31
votes
Accepted
Fantasy in Asimov's magazine - words that cause bad luck to anyone who reads them
Fortune and Misfortune by Lisa Goldstein. It was published in Asimov's Science Fiction, May 1997.
It's about an actress Pam and her friend Jesse. Pam is looking for the Oedipus Trilogy in Berkeley ...
- 113k
30
votes
Accepted
Animated film about giants abducting/eating children, and a girl being rescued by a benevolent older giant
This is surely the BFG (The Big Friendly Giant), an animated film released in 1989 based on the children's story by Roald Dahl.
The older giant takes care of a young orphan girl named Sophie, and ...
- 68.9k
30
votes
Accepted
Short fantasy about disappearing items - Asimov's early 1980s
This is "The Sorceress in Spite of Herself" (1982) by Pat Cadigan, published in Asimov's, December 1982.
The story starts with Lou hunting for her expensive diamond earrings, a gift of her ...
- 138k
22
votes
Accepted
A Fantasy movie with a powerful humanoid being that lives in water
Is this The Shape of Water (2017)...?
From Wikipedia:
The Shape of Water is a 2017 romantic fantasy film directed and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. It ...
- 128k
21
votes
Accepted
Book about a professor who summons a female demon
A Personal Demon (1985) by David Bischoff, Rich Brown, and Linda Richardson; also the answer to this old question.
The front cover blurb:
A college professor conjures up a shapely demon to live ...
- 169k
18
votes
Accepted
Movie with an amulet and a princess who asked three questions from her suitors
This is Vandronik (1990).
After his father's death, young John is forced to leave his home.
Penniless but light of heart, he sets out to see the world. Having
found refuge in a church one ...
- 709k
16
votes
Accepted
ID Sci Fi short story: Earth soon to burn in Sun, apartment setting, juice cans, she sleeps, wakes to reality of Earth freezing
This was The Twilight Zone episode "The Midnight Sun." Like many original-series Twilight Zone episodes, it was penned by Rod Serling.
Norma and her landlady, Mrs. Bronson, are watching and ...
- 99.1k
15
votes
ID Sci Fi short story: Earth soon to burn in Sun, apartment setting, juice cans, she sleeps, wakes to reality of Earth freezing
The story "Midnight Sun" was adapted in this collection.
You may have seen it with a different cover.
- 9,365
15
votes
Accepted
Occult fantasy book in which a woman is trying to teach herself witch magic as a way to fight back against her overbearing husband
Sworn to the Night by Craig Schaefer sprang immediately to mind when reading this question.
From the blurb on Goodreads:
On the other side of the city, Nessa Roth is a college professor trapped in a ...
- 1,225
13
votes
Accepted
Teenage boy transported to Medieval Ukraine
Sounds like Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card.
The protagonist and narrator is Ivan Smetski, a young
Ukrainian-American linguist who specializes in Old Church Slavonic, a
language from 10th-century ...
- 818
12
votes
Urban fantasy book series with female lead who has a dirty talking parrot that has lost its feathers
Probably Special Monsters Unit (2023) by Eve Langlais, first book of the "Earth's Nexus" series.
From Goodreads:
Some people are born to greatness. My mother wanted to strangle me at birth.
...
- 58k
11
votes
Accepted
Shaman (?) / Wizard (?) in US Military Academy
It only just squeezes into your time frame because it was published in 2014, but possibly By Darkness Revealed, the first book of the Blackwell Magic series by Kevin O. McLaughlin.
Ryan Blackwell ...
- 113k
9
votes
Accepted
What's the first example of fairies being divided into Summer and Winter Courts?
I've found a blog that dates the practice to the Victorian era -
In Victorian children's literature, fairies were responsible for painting the flowers, decorating the autumn leaves, or bringing ...
- 9,447
8
votes
Accepted
Children/Teen mystery novel about a detective
This is The Midas Box by G. P. Taylor. It is book one of three that follow Mariah Mundi.
Fresh out of school, young Mariah faces a new chapter of his life living in the Prince Regent hotel, built ...
- 13.1k
8
votes
urban fantasy short with imps set in London
Child of the Stones by Paul J. McAuley. I read it in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 15, which was published in 2004 so it fits with the time you remember reading it.
It starts with the ...
- 113k
8
votes
Looking for a story with "The Cutting Edge", a cutting instrument which that can cut anything and might be Death's Scythe
Could this be the webcomic Finder's Keepers by Garth Graham?
Female protagonist in urban fantasy has access to "The Cutting Edge", an absurdly sharp blade gifted to her by Death that can cut ...
- 709k
7
votes
Accepted
Short story called "ten for one" or similar?
This Offer Expires by Liz Hufford
The old store on Lesort Street had a sign in the window - TWELVE FOR
ONE.
The protagonist assumes that this means twelve for one dollar, but the deal is explained ...
- 6,108
7
votes
Accepted
Medieval alternative London with abductions
Could be The Oversight ?
The Oversight is set in Victorian London and we are slowly introduced to the people who will guide us through this London where The Oversight protect humanity from the ...
- 4,253
6
votes
Accepted
Romance book about a shapeshifting unicorn and a shapeshifting dragon
This sounds very similar to the plotline for a novel called Dragon Bound, which is part of the Elder Races series of books by Thea Harrison.
Many of the plot elements match (dragon protagonist, hoard ...
- 19.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Urban Fantasy series - Curiosity Shop owner seeking ivory wand. Second book involved a countryside manor
In the process of trying to pin down details, I found the answer on a list of "Dresden Clones". Number one is Benedict Jacka's "Alex Verus" series. Alex runs a magic shop and is ...
- 233k
6
votes
Accepted
Urban Fantasy book featuring 'The Prefects': two entities from a dark dimension
You are definitely looking for The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes! The goodreads blurb describes your villains as "serial-killing schoolboy twins." The book overall is pretty solid urban fantasy with ...
- 11.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Book about family with wings, and the protagonist has to learn how to fly(?)
Could this be Lauren Winter's Growing Wings?
Eleven-year-old Linnet is growing wings from her shoulder blades. She is shocked, but her mother Sarah expected it; after all, she began to grow wings ...
- 233k
6
votes
Urban Fantasy about female half-elves being hunted for their dormant powers
It is called The Bitter Seed of Magic by Suzanne McLeod. Apparently, it is the third book in her Spellcrackers.com series. It is indeed an urban fantasy with, among others, fae and vampires. The main ...
- 141
5
votes
Urban fantasy novel set in alt NYC where one half is wild, protagonist looking for a white glove
I think this is W.M. Aker's Westside
"Westside" is set in an alternate 1920s in which a 13-mile-long fence runs down Broadway to split Manhattan between the sunny and prosperous East Side ...
- 233k
5
votes
YA Novel published before 1994 where characters are all cockroaches living in suburbia
It’s called The Collectors (1994) by Robert Carter.
From Amazon:
A renegade band of "collectors," cockroach-like insects, have organized themselves into territorial "circles" and raid their human ...
- 51
5
votes
Movie with an amulet and a princess who asked three questions from her suitors
Your question reminded me a lot of the story of Turandot - and there is, apparently, a 1987 movie of this tale, and a 1983 TV movie, either of which might fit your timeline.
In the story, there is ...
- 6,894
5
votes
Fantasy young adult novel with a girl who lived in a city surrounded by walls
I think this is Skylark
by Megean Spooner
Summary from Goodreads seems to match up
Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two ...
- 614
5
votes
Accepted
Book series about a woman (possibly a jinn) cast down to Earth, and people with elemental powers
This is the Outcast Season series by Rachel Caine.
Book 1: Undone (2008)
Book 2: Unknown (2010)
Book 3: Unseen (2011)
Book 4: Unbroken (2012)
The Goodreads summary for the first book notes that ...
- 128k
4
votes
Children/Teen mystery novel about a detective
Gothic mystery for children makes me think of John Bellairs and the series he spawned, and The House Where Nobody Lived is set in a house built by a sea captain in Michigan, although I don't know that ...
- 233k
4
votes
Accepted
Help me identify an urban fantasy web comic whose main character was named "Resonator"
I thought of a new way to research this: people like to make lists of things, so maybe the fact that the protagonist is bisexual would mean that I could find this comic in a list. Lo and behold, this ...
- 2,096
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible