(no subject)

[skygiants]

You know that thing where no matter what hobby you have, you can write a cozy themed mystery novel series about it? Like, there's knitting-themed cozy mysteries and gardening-themed cozy mysteries and accounting-themed cozy mysteries and so on?

I don't think 'cozy themed series' is a thing for fantasy novels, because it's kind of been subsumed by urban fantasy which is a whole separate thing, but maybe it should be a thing? Actually I would kind of love if that was a thing. (ACCOUNTING-THEMED COZY FANTASY NOVELS BY THE DOZENS.) And if it was a thing, then Barbara Ashford's Spellcast and its sequel Spellcrossed would fall squarely into that subgenre.

So the basic premise is that Our Heroine Maggie goes on a road trip and accidentally gets sucked into a tiny community theater in a charming small town in Vermont, which is full of charmingly eccentric theatrical types and wacky theatrical hijinks, and also it turns out powered by the charming and angsty fairy director who uses his MAGICAL FAIRY POWERS to help all these charmingly eccentric characters put on successful musicals while coming to terms with their personal hangups and growing as people. The first book is about Maggie getting over her low self-esteem by performing as the clambake lady in "Carousel," and the second book is about Maggie getting over her parent issues by directing "Into the Woods." While falling in love with/sorting out relationship status with the charming and angsty fairy director, of course. They are basically the coziest damn things I've ever read.

And, like, OK:
- it's wish fulfillment up the wazoo
- there are all kinds of ethical problems with fairy magic cheerfully being used to futz with people's emotional states and ability to perform high-quality theater that are really very BARELY glancingly addressed
- don't go in looking for numinous because there's really very little numinous to be found
- also many of the charmingly eccentric theatrical types verge on stereotype (I cringed, for example, at the subplot about the gay actor playing Neville Craven who kept accidentally giving off incest vibes during his scenes with Archibald in "The Secret Garden") (although actually the loud and intimidating but good-hearted Chinese choreographer who SPEAKS IN ALLCAPS was my favorite and I would very happily read all about her romance with her mild-mannered Swiss-German stage manager husband)

So if you're likely to be irritated by those things, stay away, but I had massive amounts of fun. The books just kind of exude comfort -- at least if you are a person who loves musicals and loves cheesy fantasy novels, which, I mean, there's no denying I am the target audience. There is an X painted on my chest. HERE I AM.

But also I think I'm a bit cozy comfort fantasy-starved? Seriously, cozy theme fantasy can become a thing any time now.

Comments

[ceitfianna]

Ooh, this looks like it might be catnip for me as cozy mysteries are my favorite and I love fantasy about the Fae.

[skygiants]

Oh, yeah, I think you'd love it. All the cozy, none of the corpses.

[graycardinal]

Heh. I thought you'd like these....

And the two original books have just now been re-released in an incredibly fat combined edition (print only, evidently) entitled Spells at the Crossroads.

[skygiants]

Wow, that was fast! Although also slightly disconcerting to me because of another much-beloved fantasy series of my youth that I've had difficulty locating as an adult called the Crossroads series. Which is also kind of cozy themed fantasy-ish (fantasy about vets!) albeit a bit too disturbing to really be cozy....

[sovay]

another much-beloved fantasy series of my youth that I've had difficulty locating as an adult called the Crossroads series.

Nick O'Donohoe! The Magic and the Healing (1994), Under the Healing Sign (1995), The Healing of Crossroads (1996). I cannot tell for the life of me whether those would hold up if I re-read them, although the central conceit of a veterinary practice for mythological creatures is still gold. I remember liking the first two very much and the third not at all. I always wanted more about Morgan. She was such a weird quasi-Arthurian touch. (Doesn't she hail from a country that would have been the Waste Land if she hadn't murdered the Fisher King, or something?) To the best of my knowledge, the trilogy is dead out of print. If it turns out that my parents still own the copies I read in high school, I'll lend them to you. I can't promise anything, though—there have been several devastating book-losses since then.

[skygiants]

Oh man, if it turns out you have them I would love to take you up on that -- I've been wanting to reread them for years. (I found a set at the Strand once and didn't buy it because I thought I still had copies at home which proved unfindable, and I've been regretting it ever since. The Minuteman system seems to have the second one, but none of the others.) I have no idea if they'll hold up either. Mostly what I remember is the Huntington's Chorea, the cute clever creatures that turn out to be murderers who pose their victims like lawn gnomes, and the fact that she dumps her series love interest after it turns out he's actually only a fast-aging five years old, all of which I found striking and distressing at the age of twelve. I barely remember Morgan, but what you're saying sounds vaguely correct...

[sovay]

Oh man, if it turns out you have them I would love to take you up on that -- I've been wanting to reread them for years.

I will keep you posted. I need to visit and look for a bunch of books, anyway. I've unpacked all the books I brought with me when I moved out, whch has suddenly highlighted how many books I apparently left behind.

and the fact that she dumps her series love interest after it turns out he's actually only a fast-aging five years old

I . . . may have forgotten that. Wow. What species is he again?

I barely remember Morgan, but what you're saying sounds vaguely correct...

She's martial and red-haired and has some kind of relationship history with the king of Crossroads from when he was younger and really, really stupid; she is happiest when she is washing herself in blood. Completely batshit. Enjoys leading armies. Might be some kind of syncretic reference to the Morrigan, but I'd need to re-read to be sure.

I also have good memories of a Wyr woman whose name I am unable to remember at the moment, due to it being nearly AAAAAAGH TWENTY YEARS since I last read these books. She and BJ have a gorgeously awkward conversation about her coming into heat.

[skygiants]

Thanks! :D If it turns out you don't have them, I may finally cave and order some five-cent used copies from Amazon, in which case you can then borrow them from me if you want ...

The love interest is a faun, I think. My recollection is that her discovery of the age thing comes along with a fast-progressing pregnancy and she's like, 'wow, I thought your general demeanor was just charming youthful faun high spirits but it all makes so much more sense if you've ACTUALLY ONLY BEEN ALIVE FOR FIVE YEARS, can't cope with this!' and nopes out of the relationship. She has the kid but they do not get back together. Probably one of the weirdest fantasy romances I've read, but at least the book acknowledged ... the weirdness ...

Oh, I do remember Morgan now! I remember the Wyr woman, too. In general I remember the books having a lot of nice stuff around respected enemies and the Hippocratic Oath and the medical obligation to patch up even the people who may have tried to kill you or will try to kill you in future, all of which is catnip to me.

[sovay]

If it turns out you don't have them, I may finally cave and order some five-cent used copies from Amazon, in which case you can then borrow them from me if you want ...

Thank you! One way or another, these books will ride again.

The love interest is a faun, I think.

Stefan! There is some mythologically clever thing about the rest of his name that I am not remembering right now! Thank you!

My recollection is that her discovery of the age thing comes along with a fast-progressing pregnancy and she's like, 'wow, I thought your general demeanor was just charming youthful faun high spirits but it all makes so much more sense if you've ACTUALLY ONLY BEEN ALIVE FOR FIVE YEARS, can't cope with this!' and nopes out of the relationship.

FAIR. COP.

In general I remember the books having a lot of nice stuff around respected enemies and the Hippocratic Oath and the medical obligation to patch up even the people who may have tried to kill you or will try to kill you in future, all of which is catnip to me.

Yes. I think that's actually a lot of the plot of Under the Healing Sign, which is, now that I think about it, at least in memory my favorite of the three.

[graycardinal]

Ah, yes, the Crossroads series by Nick O'Donohoe, well-described by sovay above. I remember those books fondly, too, though I think I agree that they don't *quite* meet the "cozy" standard. I unwisely winnowed those from my collection some years back, having badly underestimated the likelihood of finding them again at need.

OTOH, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the even more obscure O'Donohoe book I kept: Too Too Solid Flesh, which is a pure sci-fi whodunit featuring a production of Hamlet largely performed by robot actors. Very Asimovian, totally fascinating, and published by -- of all things -- TSR, the company behing the Dungeons & Dragons empire. Very, very odd, but also very, very good...and, of course, utterly out of print.

[skygiants]

...I have got to find Too Too Solid Flesh!

[sovay]

Too Too Solid Flesh, which is a pure sci-fi whodunit featuring a production of Hamlet largely performed by robot actors.

That sounds deeply confusing and I must find it.

[cyphomandra]

I was just about to check Google to see if this was the same Nick! Too Too Sooid Flesh was one of those complete impulse buys that I ended up loving, and I never found anyone else who read it (and bits of it - the Curse of Consciousness and the ageing/deafening of the robot character have stuck with me very strongly).

In related, Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun - murder of unpleasant author at sf convention - might be kind of cozy?

[sovay]

In related, Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun - murder of unpleasant author at sf convention - might be kind of cozy?

Yes, except I remember it being garbage about actual fan culture, even for allowing for the differences between when I read it, when I started attending conventions, and when it was written in 1988. (Which was sad when I realized, because the title is a gift from the B-movie gods.) Diana Wynne Jones' Deep Secret (1997)?

[cyphomandra]

I remember it being weird about women and the sequel being awful, but I had been to precisely one con when I read it and had minimal fan exprience! I should, however, reread Deep Secret, as although I know I've read it the only thing that seems to have stuck with me is the confusing hotel layout. And is there a bit with a centaur in a lift?

[sovay]

And is there a bit with a centaur in a lift?

There is!

(As a novel, I prefer the sequel The Merlin Conspiracy (2003), but it's not the one that takes place at a con. And Deep Secret does have some amazing sequences, like getting to Babylon by candlelight, there and back again.)

[enleve]

A better murder mystery set at a sf convention is We'll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews. I think it is more true to fan culture than Bimbos of the Death Sun and the characters are more likeable. It is my second favourite book by Donna Andrews. My favourite is Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon, a murder mystery set in a software development company.

[sovay]

A better murder mystery set at a sf convention is We'll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews.

That is my mother's favorite in the series.

[rachelmanija]

Oh, I really really like that. It was incredibly ambitious and dark for a TSR book. Remarkably, Hamlet actually did seem like Hamlet.

[intothespin]

I loved this book.

[sophia_sol]

I just realized I don't own a single book that could be called a cozy fantasy and that is a SAD LACK.

These books sound like fun and I shall be adding them to my to-read-someday list!

Out of curiosity, can you think of any other books that would fit into the cozy fantasy or cozy theme fantasy subgenre?

[skygiants]

RIGHT? I'm having real trouble! There's the vet-themed fantasy series I mentioned in a comment above (The Magic and the Healing is the first one -- it's about a bunch of vet students who go on rotational rounds to a magical fantasy land) but given that the heroine has a terminal disease and there's a lot of murder and emphasis on the fact that veterinary medicine can be tough and depressing I remember it as kind of too dark to be called cozy. I think there's also an fantasy series about a werewolf who hosts a radio talk show, but I haven't read it -- that's the one I was thinking of when I said urban fantasy got there first, though, because the cover definitely seem super urban fantasy even though the conceit could conceivably be cozy-theme-style. Maybe Mercedes Lackey's racecar elves series? But given the focus on ABUSED CHILDREN!!! in those books, I wouldn't exactly call that cozy either...

I don't know, if anyone else has thoughts, please chime in!

[graycardinal]

Working on it, but am presently limited to wifi via pocketphone. List will follow once I'm home and have a real keyboard....

[graycardinal]

Crossing the streams of some of the down-thread discussion:

I don't know that I entirely agree that "cozy fantasy" need be contemporary, given that a sizeable sub-strata of cozy mysteries are historicals (and specifically medieval historicals, Ellis Peters' "Cadfael" series having been a major prototype). And Elizabeth Peters likewise counts as a writer of cozies, both contemporary (Vicky Bliss, Jacqueline Kirby) and period (Amelia Peabody).

OTOH, I'd agree that classic YA is a good source of cozy fantasy, and that's definitely colored the list I ended up with, grouped into authors, series, and singletons. (I think this is going to run to several posts....)

Authors
Linda Haldeman
Elizabeth Marie Pope
Sherwood Smith*
Christopher Stasheff
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Patricia Wrede (with and w/o Caroline Stevermer)

Of the foregoing, Linda Haldeman is by far the most obscure; she published a handful of books and short works in the 1980s, then fell ill and died. The Lastborn of Elvinwood has been one of my core Yuletide requests for years, and Star of the Sea and Esbae are arguably just as good -- all neatly blending elements of the domestic and the epic with grace and wonder.

Pope's two books are The Sherwood Ring and The Perilous Gard; if the former isn't a classic cozy, I don't know what is. Wrede is definitely a "cozy" writer; to me, that label clearly fits the Lyra books as well as the Mairelon duo and the co-written series that begins with Sorcery & Cecilia. Smith's Dobrenica novels are certainly cozies, and from there it's not much of a stretch to draw in most of her YA work, particularly the Wren series and Crown Duel. (OTOH, the Inda cycle is clearly something else again, thus the asterisk.)

Christopher Stasheff is nominally SF rather than fantasy, but the texture of the extended "Gramarye" series has such a strong fantasy atmosphere (and such a solid family dynamic) that I think he really ought to count here.

Lawrence Watt-Evans is a bit of a stretch, but I'm adding him here largely on the strength of the Ethshar novels, and the fact that no matter what he's writing, the focus is usually on ordinary people coping with the extraordinary and the ultimate tone is generally upbeat.

It is definitely worth noting that the majority of these are veteran "midlist" authors as opposed to Bright! New! Stars!....

[skygiants]

I've not heard of Linda Haldeman! Clearly I should check her out. :)

I'm gonna stand by what I said somewhere down below, though, I think for the purposes of my definition I'm ruling out anything second-world. Because second-world fantasy is very clearly a thing, and cheerful comforting second-world YA fantasy is definitely a thing, and there are long traditions of those things; what surprises me is that there doesn't seem to be a tradition of that kind of pleasantly self-insert adult contemporary fantasy. (But I don't really think of Cadfael as cozy mystery, either. Too much sad medieval death!)

....Sherwood Ring is totally cozy, though, that one I'll definitely grant you. :)

[graycardinal]

Moving on to cozy fantasy in series form:

Incryptid series, Seanan McGuire

The October Daye novels clearly are *not* cozies (too much action, stakes tilting too high) but the InCryptid series -- variously featuring a ballroom dancer, a zoo professional, and a roller derby queen as protagonists -- arguably qualifies. Some of the climaxes are on the high-powered end of the cozy scale, but the Aeslin Mice all by themselves just scream cozy to me.

500 Kingdoms and Elemental Masters series, Mercedes Lackey

Okay, neither one of these is contemporary, but both are essentially fairy-tale romance very strongly tilted toward "omni-competent female protagonist prospers against all odds", and that's a classic cozy formula (some would mention the term "Mary Sue", and there's room to make that case). The former series is a bit lighter in tone, but both are built on the same template.

Expatriate Sidhe series, John C. Bunnell

Decidedly on the short-and-obscure side (e-text only, two installments to date), but totally in the ballpark -- present-day setting, theatrical background, fae-born protagonist. An interesting contrast to the Barbara Ashford books.

Liavek series, edited by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull

An early and semi-obscure shared world project, with a roster of contributors that reads like a Who's Who of early urban-faerie stars (Bull, Wrede, John M. Ford, Jane Yolen, Pamela Dean, more. No, not contemporary, but the sensibility -- unlike nearly any other shared world before or since -- runs to the everyday-wondrous rather than to thud-and-blunder or angst.

[graycardinal]

And now a handful of one-shots:

Mathemagics, Margaret Ball

Retired barbarian warrior as modern suburban housewife; in some ways, an inside-out twist on Andrews' We'll Always Have Parrots.

The Interior Life, "Katherine Blake"

Almost definitionally a cozy, if a very odd one, and about the last thing in the universe you'd expect to have been published by Baen.

Stealing the Elf-King's Roses, Diane Duane

AU near future, and "CSI with magic, plus bonus cross-universal chase scenes" doesn't sound as if it should be "cozy", but then again this is Duane (and IMO, one of Duane's best books).

Tea With the Black Dragon, R. A. MacAvoy

Quiet with a vengeance, and yet -- elegant, lyrical, and altogether compelling. San Francisco at its most multi-cultural.

Curse of the Giant Hogweed, Charlotte Macleod

And this one is actually an old-school cozy mystery, part of Macleod's Peter Shandy series...and also, at one and the same time, an actual honest-to-ghod crossover with the Narnia books.

[jinian]

Mileage varies widely: Duane is among my favorite authors, but I absolutely cannot stand that novel.

[shark_hat]

I think the werewolf with the radio show series is by Carrie Vaughn- I've read the first one, liked it, but it definitely read more as in the mainstream of urban fantasy than as particularly cozy.
One I was recommended a couple of years ago as domestic fantasy (i.e. not about Saving The World) might fit- it's called At Amberleaf Fair, and is charming; a toymaker proposes to his girlfriend and is turned down, and then his brother gets ill (possibly enchanted). Sorting those out is the whole plot, pretty much.
Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamour series might count, too. They're sort of regency-romance-with-magic, ish.

[graycardinal]

[nodding]

At Amberleaf Fair is by Phyllis Ann Karr, who's done a number of very good and very interesting things -- the "Frostflower & Thorn" sowrd-and-sorcery series (about a pair of female mercenaries who -- unlike Lackey's later Tarma & Kethry -- really were romantic partners), and also Idylls of the Queen, which is in fact essentially a cozy murder mystery set in King Arthur's court.

[skygiants]

Thank you for reminding me that I've meant for ages to pick up some Phyllis Ann Karr!

[rachelmanija]

There's Pamela Dean's The Dubious Hills. It's pastoral and has a cozy feeling and is largely about small domestic matters, though it's maybe too intellectual to quite fit. The premise is that all knowledge/understanding is split among individuals, so that only the person in charge of pain can feel pain or know when anyone else feels pain. And so forth.

Possibly inspired by that, Jo Walton's Lifelode. Also very domestic, with odd magic and polyamory.

Katherine Blake's The Interior Life. A housewife imagines adventures in fantasy land, which may or may not have an independent existence; they influence her life in positive ways. Absolutely lovely book.

[skygiants]

Dubious Hills is sort of! But I still in my heart want to disallow second-world fantasy from the 'cozy fantasy' subgenre as I'm talking about it because I think it comes from a different tradition. I want to say Lud-in-the-Mist but I've not actually read it so I probably can't actually say that for sure.

I do definitely want to read The Interior Life now, though.

[next_to_normal]

YOU HAD ME AT "INTO THE WOODS."

[skygiants]

Right? First book is "Brigadoon", a made-up musical and "Carousel", which is fine but none of which I know very well, and then for the second book they busted out "Secret Garden" and "Into the Woods" and I'm like YEAH OK LET'S DO THIS.

[hebethen]

How interesting! Most (adult) mysteries are murder mysteries, as far as I can tell, which one would not instinctively associate with an adjective like "cozy". Are Cozy Mysteries non-murderous, or do they simply alchemize?

Also, I bet cozy bibliophile mysteries are well-established, but if there's a cozy fandork/gaming/linguistics mystery novel series out there you gotta lmk, right?

[skygiants]

Alchemize! I think the trick is mostly to have the murder victims be generally unlikable and the unpleasantness drowned out by the comforting charm of everything else, a la Miss Marple or Murder She Wrote.

I've not yet come across a cozy gaming or linguistics mystery novel series, but I bet they both exist! Internet, this is your cue to provide, HINT.

[graycardinal]

AFAIK, there isn't a mystery *series* extant with either a gaming or linguistics focus (though there was a run a decade or two back on lady English-professor sleuths). But there have been a handful of attempts to portray gamer/geek/fantasy culture in more or less straight cozy mysteries, with varying degrees of success.

The disasters:
Bimbos of the Death Sun, Sharyn McCrumb
Cat in a Kiwi Con, Carole Nelson Douglas

McCrumb gets the culture not just wrong, but disastrously wrong in her entry, in which the GoH at a fan convention (reportedly modeled on Harlan Ellison) is murdered. Worse, at least in the original edition, the copy-editor didn't know the proper spelling of Anne McCaffrey's name....

Douglas does a bit better at getting the atmosphere right, but the plot is severely muddled by middle-chapter-of-epic-serial syndrome.

The "not bad":
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon and
We'll Always Have Parrots, Donna Andrews
Zombies of the Gene Pool, Sharyn McCrumb

Surprisingly, the sequel to Bimbos improved markedly on its predecessor, mostly by virtue of focusing on SF writers rather than fans (and, to all appearances, being far better researched).

The main focus of Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series is on birds and animals, but the protagonist's brother runs a computer game company, and her romantic partner is an actor; these two books therefore focus respectively on game-developer culture and a faux-Xena-series convention, both drawn reasonably well. Andrews is also noteworthy for having written a second, shorter series about "Turing Hopper", a software-personality who forms a covert private-detective partnership with a pair of human sleuths. Though marketed as cozy mysteries, the exploration of AI themes is equal to anything in straight SF.

The home runs:
The Wedding Game, Susan Holzer
Murder at the War, Mary Monica Pulver

Holzer's novel postulates a murder among a circle of online correspondents (the date and tech put it in the CompuServe/AOL/GEnie era), solved entirely by online sleuthing -- in which the geek culture is totally convincing.

Pulver's is a cult classic, chronicling an imaginary murder -- and is solution -- at an equally imaginary (but utterly accurate) version of the SCA's Pennsic War, properly labeled as such. There are a couple of sequels, and all are ingeniously plotted, but the later books grow a bit past "cozy" on a psychological level.

[sovay]

Pulver's is a cult classic, chronicling an imaginary murder -- and is solution -- at an equally imaginary (but utterly accurate) version of the SCA's Pennsic War, properly labeled as such.

. . . Peter S. Beagle's The Folk of the Air (1986)?

[graycardinal]

Hmm. It's been a long time since I've read that one, but that's definitely a possible entry in the "cozy fantasy" lists.

[hebethen]

Oh my. /flutters

Thank you, encyclopedic fount of knowledge on that most intriguing of subgenres, the cozy mystery!

[thistleingrey]

In the ones I've read, there are murders but they're passed off as "Oh, yeah, another murder without gory detail, but let me tell you all about the new stock I've laid in at my New Age crystals shop!" Passing over most of the mystery stuff makes me bounce, actually--no knitting or embroidery/cross-stitch cozy mysteries for me so far, though the idea seems appealing!

[jinian]

Cozy mysteries frequently are murder mysteries, it's just that the person murdered was never all that popular to start with and everyone else has generally happy/comedic times instead of angst and sordid affairs.

Donna Andrews' We'll Always Have Parrots takes place at a media con and I quite like it, if you'd like a rec from me. :)

[hebethen]

That's the second rec of it, so I am basically required to check it out now :P Funny thing is, I met Donna Andrew once -- she had some kind of a writing circle thing, and a family friend who knew her and also knew my writing-hobby kindheartedly whisked me into a meeting of it, at which I sat in awkward and intimidated silence while various local mystery writers humorously shared the trials and tribulations of doing research for mystery novels.

[lacewood]

The closest thing I can think of to cozy fantasies are actually... cute fluffy Regency fantasies, and maybe some of the early children's fantasy books (eg. Mary Norton's The Borrowers is pretty cozy) But those are clearly set in an earlier era so it's not quite the same.

Maybe... DWJ...? (I mean, Archer's Goon is SORT OF cozy until the spaceship and time travel show up....? Black Maria was like, CREEPY COZY? IT'S A STRETCH BUT)

Sadly I can't think of any modern day versions. I think urban fantasies get a little too ~ALPHA MALE~ and THE FATE OF THE WORLD/UNIVERSE/ETC IN YOUR HANDS to have the cozy effect. Clearly this is a niche people should get into, RIGHT NOW.

[skygiants]

Yeah, cute fluffy Regency fantasies get at some of the same feel, but 'cozy mystery' generally denotes 20th-century to me. And I love the notion of contemporary fantasy, I think there's lots of cool stuff you can do with it! Except now it's all got eaten by the urban fantasy cliches that I don't like, so YA seems to be the only place you can do the interesting things. And they are doing super interesting things (Frances Hardinge!) but I think of that as a bit different from the fluffy comfort food that cozy mysteries are.

[skygiants]

I realized below: Enchanted Glass! That is totally cozy fantasy.

[lacewood]

I KNEW at least one DWJ had to fit the criteria. And you're right, Enchanted Glass is TOTALLY a cozy fantasy. XD

And yes, publishers, think of all the market segments you are not catering to because the contemporary fantasy genre got buried under UF cliches. There is so much room for some variety here. /glum

[graycardinal]

[reading everyone else's posts between bouts of list-making]

I'd distinguish between urban fantasy -- which first shows up in the early '80s, with Bull's War for the Oaks and de Lint's Moonheart -- and today's paranormal fantasy/romance, which was broadly templated by Laurell K. Hamilton when the Anita Blake series left-turned several books in (and see also Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde novels, which were paranormals ahead of their time).

There's just beginning to be a shift from paranormal mode back toward purer urban-faerie strains, probably due in part to the success of Seansn McGuire's books (which straddle both sides of that fence, but are arguably grounded more deeply in "urban" than in "paranormal").

[skygiants]

It's true, though they technically travel under the same barrier, there's been a definite genre shift -- or rather I guess paranormal has kind of staged a hostile takeover of urban fantasy. Though you do still get some of it; Seanan McGuire, yes, and also Ben Aaronovitch and the Dresden books, too. I'm not sure I'd necessarily say it's backwards, though, so much as towards a new thing, which is almost explicitly 'noir WITH MAGIC.' Old-school urban fantasy was not so much that.

[sovay]

Seriously, cozy theme fantasy can become a thing any time now.

I would totally classify Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles as cozy fantasy. Like, any scene with Morwen and Telemain just seals the deal.

(I read those books as a child, starting with Talking to Dragons (1985)—and then spent years convincing everyone else I knew that, no, it really was written first and everything else was just filling in backstory—and while I had other reasons for learning Latin, Cimorene really is why I learned to make cherries jubilee.)

[skygiants]

See, while the Enchanted Forest books are absolutely a comfort read and cozy in the more broad sense of the adjective -- and I can definitely think of second-world fantasies that have a similarly comforting feel -- I wouldn't call them cozy fantasy as parallel to cozy mysteries per se. Cozy mysteries per definition are not just amiable and charming (though they are!) but also usually contemporary and set in a small town or community of some sort, and you just don't get a lot of that feel in contemporary fantasy, which has tilted heavily towards the URBAN and DARK and GRITTY. The noir end of the spectrum, if you will.

Actually, I've just remembered DWJ's Enchanted Glass, which I think would count. OK, one!

[sovay]

Cozy mysteries per definition are not just amiable and charming (though they are!) but also usually contemporary and set in a small town or community of some sort, and you just don't get a lot of that feel in contemporary fantasy, which has tilted heavily towards the URBAN and DARK and GRITTY.

Check. Do you get cozy in the fantasy-romance genre, or is that still mostly really hot were-leopards?

(What's frustrating me is that I feel like I've read examples of contemporary charming fantasy, but I'm blanking on them. Patricia A. McKillip's Solstice Wood (2006) might count, even though AMERICAN SEQUEL TO WINTER ROSE WTF I don't actually like it very much.)

[skygiants]

I think it's still mostly really hot were-leopards! >:( If anyone's written a nice quiet knitting or gardening-themed fantasy romance, I haven't come across it yet.

(Hmm, yeah, from what I can remember about Solstice Wood -- and it's very vague in my head, like all McKillips, which somehow tend to turn into pleasant-memory mist at a much speedier rate than any other author's work -- it probably would fall into the genre, or at least around the edges of it. Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, maybe, sort of, but I think there's a bit too much there there to comfortably call it 'charming' and leave it at that.)

[sovay]

If anyone's written a nice quiet knitting or gardening-themed fantasy romance, I haven't come across it yet.

Dammit, I really feel it should exist! The gardening one was almost written several times by Robin McKinley, but didn't quite happen.

Huh. Would you accept Sunshine (2003)? Its protagonist works at a bakery.

-- and it's very vague in my head, like all McKillips, which somehow tend to turn into pleasant-memory mist at a much speedier rate than any other author's work --

You are the second or third person I've heard that from! I find it true of lesser McKillip, like The Book of Atrix Wolfe (1995) or In the Forests of Serre (2003) or Alphabet of Thorn (2004) or The Bell at Sealey Head (2008), but it's not at all the case for me with many of her other novels, which are distinct and vivid and I can talk about for pages if offered the chance: the Riddle-Master trilogy (1976–79), Stepping from the Shadows (1982), Fool's Run (1987), The Changeling Sea (1988), The Sorceress and the Cygnet (1991), Something Rich and Strange (1994), Ombria in Shadow (2002), The Bards of Bone Plain (2010). She was a huge imprint on me as a young reader and still one of my deep favorites. Every now and then I write a sentence and I can see exactly what I learned from her. (And the 2000's were a very frustrating decade for me. She was so hit or miss. I can barely remember anything about The Tower at Stony Wood (2000) or Od Magic (2005) because I bounced off them so badly.)

Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, maybe, sort of, but I think there's a bit too much there there to comfortably call it 'charming' and leave it at that.

Too much at stake, no matter your feelings on whether she pulls it off or not. Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary (1998) is mostly just YA.

[skygiants]

I think Sunshine maybe could sort of qualify! Sunshine's interesting because it does this thing where it borrows a bunch of cozy trappings for what's an essentially urban fantasy plot. It also has the same Tam Lin problem of stakes too high to be really comforting, though. Maybe if it had ever been the ongoing series it was half-calling out to be.

There are very few McKillips that stick for me -- Riddlemaster and Forgotten Beasts of Eld I think are really the only ones. And Winter Rose, but that's mostly because I spent a while collecting Tam Lins. The rest all run completely together for me. But Forgotten Beasts was my first, and that and Winter Rose were also the only ones I owned and reread multiple times, so that probably has something to do with it too. She's influenced me for sure, but I absolutely could not tell you, for the most part, what I got out of where.

[sovay]

Maybe if it had ever been the ongoing series it was half-calling out to be.

Aaaaaaagh, yes.

Incidentally, this just scrolled past my screen and called out for you.

There are very few McKillips that stick for me -- Riddlemaster and Forgotten Beasts of Eld I think are really the only ones.

I truly love The Sorceress and the Cygnet. Its constellations are some of the best fictional myths I have read. And I've read a surprising quantity.

[skygiants]

OMG VEGAN-THEMED COZY FANTASY. I knew it had to exist! *__*

(I don't think I've actually read The Sorceress and the Cygnet! Or if I did, it was so long ago that I've legitimately forgotten, not just McKillip-forgotten. Maybe I should.)

[sovay]

OMG VEGAN-THEMED COZY FANTASY. I knew it had to exist! *__*

I am proud to have made this moment happen. Also, if it's good, you should probably write the author, because it is always good to know one's book has found its intended audience.

(I don't think I've actually read The Sorceress and the Cygnet! Or if I did, it was so long ago that I've legitimately forgotten, not just McKillip-forgotten. Maybe I should.)

I can evangelize for it, if you like. Or just agree you should give it a shot.

[skygiants]

Hah, please feel free to make your pitch! I am willing to be evangelized to (and then to steal it from genarti).

[genarti]

I have The Sorceress and the Cygnet! I quite liked it, and you're welcome to borrow it if you ever like.

A lot of it faded fast into memory-mist for me, but with some clear striking moments remaining steadfast. Much clearer than Ombria In Shadow, which receded almost instantly into a vague impression of having enjoyed the book a great deal, having had very little idea how much of the climax actually happened versus dream-sequence happening, and having next to no memory of the details of anything within a week or two. (And then Forgotten Beasts of Eld is the third McKillip I have read, I think, so I really ought to read more.)

[skygiants]

I will happily take you up on that! I do remember Ombria in Shadow very vaguely, but that's mostly because I was learning Latin at the time that I read it and got very excited about the linguistic root of the word 'Ombria'.

[graycardinal]

!!!

That I have to see. Pandian's two prior mysteries are excellent cozies in the Elizabeth Peters mode, and the new one is set very nearly in my back yard.

[holli]

Okay, I am now definitely writing the story about the haunted vintage shop where the former owners of the dresses appear as shades, wearing the dresses, to dispense useful advice.

[skygiants]

YES, PLEASE DO THAT *___* I still have to write up the Barbara Michaels Gothic-that's-super-not-Gothic about the vintage shop!

[hebethen]

So I just came across the announcement of a cozy mystery fantasy project. Welp.

[enleve]

I'm not sure I know of any that exactly fit, but the novels that come to mind are:

Sharon Lee's series set in rural Maine is a contemporary fantasy. It is a trilogy, starting with Carousel Tides. I'm not sure how cozy it is, but it avoids most of the paranormal sub-genre tropes.

Another that come to mind is Mathemagics by Margaret Ball, where the magic works much like computer programming, and a woman from our world is valued for her skills with math that work like magic in another world.

If you don't mind a science fiction time travel cozy mystery, then I heartily recommend The Far Time Incident by Neve Maslakovic. That book makes me happy. It has fun characters, a more realistic depiction of academia than I've come across in most fiction, and it manages to successfully satisfy the requirements of many genres at once.