You know, I practically have nothing to say now, because you've basically said it all.
I used to love Urban Fantasy to death. I loved how it wasn't bound by genre conventions, and was free to mix and match tropes to its heart's content. It made things interesting, and less predictable.
But then at some point all the other genres moved in, so instead of having a book that was "kind of this, with a bit of that, and also some of this" you had "romance novel, except he's a VAMPIRE!" and "chick-lit book, except she now can see GHOSTS!" and "Spy thriller, except with FAIRIES!" They just were all the exact same things they always were, just with the monster of the week copy-pasted in.
And with the way things are marketed, it's so hard to tell them apart from the real deal until you actually start reading them.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 10:54 pm (UTC)I used to love Urban Fantasy to death. I loved how it wasn't bound by genre conventions, and was free to mix and match tropes to its heart's content. It made things interesting, and less predictable.
But then at some point all the other genres moved in, so instead of having a book that was "kind of this, with a bit of that, and also some of this" you had "romance novel, except he's a VAMPIRE!" and "chick-lit book, except she now can see GHOSTS!" and "Spy thriller, except with FAIRIES!" They just were all the exact same things they always were, just with the monster of the week copy-pasted in.
And with the way things are marketed, it's so hard to tell them apart from the real deal until you actually start reading them.