Sandman Slim and sequel(s) by Richard Kadrey: urban fantasy, set in modern day Los Angeles but with magic, demons, angels, Heaven and Hell. What strikes me most about this story is that there is no black and white to what and who is good, or evil. The protagonist is a jerk, and a killer, but he's sympathetic and the reader can relate to him and root for him. While the "good guys" and "bad guys" vie for the protagonist to join their side and help in the Big Fight, the protagnist choses to do his own thing and, in so doing, ends up being the one to save the world.
It takes the usual tropes of urban fantasy and puts a dark, and realistic, spin on them. It's gritty and black humour and not at all fluffy, but the characters are driven by their passions and principles and the world built is so very detailed and real, yet there is a lot of world-building that has gone into it. The second book especially builds a world with rich backstory and intricacies that work to explain what's going on. There's no hand-waving or "then magic stuff happened here." Magic doesn't get them out of things with a handwave. It's still work and sometimes things explode and sometimes the magicians are the bad guys and sometimes they're victims and sometimes they're both.
The Inspector Chen series by Liz Williams - more urban fantasy, set in China (or another world China - hard to tell if it's future, alternate universe, or what.) Again, magic and angels and demons from Hell and Inspector Chen is a policeman just trying to do his job, and gets sucked into the goings-on between Heaven and Hell. His wife is a demon who has escaped from Hell and just wants to live her life (with a teapot-badger as her protector.)
The world-building is astounding, full of Chinese mythology and traditional magic, all in the setting of a cop-thriller mystery.
I love Cryptonomicon. I re-read it about every other year - sometimes I read just one character's chapters all the way through then go back and read another set.
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It takes the usual tropes of urban fantasy and puts a dark, and realistic, spin on them. It's gritty and black humour and not at all fluffy, but the characters are driven by their passions and principles and the world built is so very detailed and real, yet there is a lot of world-building that has gone into it. The second book especially builds a world with rich backstory and intricacies that work to explain what's going on. There's no hand-waving or "then magic stuff happened here." Magic doesn't get them out of things with a handwave. It's still work and sometimes things explode and sometimes the magicians are the bad guys and sometimes they're victims and sometimes they're both.
The Inspector Chen series by Liz Williams - more urban fantasy, set in China (or another world China - hard to tell if it's future, alternate universe, or what.) Again, magic and angels and demons from Hell and Inspector Chen is a policeman just trying to do his job, and gets sucked into the goings-on between Heaven and Hell. His wife is a demon who has escaped from Hell and just wants to live her life (with a teapot-badger as her protector.)
The world-building is astounding, full of Chinese mythology and traditional magic, all in the setting of a cop-thriller mystery.
I love Cryptonomicon. I re-read it about every other year - sometimes I read just one character's chapters all the way through then go back and read another set.