Australian Urban Fantasy You Should Be Reading

In light of my recent foray into Urban Fantasy, I decided to combine two of my favourite things: lists and fantasy authors!

Here are three Urban Fantasy authors from Australia that are worth reading. I'm sure there are others, but these are ones I've read previously. No doubt more will be added to this blog over time :-)

1. Narrelle M. Harris

I picked up one of Narrelle Harris' books up at Supanova a few years ago, which was actually the start of my interest in indie authors. She's a Melbourne author that does several  genres, one of which is Urban Fantasy.

I started with her Opposite of Life series (the second book actually) which had the most depressing and yet realistic take on vampires I've read in a long time. In this world, vampires are trapped as they were at the moment they died. They have extreme difficulty learning anything past what they already knew when they were alive and so have to watch the world change around them, growing increasingly isolated and out of place.

It sounds tragic and horrible, and it is, but the characters' genuine affection for each other made it all worthwhile. Similar to the British tv show Being Human, Harris' work explores the isolating affect of the supernatural while showing that the support of friends and family can ease the burden.

2. Keri Arthur

Keri Arthur (also from Melbourne!) has written a number of paranormal books, including the Circle of Fire which I have previously reviewed. I'll be honest, I wasn't that impressed by her. However, I have been told by a friend whose judgement I trust that the series steadily improves, so I'm not going  to write her off just yet.

She is more on the Paranormal Romance side of the fence than Narelle Harris, who is more skewed toward Urban Fantasy. To elaborate, Paranormal Romance is very similar to Urban Fantasy except with a more heavy focus on romance. I definitely prefer Urban Fantasy myself, which is probably part of the reason I didn't really enjoy Keri Arthur's work, but that's just my own preference so don't let that scare you off. She's fairly well-known, so clearly she's doing something right.

3. Daniel O'Malley

Some would argue that Daniel O'Malley does not write Urban Fantasy. I'd tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.

He has supernatural creatures existing behind the scenes of an unsuspecting world, working to keep the masquerade going. There's a no-nonsense female protagonist who's solving a mystery and finding depths she didn't know existed. There are lives in danger and a world in need of saving. If that's not pure Urban Fantasy, it's definitely heavily involved.

If you ignore every other author on this list, check out this guy! You won't regret it. The Rook is his first novel, while the sequel is coming out this year. Go to his website (see above link) to read the first four chapters. I guarantee you'll be hooked by the end of the first.