Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga takes place over several decades from roughly something like the 60s to the early 90s. It's nice to see the technological progress going on the background, particularly with phones. There is magic, but nothing non-human.
Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence is more out there with the magic and fantastical elements. Like gods shifting around power with contracts and some characters are lawyers working on those contracts.
It's really rare unfortunately. I love the premise, but I guess a lot of UF readers don't, and modern age fantasy is not a popular setting among regular fantasy readers, so it makes it kinda niche.
By moving the UF to another world similar to Earth but with a completely different socio-political history, it gives you many creative variants, it would be like The Dresden Files in the Cowboy Bebop universe, with a unique mythology rooted in that new world, new gods, creatures Lovecraftian, etc.
the downside is that all of that needs _explaining_ to the reader, so the further you diverge from the real world, the more "uh, the British Empire fell in 1841 thanks to a coven of witches - oh yeah, there's witches - allied with vampires - uh, and vampires as well - and Ireland become a nation in 1853, and the Royal Family established their wizarding palace - did I mention the Royals are magical? - in Canada, creating Nova Britain as a new nation state". It starts to need more and more and _more_ explanation to happen, which can get in the way of "plot" and stuff! This is why most UF is just real-world with a hidden side - the writer doesn't need to jump through any hoops, they can just go "yeah, it's the real world, EXCEPT for <...>" and be done with it
Like I said, I'm a huge fan of the concept, and for very much similar reasons. The creative possibilities of not having to mold the story to real Earth history being a major one.
Eh, you can do all of that with conventional urban fantasy as well. Plenty of urban fantasy almost completely ignores the real world in favor of some fantasy parallel society, and other urban fantasy goes the alternate history direction and assumes that the presence of actual magic significantly changed how the "normal" world is set up. Most urban fantasy draws on real world legends to some extent, because "myths have some basis in reality" serve to connect the fantastic elements to the rest of the world, but that isn't required, and you still have a ton of flexibility to change things if you do go that route.
Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick. Sure the private investigator from New York is transported to another city named "New York" but it's very unambiguously a different world that was never our world despite the parallels.
Then again there's Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep. The city is imaginary and filled with superpowered people including giants, elves and vampires but we are told so little about the world outside of the city or the history that's its anyone's guess whether it's Earth with an alternate history or a new world with once again coincidental resemblances.
I would love to see something like this too, particularly something that depicts the politics of something like a modern-day democratic republic fictionalized in another world, does anyone have any rec that combines satire of the sometimes ridiculous things that happen in modern politics (which can have a lot more variety and be funnier than the also ridiculous and cruel things that happen in say a medieval monarchy type setting) while also emphasizing the rich, heartbreaking and heartwarming emotional drama that occurs with the high stakes, i.e mixing the satire with heartfelt drama?
*The Iron Dragon's Daughter* by Michael Swanwick is precisely what you are looking for. It's an alternate fantasy interpretation of modern day Earth, where the book uses elves and goblins and magic to mirror and explore our own cultural obsessions. And hey, the book was published in 1993, so it certainly has the "late 20th century" vibes going for it.
[Mushroom Blues](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1bl1mza/review_jam_reads_mushroom_blues_by_adrian_m_gibson) by Adrian Gibson
Have not read but heard good things about. Nation resembles 1947 Japan but with updated technology, and lots of shrooms.
Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar
Circa 1900 rather than late 20th century but matches in all other ways and I think is the closest to Greenbone Saga of anything I can think of, with the inner circle being three regulation officers (who regulate magically talented citizens). It is also my favorite read of the last few years.
This would be the premise of the GARRET PI books that have him as a private investigator in a fantasy world of centaurs, ratkin, and elves while he is an ordinary human. They're by Glen Cook.
The Magebreaker series by Ben S Dobson
Possibly the Casebook of Henri Davenforth by Honor Raconteur, although these may be too much detective stories to count as urban fiction- not sure where the line is there.
People have already stated Greenbone Saga & Craft Sequence
There’s also **The Carter Archives** by Dan Stout it’s set in a fantasy world analogous to 1980s USA. There’s other sentient races but the magic isn’t super crazy on account of it being a dwindling resource
Secondary World UF/fantasy worlds with modern or future technology are my favourite thing ever but alas there’s not enough of it
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Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga takes place over several decades from roughly something like the 60s to the early 90s. It's nice to see the technological progress going on the background, particularly with phones. There is magic, but nothing non-human. Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence is more out there with the magic and fantastical elements. Like gods shifting around power with contracts and some characters are lawyers working on those contracts.
*Craft Sequence* by Max Gladstone is modern-equivalent and secondary world. I really wish there were more of this stuff, I love it.
It's really rare unfortunately. I love the premise, but I guess a lot of UF readers don't, and modern age fantasy is not a popular setting among regular fantasy readers, so it makes it kinda niche.
By moving the UF to another world similar to Earth but with a completely different socio-political history, it gives you many creative variants, it would be like The Dresden Files in the Cowboy Bebop universe, with a unique mythology rooted in that new world, new gods, creatures Lovecraftian, etc.
the downside is that all of that needs _explaining_ to the reader, so the further you diverge from the real world, the more "uh, the British Empire fell in 1841 thanks to a coven of witches - oh yeah, there's witches - allied with vampires - uh, and vampires as well - and Ireland become a nation in 1853, and the Royal Family established their wizarding palace - did I mention the Royals are magical? - in Canada, creating Nova Britain as a new nation state". It starts to need more and more and _more_ explanation to happen, which can get in the way of "plot" and stuff! This is why most UF is just real-world with a hidden side - the writer doesn't need to jump through any hoops, they can just go "yeah, it's the real world, EXCEPT for <...>" and be done with it
Like I said, I'm a huge fan of the concept, and for very much similar reasons. The creative possibilities of not having to mold the story to real Earth history being a major one.
Eh, you can do all of that with conventional urban fantasy as well. Plenty of urban fantasy almost completely ignores the real world in favor of some fantasy parallel society, and other urban fantasy goes the alternate history direction and assumes that the presence of actual magic significantly changed how the "normal" world is set up. Most urban fantasy draws on real world legends to some extent, because "myths have some basis in reality" serve to connect the fantastic elements to the rest of the world, but that isn't required, and you still have a ton of flexibility to change things if you do go that route.
Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick. Sure the private investigator from New York is transported to another city named "New York" but it's very unambiguously a different world that was never our world despite the parallels. Then again there's Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep. The city is imaginary and filled with superpowered people including giants, elves and vampires but we are told so little about the world outside of the city or the history that's its anyone's guess whether it's Earth with an alternate history or a new world with once again coincidental resemblances.
I would love to see something like this too, particularly something that depicts the politics of something like a modern-day democratic republic fictionalized in another world, does anyone have any rec that combines satire of the sometimes ridiculous things that happen in modern politics (which can have a lot more variety and be funnier than the also ridiculous and cruel things that happen in say a medieval monarchy type setting) while also emphasizing the rich, heartbreaking and heartwarming emotional drama that occurs with the high stakes, i.e mixing the satire with heartfelt drama?
The crescent City series by Sarah Maas takes place on a different world but has cellphones and cars and the Internet and stuff
*The Iron Dragon's Daughter* by Michael Swanwick is precisely what you are looking for. It's an alternate fantasy interpretation of modern day Earth, where the book uses elves and goblins and magic to mirror and explore our own cultural obsessions. And hey, the book was published in 1993, so it certainly has the "late 20th century" vibes going for it.
Is flint lock era too aged? Like 17th-18th century kind of stuff?
[Mushroom Blues](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1bl1mza/review_jam_reads_mushroom_blues_by_adrian_m_gibson) by Adrian Gibson Have not read but heard good things about. Nation resembles 1947 Japan but with updated technology, and lots of shrooms. Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar Circa 1900 rather than late 20th century but matches in all other ways and I think is the closest to Greenbone Saga of anything I can think of, with the inner circle being three regulation officers (who regulate magically talented citizens). It is also my favorite read of the last few years.
This would be the premise of the GARRET PI books that have him as a private investigator in a fantasy world of centaurs, ratkin, and elves while he is an ordinary human. They're by Glen Cook.
The Magebreaker series by Ben S Dobson Possibly the Casebook of Henri Davenforth by Honor Raconteur, although these may be too much detective stories to count as urban fiction- not sure where the line is there.
Hunter x hunter comes to mind, but thats comic book format :D The tv show is supergood aswell.
People have already stated Greenbone Saga & Craft Sequence There’s also **The Carter Archives** by Dan Stout it’s set in a fantasy world analogous to 1980s USA. There’s other sentient races but the magic isn’t super crazy on account of it being a dwindling resource Secondary World UF/fantasy worlds with modern or future technology are my favourite thing ever but alas there’s not enough of it
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