Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Roots of Urban Fantasy

An interesting history of the "urban fantasy" (AKA vampire porn) novel.

As an aside, I'm kind of embarrassed to say out loud that, shit, man, Rusch is a really terrible writer. I'm sure she writes good *story* (which would be why she sells so many), but she really doesn't have a lot of technical skill. Lots of interesting stuff to chew on here, just not articulated as well as it could have been.

Sorry. I had to say that out loud.

Now go forth and create the next reimagined gothic, people! I'm bored with vampire porn.

4 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Jackie M. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jackie M. said...

By "not articulated as well as it could have been," do you mean you are frustrated with the unexamined assumption that alpha males are good (or at least a good way to sell books)? And her refusal to mention the impact of feminism?

(okay, okay, that article does need proofreading and a run by the comma police. which is bad news coming from me.)

Anonymous said...

I'm just appalled that "urban fantasy" now means vampire porn. Charles DeLint is my brand of urban fantasy thank you very much...

Kameron Hurley said...

Jackie: YES.