I am a big fan of Peter S. Beagle. I particularly love “Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros” in his short stories. 
It surprises me that Charles DeLint’s books have been given such short shrift here. Perhaps they are too magical for some. He is at his best when telling of the intersection of our world and that of Faery. How I envy those who can walk between this world and the one you sometimes catch a glimpse of out of the corner of your eye. His books may be an acquired taste, but are worth an attempt. I admit to not remembering the plots as much as I do the magics and how satisfied that feeling was/is.
Greenmantle is hard to describe because the protagonist is a young girl trying to make sense of what has happened to her life. She meets the world of Faery which includes the Mystery (the Greenman in stag form) and a delightful wild girl who describes herself as “a secret (because she isn’t important enough to be a mystery.” There is a bit of romance, a lot of wild magic and a feeling that you would really like to be able to visit this world someday.
Moonheart is about a house that intersects modern day and Faery with a wonderful cast of characters. Again, it’s hard to describe, but oh how I would love to visit it.
One of his best is Mulengro which is darker in some ways as it explores the world of Romany magic. The protagonists are very likeable – Janfri is an honorable man and even the “bad guy” has a sense of honor. It’s a romance, a mystery and very well written. DeLint just loves strong women and they are always well written.
In a more gentle vein are the nearly forgotten series of “The People” by Zenna Henderson. They are refugees from a destroyed world who come here to try to make a new start. They have abilities that we don’t and that makes them “evil” to some and dangerous. Henderson was an elementary school teacher and her stories are rich with her love of teaching, children and the idea that different does not equal bad.
Kim Harrison’s series “The Hollows.” The first book is “Dead Witch Walking.” Rachel Morgan is a witch, her business partner, Ivy, is a “living vampire.” It’s up to book 10 in the series and hasn’t lost me yet unlike the Sookie Stackhouse books. You’ll like the characters and Kim is a very deft storyteller.
The Jane Yellowrock series has a strong woman who is a shapeshifter with a different twist that makes real sense for once. I think you will like her, she has a romantic interest after a couple of books but she’d eat Harlequin chicks for dinner.
Thank you to the other books that have been suggested. I have some hunting of my own to do at Amazon.
You know, those are good calls. I haven’t read the Thursday Next series yet, but I love the Nursery Crime novels. I hadn’t thought of them as urban fantasy, but they definitely count.
I know Emma Bull has been mentioned a few times, but I want to toss my hat in there too. I’m also very fond of the work of both she and her husband, Will Shetterly, did for Terri Windling’s Bordertown series. The Bordertown books are mostly short story anthologies, with a few full length novels - the first novel was by Shetterly, called Elsewhere, the second was Never Never, and the third, by Bull, was Finder. It’s a great urban fantasy series in general, and just recently, a new anthology was released that “updates” Bordertown in a very fitting way.
Just did a quick read-through of this thread…
I want to second all the recommendation for “The Dresden Files” by Butcher, and The “Nightside” and “Secret History”, by Simon Greene, and all the Christopher Moore stuff
I just finished reading the three published books in Harry Connolly’s Twenty Palaces series. (Fair warning: there won’t be any more books anytime soon as the series was cancelled and there’s definitely cliffhangers at the end of the third book.)
Here’s the first book. It’s pretty good.
I actually have most or all of that series; inherited from my mother. It’s been a long time since I read them, but I recall them as being very good.
I was just about to recommend Esther Friesner. I read “Here Be Demons” and its sequel, “Hooray For Hellywood” about 20 years ago. I really don’t remember any specifics about the stories anymore, other than that I enjoyed them.
If you can find it, and if you have a sense of humor, I’ll also suggest Peter David’s “Howling Mad,” the story of a wolf who was bitten by a werewolf and becomes human during a full moon. It’s not a parody, but it is funny.
Nightside as someone mentioned up thread.
The Hollows, by Kim Harrison. Some romance in each book, but it’s not what the story is about.
Myth series by Robert Aspirn. Starts off as classic fantasy, but quickly develops into urban fantasy/scifi with a comedic twist.
Some of them are even “present day”; I’m thinking Earthquake Weather and its even more awesome antecedent, the name of which I am completely blanking on. He’s excellent, regardless.
The first half of Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles. Starts out with an amnesiac in a hospital.
My memory is worse than I thought: it’s Last Call that I was thinking of as the original book in that “universe” of Tim Powers, the sequels being Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather. Last Call is the best.
“Last Call”! And it’s freaking AWESOME, a re-imagining of the Green Man mythos that is COMPLETELY original, and mind-bending. This is what Tim Powers does, he throughly re-imagines a mythos and then brings it to life, and via very thorough research, brings the world they live into life as well. He is at least an order of magnitude better than the other writers (that I have read, which is not many) mentioned here. For example, anyone who has read “The Stress of Her Regard” will leave the book certain that they would want NOTHING to do with the vampiric characters mentioned there. “Vampire romance” is NOT the word for it. When Powers is at the top of his form (I’d call “Declare” his best book) his fantasy creatures have a stark, alien quality to them, and the creatures from “Stress” are about as alien (as in “unknown, perhaps unknowable” rather than “from another planet”) as they come, IMHO.
I missed this thread the first go around. Rather than something zombie related, I’ll suggest Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente. There’s romance and sex (sex plays a critical part in the very premise of the book), but it’s not exactly Harlequin.
Another vote for William’s excellent novel, ‘The War of the Flowers’.
This is one of the few novels I have actually made a point of re-reading.
A sequel (or another novel set in the same milieu) would be well-received.
I’ve read some of the Angry Robot books. Which one is his?
My recommendation isn’t really an urban fantasy. But if you like non-conventional fantasy settings I highly recommend Devil’s Tower and Devil’s Engine by Mark Sumner. They’re fantasy novels in a western setting and stay true to both genres. They’re out of print but you can find used copies.
What a great thread!
I’ve read some each of Ruff (Sewer, Gas, Electric), Holt (Blond Bombshell), Mieville (The City and The City), and Lukyanenko (most of the Watch series) and will second, or third, or whatever, those recommendations.
And add my own:
“Soon I will be Invincible” by Austin Grossman
“This is not a game” by Walter Jon Williams
“The Long Run” by Daniel Keys Moran
The first is a twist on superheroes and evil overlords, handled with both realism and humor. The second is urban dystopia, familiar, realistic and disturbing. The third is another variation on urban dystopia positing greater technological advances and greater social unrest. Not a throbbing werewolf in the lot.
I have taken it upon myself to bring this thread back from the dead.
I’ve read most of the stuff on here, and a lot of it is the kind of stuff the OP wanted to get away from, basically paranormal romance.
Once series that broke away from that, that I haven’t already seen on here, is the Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman. Kind of shallow, but different is always good.
Agree with you. What about Cursed by Benedict Jackta, the first in the Alex Verus series? Set in London, by an Aussie-Armenian writer, in a world similar to Harry Dresden’s, and highly, highly recommended by Jim Butcher. Fans of Butcher should like it. Three in the series so far, and a fourth should be coming out soon.
Here’s an anti-recomendation. Don’t ever, under any circumstances, read A Discovery of Witches or sequel by Deborah Harkness. (I am not bolding the title, so no one thinks it’s a recommendation.) It starts out as a well-written academic with historical interests urban fantasy, but descends quickly into the Most Perfect Forbidden Romance ever between the sexiest, most perfect vampire (who is also a research biologist) and the rather perfect historian witch. The premise and historical research is engaging, but the romance quickly becomes excessive and nauseating.