If you prefer your action in smaller doses, please allow me to enthusiastically recommend two anthologies, 2016’s Urban Allies, and its companion volume, Urban Enemies.

Allies features ten collaborations featuring a pairing of characters from two different urban fantasy series. Here, you can find a team-up between Christopher Golden’s Peter Octavian and Charlaine Harris’ Dahlia Lynley-Chivers (of The Southern Vampires Mysteries fame), or an adventure featuring Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger and Larry Correia’s Agent Franks (Monster Hunter), depicting their pitched battle against demonic forces in Iraq.

Enemies flips its predecessor’s premise on its head, presenting the adventures of the villains at the center of the ubiquitous urban fantasy series mentioned above. Amongst the 17 tales featured, readers can thrill to the sordid exploits of John Marcone (Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files), the Huntsman (Kelly Armstrong’s Cainsville), and Seth Lockwood (Steven Savile’s Glass Town).

Edited by Joseph Nassise (a past Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Award nominee for his 2003 novel Riverwatch), both anthologies are great fun, featuring a plethora of “name” authors, and a cadre of talented authors you might not know as well, but will no doubt enjoy sampling. Fans of the various series involved will enjoy the brief visits to their favorite worlds, while newcomers will find plenty of fresh realities to explore.