Well, a while after I finished reviewing “The Shadow Of The Soul” by Sarah Pinborough, I decided to take a look online and see what other people thought about it.
To my surprise, I noticed at least one or two reviews which categorised the novel as “urban fantasy” – and, to be fair, it does include fantasy elements and is set in a city. However, I considered it to be more of a dark fantasy novel since it differed in atmosphere and style from the more “traditional” urban fantasy novels (by authors like Lilith Saintcrow, Jocelynn Drake and Laurell K. Hamilton) that I’ve read in the past.
So, I thought that I’d list a few of the things that – to me at least – make dark fantasy and urban fantasy slightly different genres. Don’t get me wrong, they are both very enjoyable genres and there is often at least some overlap between both of them – but they do differ from each other in various ways.
1) Number of fantasy elements: One of the main ways that you can tell urban fantasy and dark fantasy fiction apart from each other is by the number of different fantasy elements they include. In dark fantasy novels – like Clive Barker’s “Cabal” and Tanith Lee’s “Kill The Dead” – the number of fantasy elements is usually relatively low. These novels may include things like ghosts or monsters, but they will often be the only “unrealistic” elements of the story.
This tighter focus on a lower number of fantasy elements lends dark fantasy fiction a slightly grittier and more mysterious atmosphere, where the contrast between the ordinary and extraordinary becomes a much greater part of the story. Likewise, because there are fewer fantasy elements, dark fantasy stories can often explore them in a greater level of technical and/or thematic depth too.
On the other hand, urban fantasy stories typically contain a much wider variety of fantastical elements. There will be magic, vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, ghosts, goblins, elves etc… all within the same novel. This creates the fascinating feeling of a large and complex fantastical “world” – usually hidden within an ordinary city. Even though there is still some contrast between the “ordinary” world and this hidden world, the story’s emphasis and perspective is much more firmly on the latter.
This also has quite a large effect on the atmosphere of a typical urban fantasy novel – since, like in a good cyberpunk sci-fi novel, the reader will often find themselves dropped into an intriguingly different “world” that is complex, crowded and filled with all sorts of intriguing details. The main goal of this is usually to induce pleasant feelings of wonder and fascination rather than a feeling of dread, despair or cosmic horror.
2) Settings: This one may sound obvious, but it is worth thinking about. Although dark fantasy novels can certainly be set in large cities (see Sarah Pinborough’s “A Matter Of Blood” for a good example), this isn’t really an integral part of the genre. For the most part, dark fantasy novels often tend to take place in more gothic, old and/or desolate settings.
Whether it is the bleak medieval-style world of Tanith Lee’s “Kill The Dead”, the ancient Roman settings of Rebecca Levene’s “Anno Mortis” or the hidden graveyard caverns in Clive Barker’s “Cabal”, one easy way to tell if a novel is dark fantasy is simply to look at the settings. Even though dark fantasy novels may occasionally also be set in cities, it isn’t really that common.
On the other hand, urban fantasy novels are almost always set in large cities. This is because it is a genre about cities. It is a genre about how the bustling anonymity of large cities can often hide all sorts of interesting events, places etc… It is a genre about how large cities are a place where characters of many different backgrounds can meet and live in harmony. It is a genre that also takes a little bit of inspiration from the classic hardboiled crime fiction of 1930s-50s America, which is a very city-based genre.
So, whilst dark fantasy novels may occasionally be set in large cities, urban fantasy novels will almost always be set in cities. Cities are an absolutely integral part of what makes urban fantasy the genre it is.
3) Mood: This one is very difficult to describe and it is something that you’ll probably only really get a feel for when you’ve read a few books in both genres, but you can usually tell the genres apart by the type of mood that they evoke.
In general, dark fantasy novels will often go for a more gothic atmosphere and/or more of a bleak and cynical atmosphere. They can also sometimes have a bit of a “heavy metal album cover” or “grimdark fantasy” type atmosphere too, but the focus will often be more on things like horror, death, moral ambiguity, melancholy moods etc… Even though they may include profound emotional moments and/or moments of emotional catharsis, they are not generally meant to be “feel good” novels.
Of course, urban fantasy novels may also often include a dark, gothic and/or “edgy” atmosphere too – see Lilith Saintcrow’s “Night Shift” and Jocelynn Drake’s “Nightwalker” for good examples. However, on the whole, urban fantasy novels will often aim for a slightly more thrilling and “feel good” atmosphere. The main characters will usually be physically stronger and – even when they are more on the morally-ambiguous side of things – they will often be written in a reasonably “heroic” way that makes the reader cheer for them.
So, one of the ways that you can tell whether the novel you are reading is urban fantasy or dark fantasy is simply to take a moment to see how you feel when you are reading it.
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Anyway, I hope that this was useful 🙂
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