Readers often divide the fantasy genre into two camps: epic and urban. This month's selections reveal that there is a lot more variety than such an accepted duality would imply. Part of the problem is when genre categories get codified based on their most famous examples. The success of the J.R.R. Tolkien school of epic fantasy means that there are certain elements that readers expect to see when a book receives that label: wizards, dragons, check, check. Likewise, the biggest urban fantasy authors such as Jim Butcher or Kim Harrison set the expectations that all contemporary sagas will take place in a city with crime fighting and ass-kicking galore.
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