By Charlie Jane Anders at io9

A noir light is shining over fantasy — many of the best fantasy books on the shelves right now feature bloody-minded, morally gray protagonists battling their way through rotten cities and bleak landscapes. Here’s why noir is truest urban fantasy.

Many of our favorite fantasy books of the past year or so feature a self-consciously noir tinge. Perhaps the most buzzed-about of these is The Steel Remains by Altered Carbon author Richard K. Morgan — it’s gotten an amazing reputation since it came out last January, but if anything the hype understated this book’s greatness. Profane, riotous and utterly captivating, The Steel Remains follows three thick-skinned veterans of a terrible war against lizard people, as they investigate the rise of a new supernatural power that threatens to obliterate everything they fought for.

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I think this is a good way to get adults interested in fantasy novels again; it’s hard to take “and they all lived happily ever after” and sell it to people fighting with the economy and everyday stress. This is more realistic.

What do you think of darker fantasy? Do you prefer realism or do you read fantasy to escape stress?

All the books mentioned are available on Amazon: