Changing Urban Fantasy Heroines

So on one of the blogs I read, Chloe Neill, had an interesting post about the changing Urban Fantasy Heroines on book covers (see below image and link). I saw this and giggled. And it's really quite true. UF covers have gone from slinky impractical looking femme fatales to commando type kickass and enjoy it females. Personally, I like the newer ones. The slinky types always annoyed the crap outta me. I'm sorry, but fighting in a short tight dress with stiletto heals in all but a couple cases is damn near impossible and really throws my whole suspension of disbelief thing you have to have while reading UF and PNR*. Cat in Jeaniene Frost's books I can work with since she actually trains to be able to fight like that. It's part of the story. But the rest? Boohiss, I say. Not happening. (Yes, my suspension of disbelief gets caught on the strangest things, I know.)



(Full image here. Chloe got it from IO9. IO9 got it from Orbit books.)


So while researching that whole origin of the chart above thing, I came across the posts for the study that Orbit did. And they amused me, so I shall link for your amusement.

The Chart of Fantasy Art, Part One
The Chart of Fantasy Art, Part Two: Urban Fantasy
The Chart of Fantasy Art, Part Three: Dragons
The Chart of Fantasy Art, Part Four: Title Trends

There will be more, so I shall continue to update post with those links. That's it for the study. Very interesting and amusing.


* For those not in the know, UF is Urban Fantasy and PNR is Paranormal Romance. Basically, if it's got weres, vamps, faes, or pretty much anything supernatural, more than likely it's going to fall into UF and/or PNR.