10 Best Urban Fantasy Books that Mixes Magic with Modern Society!
Who doesn't love a good dash of magic and mayhem mixed with the mundane? Enter the captivating world of urban fantasy, where everyday city life is infused with enchanting possibilities. This addictive genre blends our familiar modern society with the sublime and supernatural. Hobgoblins in the alleyways, wizards at the corner coffee shop, secret magical societies hidden amidst the skyscrapers - it's ordinary meets extraordinary at its finest. Urban fantasy novels dissolves boundaries, causing that comforting line between fantasy and reality to blur intriguingly.
Drawing on ancient mythologies, folklore and fairy tales, urban fantasy novels inject magical elements into the urban, contemporary world we recognize, creating narratives that are both fantastical and deeply relatable. This genre is perfect for those who love action-packed plots, robust world-building, diverse characters with supernatural abilities, and endless surprises.
Whether you're an urban fantasy aficionado or you're dipping your toe into the genre for the first time, this list of the top 10 urban fantasy novels will have you turning the pages long into the night. Get ready to fall under the spell of these magical reads that perfectly combine the allure of the unknown with the stark realities of modern living.
『City of Bones』
Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.
Author | Cassandra Clare |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Release Date | Sep 01, 2015 |
Source | Google Books |
『American Gods』
Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she's been killed in a terrible accident. Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible. He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever he the same...
Author | Neil Gaiman |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Harper Collins |
Release Date | Apr 30, 2002 |
Source | Google Books |
『Neverwhere』
“Neil Gaiman is undoubtedly one of the modern masters of fantasy writing....For those who have not read Neverwhere, the new edition is the one to read, and is a fitting introduction to Gaiman’s adult fiction....American readers can experience this spellbinding, magical world the way that Neil Gaiman wanted us to all along.” —Huffington Post The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s ultimate edition of his wildly successful first novel featuring his “preferred text”—and including his special Neverwhere tale, “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back”. Published in 1997, Neil Gaiman’s darkly hypnotic first novel, Neverwhere, heralded the arrival of a major talent and became a touchstone of urban fantasy. It is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he discovers a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed. Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth. Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Here in Neverwhere, Door is a powerful noblewoman who has vowed to find the evil agent of her family’s slaughter and thwart the destruction of this strange underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life and home, he must join Lady Door’s quest to save her world—and may well die trying.
Author | Neil Gaiman |
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Price | $10.99 |
Publisher | Harper Collins |
Release Date | Mar 17, 2009 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Magicians』
Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY “The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.” —George R.R. Martin “Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.” —Joe Hill “A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.” —John Green “The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.” —Cory Doctorow “This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.” —The New Yorker “The best urban fantasy in years.” —A.V. Club Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . . The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
Author | Lev Grossman |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Penguin |
Release Date | May 25, 2010 |
Source | Google Books |
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Price | unknown |
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Source | Google Books |
『The Last Sun』
In this debut novel and series starter, the last member of a murdered House searches for a missing nobleman, and uncovers clues about his own tortured past. Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home. With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court. In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?
Author | K.D. Edwards |
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Price | $18.99 |
Publisher | Pyr |
Release Date | Jun 12, 2018 |
Source | Google Books |
『The Lightning Thief』
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.
Author | Rick Riordan |
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Price | unknown |
Publisher | Perfection Learning |
Release Date | Jan 01, 2006 |
Source | Google Books |
『Lost Hero, The (Heroes of Olympus, The, Book One)』
Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she's his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids." What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.
Author | Rick Riordan |
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Price | $7.99 |
Publisher | Disney Electronic Content |
Release Date | Jan 05, 2011 |
Source | Google Books |
『Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 1: The Sword of Summer』
Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers. One day, he’s tracked down by an uncle he barely knows—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. Uncle Randolph tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god. The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years. When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision. Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die . . .
Author | Rick Riordan |
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Price | $7.99 |
Publisher | Disney Electronic Content |
Release Date | Oct 06, 2015 |
Source | Google Books |
『The First Bright Thing』
If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today? "This is the magic circus book that I have been looking for all my life."―Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart A Doorway Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks. With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top. But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin's past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape. It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin's circus has something he wants, and he won't stop until it's his. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Author | J.R. Dawson |
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Price | $12.99 |
Publisher | Tor Books |
Release Date | Jun 13, 2023 |
Source | Google Books |
So there you have it, folks! A breath-taking ride through the progressive streets of magic-meets-modernity. Throw your preconceptions of reality and logic out the window as we waltz through the wondrous worlds of urban fantasy. Whether it's spellcasters in skinny jeans or goblins in Gucci, it's clear that the typical and mundane can indeed make a thrilling cocktail when mixed with a jigger of the fantastical. This genre doesn't just blur the lines between the ordinary and the extraordinary—it obliterates them! Each of these novels paints a unique universe where the fantastical seamlessly merges with our day-to-day lives, spinning tales that are as immersive as they are unusual. So go ahead, dive headfirst into these cities of charm and churn, and let your imagination roam wild. And trust us, once you take that leap into the fantastical, your morning commute or nightly stroll around the block will never be the same again! After all, who wouldn't want a little dash of magic in their weekday monotony? Turn the page and join the urban enchantment!
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