r-c-design

I couldn't wait for this book to come out, pre-ordered it, and then after it came out, even saved it and put off reading it so it would last. Silly me. I finally started it, and found myself skipping pages, trying to find something worth reading. Urban fantasy is sometimes difficult to describe, but whatever it is, this isn't it. Urban fantasy, at least in my opinion, and going by books that are generally shelved in that genre, involves characters that are usually considered to be fantastic, such as gods and goddesses, vampires, elves, fairies, trolls, etc., set in the present day world, interacting with "normal" people. In my opinion, most of the people writing here took "urban" and "fantasy" literally without having any idea what urban fantasy actually is. Setting a fantasy story in a town or city doesn't make it urban fantasy. Urban fantasy can be dark, but it generally isn't horror. Many of these stories are what I would expect to fine in a horror anthology, others would be at home in a speculative fiction collection. In any collection of short fiction there will be clunkers, and I certainly never expect to love every start in an anthology, but sadly, this book is just awful. Maybe if I had had other expectations I wouldn't have been so disappointed, but if you, like me, expected an anthology based around the modern-day definition of urban fantasy, you will be disappointed, too.

2020-12-25 21:46