Apr 122015

URBAN FANTASY (and choice associated fictions) publishing Jan-Jun 15!

	The Urban Fantasy sub-genre is a personal favourite of mine, not to mention very apt for this here site and having great general / mainstream appeal and potential. I’d always planned, along with our Steampunk page, to put up a seasons listing here.
	And, having just last night had the pleasure and fortune of interviewing the urbanly fantastical JIM BUTCHER (! – article imminent!), it struck me as just the right time to do it…

	NB. This is about as comprehensive a round-up on the UK scene as I think you’ll find, though necessarily arbitrary in some inclusions and omissions. At least one title might rightly be described as rural fantasy for example. And (as mentioned elsewhere) I tend to assume that anyone looking for their next paranormal romance and / or vampire-werewolf led read will know exactly where to find it. This isn’t an attempt to define the sub-genre and while I’m more than happy to hear about clear omissions that have not been fed through to us we all have to draw a line somewhere.

	I have added some particular extras from broader media (Graphic Novels) and titles of note that you may or may not agree are UF, or feel should be integrated in the body of the article.
	***
	So here it is: all the fantastic urban (and less urban but no less modern) output that has crawled and is due to crawl out from dark alleyways and darker places still (like the minds of authors ;)) from January to June 2015!

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Format	RRP	Publisher	Series	Vol.
	The Magician’s Land
	Jan	Lev Grossman	9781784750954	PB	9.99	Arrow	The Magician’s Trilogy	3
	The riveting conclusion to Lev Grossman’s bestselling Magicians trilogy.
	‘Dark, dangerous and full of twists’ – George R. R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones
	‘Lev Grossman has conjured a rare creature: a trilogy that simply gets better and better as it goes along . . . Literary perfection.’ – Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus
	Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of the secret magical land of Fillory and now, friendless and broke, he returns to where his story began: Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But Quentin’s past soon catches up with him…
	Read more on our January New Book Recommends page…
	The Rain-Soaked Bride
	Jan	Guy Adams	9780091953171	PB	8.99	Del Rey	The Clown Service	2
	HOW DO YOU STOP AN ASSASSIN THAT CAN’T BE KILLED?
	Toby Greene is part of The Clown Service,a mostly forgotten branch of British Intelligencetasked with fighting paranormal threats.
	However, the Rain-Soaked Bride is no ordinary assassin. Relentless, inexorable and part of a larger game,merely stopping this impossible killer may notbe enough to save the day…
	‘The Clown Service is fun and rips along like thefinest episode of the old Avengers series’ – The Independenton Sunday
	The Severed Streets
	Feb	Paul Cornell	9780330528108	PB	8.99	Tor	Shadow Police	2
	The second urban fantasy by bestselling Doctor Who writer, Paul Cornell.
	Summer in London: a city in turmoil. The vicious murder of a well-known MP is like a match to tinder but Detective Inspector James Quill and his team know that it’s not a run-of-the-mill homicide. Still coming to terms with their new-found second sight, they soon discover that what is invisible to others – the killer – is visible to them. Even if they have no idea who it is.
	Then there are more deaths. The bodies of rich, white men are found in circumstances similar to those that set the streets of London awash with fear during the late 1800s: the Whitechapel murders. Even with their abilities to see the supernatural, accepting that Jack the Ripper is back from the dead is a tough ask for Quill’s team. As they try to get to grips with their abilities and a case that’s spiralling out of control, Quill realizes that they have to understand more about this shadowy London, a world of underground meetings, bizarre and fantastical auctions, and objects that are ‘get out of hell free’ cards. But the team’s unlikely guide, a bestselling author, can’t offer them much insight – and their other option, the Rat King, speaks only in riddles.
	Relying on old-fashioned police work and improvising with their new skills only lands them in deeper water, and they soon realize that the investigation is going to hell – literally. And if they’re not careful, they may be going with it . . .
	Check out more by PAUL CORNELL on our Author Profile Page!
	Finn Fancy Necromancy
	Feb	Randy Henderson	9781783297238	PB	7.99	Titan
	Found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit in 1986, 15-year-old Finn Gramaraye was exiled to the Other Realm for 25 years. But now he’s back in the mortal world and is disappointed to discover that he’s middle-aged, DeLoreans can’t fly, and he’s been framed for murdering someone with dark necromancy—again.
	He has three days to clear his name and win back his high-school crush, but his nuclear family is something of a disaster: his father has gone mad, his mother’s a ghost, his sister is allergic is magic, one brother thinks he’s a werewolf, and the other is busy running the family necrotorium business, and seems most disappointed that Finn is back on the scene… Who can he trust to help him?
	Forced to team up with the ex-partner of the enforcer he’s accused of killing, Finn encounters a host of supernatural creatures as he struggles to regain his memories and figure out who wants him gone, before it’s too late.
	A Darker Shade of Magic
	Feb	V. E. Schwab	9781783295401	PB	7.99	Titan
	From V.E. Schwab, the critically acclaimed author of Vicious, comes a new universe of daring adventure, thrilling power, and parallel Londons, beginning with A Darker Shade of Magic.
	Kell is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel universes—as such, he can choose where he lands.
	There’s Grey London, dirty and boring, without any magic, ruled by a mad King George. Then there’s Red London, where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne—a place where people fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. And once upon a time, there was Black London…but no one speaks of that now.
	Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between the royals of each London.
	Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see—a dangerous hobby, and one that has set him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations, first robs him, then saves him from a dangerous enemy, and then forces him to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
	But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive—and that is proving trickier than they hoped.
	The Devil’s Detective
	Mar	Simon Kurt Unsworth	9780091956516	HB	12.99	Del Rey	TBC	1
	Welcome to hell…
	…. where skinless demons patrol the lakes and the waves of Limbo wash against the outer walls, while the souls of the Damned float on their surface, waiting to be collected.
	When an unidentified, brutalised body is discovered, the case is assigned to Thomas Fool, one of Hell’s detectives, known as ‘Information Men’. But how do you investigate a murder where death is commonplace and everyone is guilty of something?
	A stunningly original blend of crime, horror and suspense, The Devil’s Detective is a bold new thriller that will shock and amaze.
	Dark Touch
	Mar	Debbie Johnson	9780091953614	PB	7.99	Del Rey	TBC	2
	It’s not easy finding out you’re a Goddess.
	For Lily McCain, the move from local music journalist to being the incarnation of Mabe, Mother of Mortals was a surprise to say the least.
	Thrust into a game of gods and monsters, the rules of which she barely knows, one thing is clear: if you have power, someone will try and take it from you.
	“A Liverpudlian Charlaine Harris” – The Guardian
	Skin Game
	Mar	Jim Butcher	9780356500966	PB	£8.99	Orbit	Dresden Files
	The latest instalment in the Dresden Files comes to paperback – Skin Game is a number oneSunday Times and number one New York Timesbestseller
	Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day. As Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful.
	This time, it’s worse than that. Mab’s involved Harry in a smash-and-grab heist run by one of his most despised enemies to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure horde in the world – which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the Underworld.
	Dresden’s always been tricky, but he’s going to have to up his backstabbing game to survive this mess – assuming his own allies don’t end up killing him before his enemies get the chance . . .
	The Burning Man
	Mar	Christopher Fowler	9780857522047	HB	16.99	Doubleday	Bryant & May	12
	Contemporary crime fiction’s answer to Holmes and Watson or Mulder and Scully – Bryant and May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit embark on their most pyrotechnic case yet, and the denouement is devastating…
	London is under siege. A banking scandal has filled the city with violent protests, and as the anger in the streets detonates, a young homeless man burns to death after being caught in the crossfire between rioters and the police.
	But all is not as it seems; an opportunistic killer is using the chaos to exact revenge, but his intended victims are so mysteriously chosen that the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to find a way of stopping him. Using their network of eccentric contacts, elderly detectives Arthur Bryant and John May hunt down a murderer who adopts incendiary methods of execution. But they soon find their investigation taking an apocalyptic turn as the case comes to involve the history of mob rule, corruption, rebellion, punishment and the legend of Guy Fawkes.
	Read more on our March New Book Recommends page
	The Bleeding Heart
	Mar	Christopher Fowler	9780857502346	PB	8.99	Bantam	Bryant & May	11
	It’s a fresh start for the Met’s oddest investigation team, the Peculiar Crimes Unit.
	Their first case involves two teenagers who see a dead man rising from his grave in a London park. And if that’s not alarming enough, one of them is killed in a hit and run accident. Stranger still, in the moments between when he was last seen alive and found dead on the pavement, someone has changed his shirt…
	Much to his frustration, Arthur Bryant is not allowed to investigate. Instead, he has been tasked with finding out how someone could have stolen the ravens from the Tower of London. All seven birds have vanished from one of the most secure fortresses in the city. And, as the legend has it, when the ravens leave, the nation falls…
	Read more on our March New Book Recommends page
	Flex
	Mar	Ferrett Steinmetz	9780857664594	PB	£8.99	Angry Robot
	A desperate father will do anything to heal his daughter in a novel where Breaking Bad meets Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files.
	FLEX: Distilled magic in crystal form. The most dangerous drug in the world. Snort it, and you can create incredible coincidences to live the life of your dreams.
	FLUX: The backlash from snorting Flex. The universe hates magic and tries to rebalance the odds; maybe you survive the horrendous accidents the Flex inflicts, maybe you don’t.
	PAUL TSABO: The obsessed bureaucromancer who’s turned paperwork into a magical Beast that can rewrite rental agreements, conjure rented cars from nowhere, track down anyone who’s ever filled out a form.
	But when all of his formulaic magic can’t save his burned daughter, Paul must enter the dangerous world of Flex dealers to heal her. Except he’s never done this before – and the punishment for brewing Flex is army conscription and a total brain-wipe.
	Anti-Hero
	Mar	Jonathan Wood	9781781168110	PB	7.99	Titan	Arthur Wallace	3
	Another day. Another zombie T- Rex to put down. All part of the routine for Arthur Wallace and MI37 the government department devoted to battling threats magical, supernatural, extraterrestrial, and generally odd. Before he can say, “But didn’t I save the world yesterday?” a new co-director at MI37 is threatening his job, middle-aged Russian cyborg wizards are threatening his life, and his co-workers are threatening his sanity.
	Dark Detectives
	Mar	Stephen Jones, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Kim Newman	9781783291281	PB	8.99	Titan
	Eighteen stories of supernatural detective fiction, featuring sleuths who investigate fantastic and horrific cases, protecting the world from the forces of darkness. Each writer offers a tale of a great fictional detective, including Neil Gaiman, Lawrence Talbot, Clive Barker, Harry DAmour, and the eight-part Seven Stars adventure by Kim Newman (Anno Dracula).
	A Few Words For The Dead
	Apr	Guy Adams	9780091953188	HB	12.99	Del Rey	The Clown Service	2
	The Clown Service is back.
	While Section 37 Agent Toby Greene’s honeymoon takes an unexpected, and potentially deadly turn, back in London Section Chief August Shining has troubles of his own.
	Dragged in by his fellow agents from M-16, Shining is forced to relive an old mission from the 80’s, and pick up where he left off all those years ago to face an old and deadly foe.
	As Toby and his new wife Tamar dodge an unstoppable killer across Asia and Europe, August must fight, not just for the future of The Clown Service, but for his very existence.
	A thrilling blend of espionage thriller, fantasy and sci-fi in the tradition of The Avengers, The X-Files and Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently series.
	Expiration Date
	Apr	Tim Powers	9781473211988	MMP	£9.99	Gollancz	Fault Lines	?
	The second book in the Fault Lines sequence from the WORLD FANTASY AWARD-winning author of THE ANUBIS GATES.
	Twelve-year-old Koot Hoomie Parganas’s parents prepared him for a career as a metaphysical holy man – but after they’re brutally murdered one night he finds himself a fugitive in the darkest corners of Los Angeles, pursued by denizens of a dark underworld who want what Kootie’s parents have been hiding for 40 years – the ghost of Thomas Edison contained in a bust of Dante.
	But Kootie has broken the bust and inhaled the ghost, and now has in his head the lively personality of Edison himself – and together Kootie and Edison must learn the harsh rules of the occult world existing behind the glitter of modern Los Angeles, and find a way to save Kootie’s life and free Edison’s ghost from its earthly Purgatory.
	Sleeping Late on Judgement Day
	Apr	Williams, Tad	9781444738674	PB	8.99	Hodder	Bobby Dollar 3	3
	The conclusion of Tad Williams’ brilliant Bobby Dollar series.
	Bobby Dollar thinks he’s seen it all – after all, he’s been to Hell and back again. Literally.
	But he has another think coming. Sleeping Late on Judgement Day will find Bobby back in his adopted hometown of San Judas, California, trying to stay out of trouble… and failing. His love life is still a mess, there are one too many people who have it out for him, and drowning his sorrows in a nice glass of whisky won’t keep the demons at bay forever.
	Bobby’s going to have to pull himself together and make a few tough decisions before time runs out. The problem is, time could run out at any moment. In the final Bobby Dollar novel in Tad Williams’ groundbreaking epic fantasy trilogy, fallen angel Bobby Dollar will finally be force to confront the one problem he can’t talk his way out of: his own.
	The Rhesus Chart
	Apr	Charles Stross	9780356502526	PB	£8.99	Orbit	Laundry Files	?
	The fifth Laundry Files novel by Charles Stross, and a jumping-on point for readers new to the series, The Rhesus Chart sees hacker and supernatural spy Bob Howard take on the (literal) bloodsuckers running London’s financial district. Now out in paperback!
	LONDON CAN DRAIN THE LIFE OUT OF YOU . . .
	Bob Howard is an intelligence agent working his way through the ranks of the top secret government agency known as ‘the Laundry’. When occult powers threaten the realm, they’ll be there to clean up the mess – and deal with the witnesses.
	There’s one kind of threat that the Laundry has never come across in its many decades, and that’s vampires. Mention them to a seasoned agent and you’ll be laughed out of the room.
	But when a small team of investment bankers at one of Canary Wharf’s most distinguished financial institutions discovers an arcane algorithm that leaves them fearing daylight and craving O positive, someone doesn’t want the Laundry to know. And Bob gets caught right in the middle.
	Kill Baxter
	Apr	Charlie Human	9780099580782	PB	8.99	Arrow	Baxter(?)	2
	The brilliant follow-up to the critically acclaimed Apocalypse Now Now.
	AND HE THOUGHT THE HARD PART WAS OVER…
	The world has been massively unappreciative of sixteen-year-old Baxter Zevcenko. His bloodline may be a combination of ancient Boer mystic and giant shape-shifting crow, and he may have won an inter-dimensional battle and saved the world, but does anyone care? No.
	Instead he’s packed off to Hexpoort, a magical training school that’s part reformatory, part military school, and just like Hogwarts (except with sex, drugs, and better internet access). The problem is that Baxter sucks at magic. He’s also desperately attempting to control his new ability to dreamwalk, all the while being singled out by the school’s resident bully, who just so happens to be the Chosen One.
	But when the school comes under attack, Baxter needs to forget all that and step into action. The only way is joining forces with his favourite recovering alcoholic of a supernatural bounty hunter, Ronin, to try and save the world from the apocalypse. Again.
	Charlie Human is a denizen of South Africa’s speculative fiction scene. He has an MA in Creative Writing and lives in Cape Town. His debut novel, Apocalypse Now Now received rave reviews. Kill Baxter is the follow up.
	Ritual Crime Unit: Disturbed Earth
	Apr	E.E. Richardson	9781781083147	PB	£7.99	Abaddon Books	Ritual Crimes Unit	1
	This is a gritty, new police procedural urban fantasy series with a strong female detective inspector. Set in the North of England, amongst its industrial cities and famous wild landscape this is a breath of fresh air in amongst the London-obsessed pages of contemporary British urban fantasy. A Northern Prime Suspect with a distrusted, half-discredited world of magic to be policed.
	The series was preceeded by an e-only novella, Under the Skin, which is available as an ebook and pdf for advance reading.
	A tough, hard-nosed career officer in the male-dominated world of British policing, DCI Claire Pierce of North Yorkshire Police heads Northern England’s underfunded and understaffed Ritual Crime Unit. Injured in the line of duty, DCI Claire Pierce returns to work to find a new detective challenging her authority. He has brought in a self-proclaimed necromancer to question the victim of a murder, there’s a coven of druids outside protesting the sale of their sacred site, and something in the evidence room has just sent out a signal.
	Read more on our April New Book Recommends page
	The Dragons of Heaven
	Apr	Alyc Helms	9780857664327	PB	£8.99	Angry Robot	Dragons of Heaven	1
	“A tough, witty young woman who inherited her superhero grandfather’s powers barrels through a rollicking Big Trouble in Little China-esque tale filled with magic, monsters and wisecracks. I loved it.” – Alex Bledsoe, author of The Hum and the Shiver
	Would you deal with the devil to save the world?
	Street magician Missy Masters inherited more than the usual genetic cocktail from her estranged grandfather – she also got his preternatural control of shadow and his legacy as the vigilante hero, Mr Mystic. Problem is, being a pulp hero takes more than a good fedora and a knack for witty banter, and Missy lacks the one thing Mr. Mystic had: experience. Determined to live up to her birthright, Missy journeys to China to seek the aid of Lung Huang, the ancient master who once guided her grandfather.
	Lung Huang isn’t quite as ancient as Missy expected, and she finds herself embroiled in the politics of Lung Huang and his siblings, the nine dragon-guardians of creation. When Lung Di, Lung Huang’s brother and mortal enemy, raises a magical barrier that cuts off China from the rest of the world, it falls to the new Mr Mystic to prove herself by taking down the barrier. But is it too great a task for a lone adventure hero?
	Dream Stalkers
	Apr	Tim Waggoner	9780857663719	PB	£8.99	Angry Robot	Shadow Watch	2
	A new drug – Shut-Eye – has been developed in the dreamland, and smuggled into our world. It’s addictive, and dangerous, and Shadow Watch agents Audra and Mr Jinx are on the case, preparing new recruits to deal with the problem.
	Meanwhile, a wave of ancient, bodiless Incubi are entering the dreams of humans in an attempt to possess them and live new lives. Only the criminally insane would ever risk a confrontation with them.
	Thank goodness, then, for Mr Jinx: clown, Shadow Watch agent, psychopath.”
	Hallow Point
	May	Ari Marmell	9781781168257	PB	7.99	Titan	A Mick Oberon Job	2
	The Spear of Lugh, one of the four Kingly Hallows of Ireland, is in Chicago. And everyone, everyone wants it, for it is said that he who carries the spear into battle cannot be defeated. Among those who seek it are an agent of the infamous Wild Hunt; a mobster who knows far more about these things than he should; and of course the Unseelie Courts the last people PI Mick Oberon would want getting hold of it…
	Lavondyss
	Jun	Robert Holdstock	9781473211995	MMP	£9.99	Gollancz	Mythago Wood	2
	[#RuralFantasy? ;)]
	The haunting sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning Mythago Wood.
	At the heart of the wildwood lies a place of mystery and legend, from which few return and none emerged unchanged: Lavondyss . . . the ultimate realm, the source of all myth.
	When Harry Keeton disappeared into Ryhope Wood, his sister Tallis was just an infant. Now, thirteen years old, she hears him whispering to her from the Otherworld. He is in danger. He needs her held. Using masks, magic and clues left by her grandfather, she finds a way to enter the primitive forest and begin her search. Eventually she comes to Lavondyss itself, a realm both beautiful and deadly, a place in which she is changed forever . . .
	Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood won the World Fantasy Award and is among the most praised post-war novels of the fantastical. In this haunting sequel, Lavondyss, we are returned to the Wildwood and the mythos that Holdstock has made his own.
	Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel, 1988
	Our Lady of the Streets
	Jun	Tom Pollock	9781780870175	PB	8.99	Jo Fletcher	The Skyscraper Throne	3
	Ever since Beth Bradley found her way into a hidden London, the presence of its ruthless goddess, Mater Viae, has lurked in the background. Now Mater Viae has returned with deadly consequences.
	Streets are wracked by convulsions as muscles of wire and pipe go into spasm, bunching the city into a crippled new geography; pavements flare to thousand-degree fevers, incinerating pedestrians; and towers fall, their foundations decayed.
	As the city sickens, so does Beth – her essence now part of this secret London. But when it is revealed that Mater Viae’s plans for dominion stretch far beyond the borders of the city, Beth must make a choice: flee, or sacrifice her city in order to save it.
	Tom Pollock is a graduate of the Sussex University Creative Writing Programme, and a member of the London-based writers’ group The T-Party. He has lived everywhere from Scotland to Sumatra, but the peculiar magic of London has always drawn him back.
	‘Urban fantasy in the truest sense of the word, intent on imbuing every corner of the city with life, wonder and magic’ – Guardian.
	‘A fascinating, magical, magnificent jig of a story … it is a perfect adrenalin rush’ – LizLovesBooks.

While we err a little away from the liminal territory where Urban Fantasy meets paranormal romance we felt – this time at least, especially as she’s got a brand new series – that we couldn’t not include the great Charlaine Harris!

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Format	RRP	Publisher	Series	Vol.
	Midnight Crossroad
	Apr	Charlaine Harris	9780575092860	PB	8.99	Gollancz	Midnight Texas	1
	From Charlaine Harris, the bestselling author who created Sookie Stackhouse, the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, comes a new, darker world – populated by more strangers than friends. But then, that’s how the locals prefer it?
	Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.
	There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).
	Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth…
	Day Shift
	May	Charlaine Harris	9780575092884	HB	18.99	Gollancz	Midnight Texas	2
	It’s a quiet little town, perched at the junction between Davy Road and Witch Light Road, and it’s easy to miss. With its boarded-up windows, single traffic light and sleepy air, there’s nothing special about Midnight . . . which is exactly how the residents like it.
	So when the news comes that a new owner plans to renovate the run-down, abandoned old hotel in town, it’s not met with pleasure. Who would want to come to Midnight, with its handful of shops, the Home Cookin diner, and quiet residents – and why?
	But there are bigger problems in the air. When Manfred Bernado, the newest resident in town, is swept up in a deadly investigation suddenly the hotel and its residents are the least of the towns concern. The police, lawyers and journalists are all headed to Midnight, and it’s the worst possible moment . . .

Rather in the realms of Paranormal Romance but the author, at time of writing, is due to be appear at an event at Waterstones Piccadilly with V.E. Schwab hosted by Sarah Pinborough on Imagined London – and that very much is our kind of thing!

*	Pub.	Author	ISBN	Format	RRP	Publisher	Series	Vol.
	The Book of Life
	Apr	Deborah Harkness	9780755384792	PB	£7.99	Headline	The All Souls Trilogy	3
	THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES HARDBACK BESTSELLER
	Fall under the spell of Diana and Matthew once more in the stunning climax to their epic tale, following A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES and SHADOW OF NIGHT.
	A world of witches, daemons and vampires. A manuscript which holds the secrets of their past and the key to their future. Diana and Matthew – the forbidden love at the heart of it.
	After travelling through time in SHADOW OF NIGHT, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home in France they reunite with their families – with one heart-breaking exception. But the real threat to their future is yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on a terrifying urgency. Using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the palaces of Venice and beyond, Diana and Matthew will finally learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

Very much urban fantasy, but almost a sub-sub-genre itself – anyway, thought its sort of deserved it’s own section: more or less Buffy meets Evil Dead!

*	Pub	Author	ISBN	Format	RRP	Publisher	Series	Vol.
	Dave vs. the Monsters: Emergence
	Apr	John Birmingham	9781781166215	PB	7.99	Titan Books	David Hooper	1
	Dave Hooper has a hangover from hell, a horrible ex-wife, and the fangs of the IRS deep in his ass. The last thing he needs is an explosion at work. A real explosion. On his off-shore oil rig.
	But this is no accident, and despite the news reports, Dave knows that terrorists aren’t to blame. He knows because he killed one of the things responsible.
	When he wakes up in a hospital bed guarded by Navy SEALs, he realizes this is more than just a bad acid trip. Yeah, Dave’s had a few. This trip is way weirder.
	Killing a seven-foot-tall, tattooed demon has transformed the overweight, balding safety manager into something else entirely. An honest-to-goddamned monster slayer.
	Dave vs. the Monsters: Resistance
	May	John Birmingham	9781781166239	PB	7.99	Titan Books	David Hooper	2
	Holed up in Las Vegas after the tumultuous Battle of New Orleans, Dave is enjoying the VIP perks afforded a champion monster-slayer. He may be a superhero of swag and the toast of the town, but if some fire-breathing dragons have their way, odds are everyone will soon be toast. The hordes from the UnderRealms are regrouping for their next attack, but first Dave must face off against a ravishing Russian spy with a few superpowers of her own.
	Dave vs. the Monsters: Ascendance
	Jun	John Birmingham	9781781166253	PB	7.99	Titan Books	David Hooper	3
	As a hardworking monster-slayer, Dave Hooper tries not to bring his work home with him. But nowadays it’s hard to keep them separate. Email, cellphones, empath daemons, they never let a guy rest. The Horde has been raising hell and leveling cities from New York to Los Angeles, keeping Dave and his fellow monster-killer, Russian spy Karin Varatschevsky, very busy.

On the Graphic Novel front DC’s original horror / dark fantasy imprint Vertigo has a collection of who would seem the original UF modern-day street magician. Created by Alan Moore, serialised by Jamie Delano, succeeded by Garth Ennis and then taken on by Paul Jenkins and more later, and now having featured in his own TV show – JOHN CONSTANTINE: HELLBLAZER!

*	Pub	Title	Creator(s)	ISBN	Bind	RRP	Series	Vol
	Feb	Hellblazer: In The Line Of Fire	Paul Jenkins, Sean Phillips	9781401251376	PB	£14.99	Hellblazer	10
	Apparently never before collected in the Hellblazer Trades – new for anyone who wasn’t buying at the time in the 90′s! Constantine is currently a series in the U.S. with episodes based on canonical stories…
	In this new Hellblazer collection, John Constantine comes to the aid of his downstairs neighbor, a dimwitted, epileptic giant whose home is haunted by a persistent ghost. Plus, John’s affinity with the supernatural spoils a soccer game when a demon that thrives on hooliganism shows up. And in the story “Difficult Beginnings,” Constantine must reconnect with the darker side of his own nature — a journey that leads him to the “most evil man in the world.”
	Collects Hellblazer #97-107.

Straddling the genre boundaries these arguably UF titles feature in Vertigo’s January-June 2015 output – you can see more on our Vertigo New Titles page here…

Then the excellent Dark Horse publish a plethora of Mike Mignola’s HELLBOY titles / tie-ins both by the creator himself and his carefully chosen writer-artist teams. You can read more on all of these on our Dark Horse Jan-Jun 15 New Titles page here…