Feeling Series Fatigue? Here Are 10 Standalone Urban Fantasy Novels

War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull
This Locus Award-winning novel is a beautiful example of how powerful and wonderful urban fantasy can be, building a whole magical world beneath our own in just one book. Written in 1987, before the avalanche of fearie paranormal romance, it still feels fresh and special. Eddi McCandry is a musician who has just lost her band and her boyfriend. As if her luck couldn’t get worse, she’s shanghaied into a supernatural war involving the courts of Seelie and Unseelie, a war with personal stakes for Eddi, who must learn to navigate this new world, and fast. Emma Bull’s debut is infused with music and wonder, and should be considered a cornerstone of the genre.

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
This one likely needs no introduction. Neverwhere began as a screenplay and morphed into one of Gaiman’s earliest novels. It concerns the world of London Below, a hidden land created in the secret places and tube stations of that vast metropolis. Across multiple adaptations, including the aforementioned TV miniseries and a recent BBC Radio drama, its characters have become iconic, and its imagined spaces really do seem to exist alongside the world we know. It’s an imaginative whirlwind of a book, and should not be missed by any urban fantasy fan. Note that technically this is only a standalone for now: Gaiman recently revealed that he has begun writing a followup that will answer a few lingering questions. There is no release date yet, so you’ve time to get in on the ground floor.

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
I’ll start with a bold claim: Sunshine is one of the best vampire novels ever written. It’s atmospheric and tense, showing one of the nastier versions of vampires out there. These are not the urbane, morose vampires of most popular fiction. These vampires are gross rotting corpses kept alive by sheer will and the blood of their ruthlessly killed victims. It’s dark, twisted, and absolutely unforgettable. But it’s also an enormously heartening story of survival, centered on a girl who faced down a bloodsucker and lived, though not without scars, even if no one can see them. The worldbuilding is incredible, showing us mere glimpses of a dark and dystopian alternate America that will leave you desperate to learn more, but McKinley has promised there’s no sequel in the works (she’s been asked so many times, she added it to the FAQ on her website).

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
Who says “urban” means only “modern”? This enthralling novel is like Charles Dickens and Jane Austen collaborated on an urban fantasy. It’s a quieter story, full of astounding magic and real life stakes, meandering pleasantly through Victorian society until an explosive conclusion. It’s a charming, meticulously written mix of historical fiction and fantasy that will delight fans of The Magicians, Neil Gaiman, or Pride and Prejudice, and if you fall into all three of those categories, you’ve probably already read it. The recent BBC adaptation is also lush and beautiful, and binge-watching it should definitely be next on your list after you finish this 900-page tome.

The Five, by Robert McCammon
Like War for the Oaks, Robert McCammon’s The Five is an urban fantasy ringing with the electricity of rock and roll. It follows the members of the eponymous band on their doomed final tour. They’ve been held together by dreams and caffeine for years, rambling around the country, playing worthless gigs, and never quite making it big, but they’re finally starting to come apart like a drum kit pushed from the back of a speeding van—and that’s before they learn they’re being hunted by a crazed, seemingly supernatural killer who believes he has been ordered to end their lives. McCammon mastery at creating whole, flawed characters rivals that of his ’80s horror contemporary Stephen King, and this book may be his best (please, no angry emails, Boy’s Life fans), both for the way it captures the landscapes and cities of the American Southwest, and the way its magical finale will make your heart sing along to the thrum of its music.

Fledgling, by Octavia E Butler
Butler was a master of beautifully written science fiction and fantasy who used those tropes (vampires! Time travel!) to explore the nature of what it means to be human. Fledgling is a wonder, giving us the tale of an amnesiac young girl who discovers she’s a 53-year-old vampire. And that’s just the beginning. It’s an uncomfortable, disquieting tale, and not for the faint of heart, and I cannot praise Octavia E Butler enough. Her prose is a masterclass in genre writing, her characters are flawed and real, and her gaze is unflinching. If you enjoy Fledgling, you should also read her best-known novel, Kindred. Both book are completely captivating and utterly haunting.

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
Another period entry. Whimsical and surreal, The Night Circus is an outstanding novel that I deeply wish wasn’t on this list. Why doesn’t this book belong to a whole series to get lost in? It’s so beautiful, so magical, so monstrous, I couldn’t get enough of it. It is the story of Celia and Marco, two star-crossed circus performers who find themselves pitted against one another by their mysterious and mercurial masters. It’s a slow burn, following them over years as they learn and grow in their power. The eponymous circus is it’s own character, and the linchpin to much of the action. It feels like a more romantic, less terrifying version of Something Wicked This Way Comes. If you like your urban fantasy a little more dreamy and languid, with lush descriptions and fantastic feats of magic, this one is for you.

Fevre Dream, by George RR Martin
Now this is a most rare creature these days: a single-volume book from George R.R. Martin. That will be a relief to you A Song of Ice and Fire fans eager for his next book, though Martin actually got his start with a string of standalones (The Armageddon Rag could fit here just as easily). Certainly Fevre Dream couldn’t be more far removed from epic fantasy. For one thing: vampires. It’s a fascinating blend of historical mystery and vampire horror. Abner Marsh is a riverboat captain in the rural American south who longs for a beautiful steamship to call his own. When a rich man approaches him with a deal that’s too good to be true, he can’t help but grab his chance. Too bad his new partner is a bloodsucker. Soon, Abner finds himself in the middle of a fight between his partner and an ancient evil bent on literally painting the town red. It’s a fun outing from Martin in a genre he isn’t known for these days. Definitely take a chance on this outstanding Mark Twain-y vampire tale.

Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville
Like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Neverwhere, this delight from New Weird wordsmith Miéville brings urban fantasy tropes to a YA audience just in time to gleefully subvert them,  turning London into an absurdist, unrecognizable fantasy landscape. It’s a sprawling story of two young girls who discover another London built on the garbage of the real one, with angry Unbrellas, and kung-fu trashcans, and spiders in “Webminster.” It upends all the Narnia myth that has plagued young children in science fiction and fantasy for decades. It deftly avoids cliche, and brings new wonder to urban fantasy.

Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes
Zoo City is a revelation. It’s exactly the breath of fresh air urban fantasy needs, and you’ll be hard pressed to put it down once you pick it up. Beukes brings us the story of Zinzi, a girl living in Johannesburg who has a sloth familiar and a knack for finding lost things. She an outcast, afflicted by an unexplained plague that has cursed all who commit mortal sins with animal companions as an outward manifestation of their guilt. She’s done bad things, and spends this thrilling, fast-paced novel trying to avoid facing the music. She takes on a case to help find a missing bubblegum pop duo, and things get go wildly out of control, and fast. Beukes breaks all the urban fantasy stereotypes and molds them anew. Zinzi is a fantastic, flawed character, and Beukes’ Johannesburg is vibrant, intoxicating, and deadly. The animal familiars are half His Dark Materials and half The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, signifying signs of their owners sins like an albatross around their necks—while also granting them that can magic powers. It’s a riotous, chaotic, bloody wonderful novel.

Prerelease Bonus Entry: The Prey of Gods, by Nicky Drayden
Following on the hells of Lauren Beukes is another marvelous genre-rending novel set in a South African city that feels tangibly real and gritty despite the stalking presence of genetically engineered chimeras and the apocalyptic threat of a vengeful demigoddess. Truthfully, calling it an urban fantasy is a bit of a stretch, if only because it is certainly that, but so much more. In a city where every resident has a personal robotic assistant, an A.I. uprising is brewing. A megastar pop singer plans the biggest concert of her career, even as she tries desperately to keep her own secret pain under wraps. A boy with incredible hidden talents longs to love his best friend. A stuffy politician turns to a god-derived street drug to unlock the diva within. And a little girl discarded by the worst of humanity must decide whether or not she’s going to destroy them all. This one isn’t out until June 2017, but you’ll definitely want to read it as soon as you can.
What standalone urban fantasy books do you love?