaman. The main character is a shaman who faces all types of magical creatures.

Kelly McCullough's Ravirn series features a mix of mythology and goblin computers run by magic. The first book is WebMage.

[Jalilah]

I second the Charles de Lint recommendation!
He is so creative developing his characters!
For those of you who want a break from your usual Urban Fantasy characters; vampires, werewolves and witches, De Lint would be a refreshing change!
There is a kind of shape shifter in his books, but not your usual ones. De Lints’ are inspired by the First People or Animal People of many Native American legends (Someplace to Be Flying ). He has a full array of unusual characters like numena, beings born out of paintings (Memory and Dream ), a “shadow sister” who came to being out of the cast off character traits of her brother (The Onion Girl) , and Saskia, a women born inside a computer ( Spirits in the Wires). These are just a few examples. There are often Faeries in his novels as well.
To someone who is not familiar with his works, the description of his stories might sound so over the top that they would not be believable, but that is not the case. De Lints’ talent is being able to draw you into his world and make it seem real.

[Barbara ★]

Joseph wrote: "Another I just remembered:
C.E. Murphy's The Negotiator Trilogy has Gargoyles, Selkies, Dragons, Genies, and Vampires.
Heart Of Stone, House of Cards, ..."

I second this one. Absolutely loved it!

[Barbara ★]

Here's a young adult one with a golem as the main character The Amulet of Samarkand.

[Julia]

I third the Charles de Lint idea. The books Jalilah suggested are very good. He does write YA, when your're in another mood. Some of those are The Blue Girl, The Painted Boy and Waifs and Strays. Additionally, he also writes short stories. Some of those collections are Moonlight and Vines, The Ivory and the Horn and Tapping the Dream Tree.

Some fellow UF authors, books: Jane Yolen's Except the Queen. She writes picture books for very young children and their parents and chapter books for MG & YA audiences, but this is somehow the opposite of YA... And it's about fairies.

Emma Bull's War for the Oaks is about a pooka in Minneapolis.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

I know I said less vampire and werewolves the better but I like this series a lot: Total population = 1/3 vampire, 1/3 were, 1/3 golem....humans, less than 1%.
Bloodhound Files series

[Julia]

Try this anthology Zombies Vs. Unicorns. There are some amazing stories in here! And as I recall, no werewolves or vampires.

[Mindi]

I'm reading a fabulous series by Colleen Houck. The Tiger Saga. Super good series about Indian princes that were cursed 300 years ago.

[Jalilah]

Mindi wrote: "I'm reading a fabulous series by Colleen Houck. The Tiger Saga. Super good series about Indian princes that were cursed 300 years ago."

wow! Since joining goodreads I am finding out about so many books I never knew about! This sounds great!

[Betelgeuze]

The Cal Leandros seires by Rob Thurman has a main character that is part evil elf. (UF)



Night Tracker by Cheyenne McCray. The main character is part dark elf. (UF)



Seanan McGuire's October Day series has a half human/half faerie as a main character. (UF)



Remy Chandler from Thomas E. Sniegoski's Remy Chandler series is an angel. (UF)

[Christal]

Allyson James' Stormwalker series - Shaman and Dragon


Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton - faeries of all types, including brownies and goblins


Partholon by P.C. Cast - gods and goddess, centaurs, nymphs, etc.


Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - angels and demons


Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne - main character is a druid and he deals with all mythologies including christianity and paganism


Unearthy series by Cynthia Hand and Angelfall by Susan Ee - both are YA series about angels


Arcadia Bell series by Jenn Bennett - demons and magic users mainly


Downside Ghosts series by Stacia Kane - ghosts and church witches that can banish them


As for unicorns, if you haven't read , it is a beautiful novel.

Abby Sinclair series by Allison Pang - has a teeny tiny unicorn sidekick, some vamps and weres, but mainly focuses on faeries and elves, angels, demons, and has a succubus thrown in

[R. Scott]

My UF book 'The Dryad's Kiss' has a male protagonist and there are no vampires or werewolves to be found :) Though the protagonist in the series starts off at 18, I think older readers will get more out of the series than younger readers.

[Aaron]

This is about the Fae . No Vampires or Werewolves to be found.

[R. Scott]

Richelle Mead Has her succubus series that is fun and her dark swan series about the fae which is very good.Storm Born and Succubus Blues are the firsts for each series.

[Mike]

Hmm, well, a couple of things come to mind that are a bit different:

Mike Carey: Felix Castor novels, starting with The Devil You Know: Ghosts, Zombies, Demons and a host of other creatures. He does do were-creatures, but not in the same way as others - a very different twist on UF.

Neil Gaiman: Anansi Boys is worth it just for the piece on the wax fruit, though there is much more to it than that. A great mix of humour, suspense and adventure.

For something a little different, try Frostwing by Richard Knaak, which is about a gargoyle that steals memories. Published in 2000, so predates a lot of current UF by a decade or so.

[Lauren]

Weather Warden Series: weather magic and djinn. This series is actually complete and has a spin-off series as well.

The new series InCryptids. All sorts of weird creatures. The most normal is a Sasquatch.

The Newsflesh series. Zombies. I'm not a huge fan of zombies, but this book is more intrigue and character based than zombie based. As soon as I finished both books in the series I wanted to read them again. (If you like the Seanan McGuire recommendations, this is the same writer, different pen name).

[Karen]

I'm currently reading The Beautiful Saga by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl: Beautiful Creatures (Book 1), Beautiful Darkness (Book 2), Beautiful Chaos (Book 3) and Beautiful Redemption (Book 4 out in October this year). I'd definitely rec this series.

[Elisa]

Also, Deadtown by Nancy Holzner was good. There are zombies and demons and yes there are vamps & shifters (side characters), but they are different, more like real people and not sexified. I have read the first two books in the series and they are quite fun.

[Adam]

I just finished Wearing the Cape and the followup Villians inc. . The main characters all have superpowers. Note of warning: There is one Vampire in this series. I believe book three will center on her. I'll add a second for the Sandman Slim books and Newsflesh series mentioned above. I tore through both.

[Judith]

If anyone would be interested in a short blurb about my werewolf thriller Rougarou here it is.

Rougarou: When Jonathan Hindel buys his beautiful Angelia, the issue of Monsieur Devereaux and his mulatto mistress from Devereaux's embittered widow, he sees a chance to change the course of their destiny. All goes well until the night Angelia stumbles upon Jonathan in the throes of satisfying his lust and hunger on the body of a young woman from the bayous
Amazon.com
Best

[Michelle]

I really enjoyed . It's a YA book, but definitely an older YA. It's about demons and angels.

[Jean ~ Kindle Queen]

Michelle L. wrote: "I really enjoyed . It's a YA book, but definitely an older YA. It's about demons and angels."

I second this recommendation. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was my favorite book of 2011.

[Leslie]

I really have enjoyed the "Chess Putman " Downside Series by Stacia Kane.
UF has ghosts and magic. Adult

[R. Scott]

Leslie wrote: "I really have enjoyed the "Chess Putman " Downside Series by Stacia Kane.
UF has ghosts and magic. Adult"

I stopped reading that series because I just didn't like the protagonist. She didn't have a lot of characteristics that made me want to root for her.

[Omi]

I can only recommend ADULT books as I read very little YA but these are all great book that have something over than vampires and shifters. These are all awesome books.

* The Hollows series by Kim Harrison. It does have vampires (both traditional and a 'living vamp') but also witches, demons, pixies, elves and faeries. Warning with this series is that the first book is only okay but the rest are really great.
* Kara Gillian series by Diana Rowland. This is about demons.
* Alex Craft series by Kalayna Price. This has witches (a little different though), fae folk and interesting creatures.
* Annabelle Lee series by Stacey Jay. These are about tiny killer faeries and most of the human population is killed by their venom but the protagonist is immune.
* The white trash zombie series by Diana Rowland. This is a zombie story but like a sort of 'living zombie'.

These are also ADULT books, they also are not vampire or shifter books, but I only found them to be decent books.

* Pepper Martin series by Casey Daniels. These are chick lit' UF about someone who can talk to ghosts.
* Harper Connelly series by Charlaine Harris. this is about someone who can find dead bodies and sense how they died.

[Omi]

Oh and I forgot;

* Unbound series by Rachel Vincent. This is about supernatural people with special skills (eg; walking into/out of shadows, blood tracking, ect)