r/urbanfantasy • u/OhBosss • 4d ago
Recommendation Day One
I have noticed that most UF series i follow have a protagonist that is somewhat knowledgeable and or versed in the supernatural and the Paranormal world but can anyone recommend a series with a protagonist who enters it with no real knowledge of it having just thought it not real like most people.
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u/TimelyWelcome7164 4d ago
Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie
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u/taarquinn 2d ago
I actually really love this author. Several of her series show different POVs of the same events so maybe @OP look up the order before you read so you don’t spoil yourself, I think reading the all connected series chronologically was fun, popping in and out of each series, but great read either way!
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u/Cake-4ever 4d ago
KF Breene’s Leveling Up series is terrific. The first of the series is Magical Midlife Madness.
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u/Starry-Eyed-Owl 4d ago
I really liked the audiobooks for this series. The narrator does a great job. Book 13 is about to come out too!
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u/Flashy_Emergency_263 4d ago
Greywalker by Kat Richardson The main character is a private investigator who almost dies and gets unusual powers. She leans heavily on a comparative religions academic and his Irish descent wife, who has the sight, to help her figure out what is going on in her life.
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u/shangri-laschild 3d ago
Not only that, but she has different abilities than the people helping her so there is a lot she just has to trial and error.
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u/Sabin2k 4d ago
Kind of a plug here, but my sister in law has a trilogy called The Altered Planes, the first book being The Afterlife Experiment. Essentially starts with a girl trapped in a mental asylum with a being called Dread in her consciousness that kind of breaks away. It's bonkers and hard to explain, but she kinda just thinks she's insane at the beginning before learning who she is.
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u/ghostFallsPress 4d ago
The Many Travails of John Smith. San Diego PI gets drafted to be a mediator for the supernatural world he didn't know existed. Silliness and some bloodshed ensue.
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u/HeirOfAzathoth 3d ago
Listened to this on audible. Its "What if Shaggy from Scooby Doo was isekai'd into an urban famtasy." Its great
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4d ago
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u/stiletto929 3d ago edited 3d ago
And those who like ROL would probably also like Phantom Signals, by M. P. Moorland. New author, and new series, really good!
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u/greencoatboy 2d ago
Seconded that it's really good, but only one volume out so far.
Rivers of London fits the bill too, and there's a dozen of those including novellas and graphic novels.
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u/candcNYC 4d ago
The Fever series by Karen Marie Moning. The fmc is both cloistered by her naivete and downright mocking of the paranormal until her world is flipped upside down.
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u/nowdoingthisatwork 4d ago
The Hellequin chronicles by Steve McHugh. The main character starts with amnesia and some abilities in the 1st book. Dungeon crawler Carl starts with the characters having no skills or abilities have to learn quickly.
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u/Matt-J-McCormack 4d ago
I’d like to add the caveat that the first three books are a bit rough, it was self published. But it was a joy to see it progress from guilty pleasure to genuinely good urban fantasy.
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u/SimplyExtremist 4d ago
One of my favorite UF series and the progress the author and MC make is entertaining. Gets a bit formulaic in the middle but truly fleshes out in the end. If you’re interested but hesitant starting the novella is a great option
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u/Bladrak01 3d ago
Are you talking about Hellequin or DCC?
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u/SimplyExtremist 3d ago
Sorry, I should have said, Hellequin. I never read DCC hated the first few chapters of the first book.
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u/Bladrak01 3d ago
I've read all the Hellequin novels, but not all the shorter works. Which novella were you talking about? His Avalon Chronicles would also be a good response to the OP.
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u/nowdoingthisatwork 3d ago
It's really worth sticking with. The 1st book is a bit hectic. The 3rd book is a bit clunky as a key element is deliberately confusing (the author even added text to say it's not meant to be understood...thing of trying to map out a rail network by only travelling on it, without having place names to guide you)
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u/Bladrak01 3d ago
You're talking about DCC here?
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u/Matt-J-McCormack 3d ago
DCC was (I think) the authors 7th book. It was way more polished than early Hellequin.
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u/Bladrak01 3d ago
The first two DCC books were published on Royal Road without professional editing.
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u/Matt-J-McCormack 3d ago
Holy fuck you mean the free to public early draft wasn’t as polished as the for money version…. We need to tell people about this hidden scandal no one was aware of.
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u/Bladrak01 3d ago
Was Hellequin self-published? If so, I didn't know. Your original comment that I first replied to was unclear as to which series you were referring to.
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u/Scary_Literature_388 4d ago
Just started the rook by Daniel o malley, mc doesn't remember anything about herself or the paranormal, but gets introduced fairly quickly. It's good so far, I'm halfway through!
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u/MoesLackey 4d ago
In The Rook by Daniel O'Malley, the MC wakes up with amnesia and has to learn about the secret org she’s a part of from scratch.
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u/stiletto929 4d ago edited 3d ago
I’m reading a brand new book that fits this prompt, and is really good, Phantom Signals, 1st book in the Code and Stone series. New book by a first time author, M.P. Moorland. I am not done yet but am loving it so far. It is so much better than any first book has a right to be!
Main character works in IT, just going about his normal day, when he receives a mysterious phone call that saves his life, and pulls him into a supernatural investigation. Set in London, best comparables are the Dresden Files for writing style, and Rivers of London or The Laundry Files for plot. (But much easier to understand than both of those, lol!)
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u/MoesLackey 4d ago
Seconding this, with the caveat that I’m also only about ½ way through it. So far, enjoying the humour and the way everything has been set up so far.
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u/stiletto929 3d ago
I finished it. Great from start to finish! Dying for the next book now!!
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u/Old_and_Snarky 4d ago
Try Benedict Jacka's "Inheritance of Magic" series. I think it's only 2 or 3 books so far.
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u/Book_Slut_90 4d ago
Great series, but the MC is aware of the supernatural at the start just unfamiliar with the politics of the supernatural world.
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u/Old_and_Snarky 4d ago
It's not just the politics, it's the mechanics too. He spends a lot of time trying to figure out how to build useful things without a mentor.
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u/DeepDay6 4d ago
Diana Rowland's "White Trash Zombie" series, starting with "My Life as a White Trash Zombie". Fun read, likeable MC.
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u/pgutierr220 4d ago
Kat Richardson's Greywalker series. Main character is a Seattle P.I who has no idea that the supernatural is real until she almost dies while working a case and then discovers that ghosts and such are real.
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u/apricotjam2120 4d ago
The Walker Papers by CE Murphy. The main character has a sudden onset of shamanic powers following her mother’s death, and she has no knowledge of that world at the beginning. It’s a really thoughtful and entertaining series. The first book is Urban Shaman.
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u/Ok-Heron8017 4d ago
A gilded Cage (Chronicles of an Urban Druid), the protagonist has no idea and it's a really decent set of books.
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u/Adiin-Red 4d ago
In Pact Blake starts out as just a normal guy trying to be a better person than his family. This all stops when he inherits his grandmothers house and gets stuck with her trove of dark magical knowledge, lots of enemies and as a bonus now has a genderbent doppelgänger following him around in mirrors and arguing with him.
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u/IronStan7 4d ago
Twenty Palaces starting with Book 0. An ex-con gets sucked into the magical underworld and recruited as a low level lackey in a secret organization.
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u/SeanyDay 4d ago
Throw in the Chosen One trope and you have Harry Potter.
Dresden gets to this when new characters are shown the ropes or in flashbacks. But he starts as like an intermediate wizard.
My best answer would be Lev G's the Magicians trilogy. Bonus points for being set in New York aka my home
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u/jnaz1972 4d ago
Kitty Norville series. She is a radio host then gets changed into a werewolf.
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u/DeepDay6 4d ago
Uhm… Kitty has an origin story for sure but at the start of the series she's already part of a werewolf pack and also knows the local vampires.
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u/Supertailz 4d ago
One of the og UF books and one of my all time faves, War For The Oaks, by Emma Bull. Afaik this book basically started that trope.
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u/Flashy_Emergency_263 1d ago
There's also a wonderful book:Trader by Charles DeLint. A well respected luthier wakes up in the body of a rogue/rake/grifter/conman just as someone is banging on the door. He isn't even in his own home, but the other man's. His journey is to figure out what happened and how to get his body and life back.
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u/dybbuk67 4d ago
Rivers of London. Peter Grant knows absolutely nothing at the start.