I see what you're saying. As far as Fantasy Western goes, The Dark Tower (at least the first book, I haven't read any others) definitely has that feel.
Another genre combo (or actually, style) is a Historical Fiction with Lemony Narration. I don't know, it might be more common than I think but it's something I haven't really ever seen.
Second the vote for historical mysteries. Marcus Didius Falco is one of my favorites. Also, comedy and science fiction seems to be a rare combination these days, though it was fairly popular once upon a time.
Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.
Well there's Discworld's Watch series, though it's not exactly High Fantasy.
Patricia Wrede has written a couple of Frontier Magic books, the first is the Thirteenth Child. The American frontier has too little fantasy written about it, and some rich possibilities with the various cultures that met and mixed.
If you're willing to take recent history, I found Anna Dean last week. She's written some mysteries set in Regency England and the one I read was very good.
Fantasy and mystery in general is something I like, and not much available. Randall Garrett's are classic of course. Then let's see. Daniel Hood, Elisa deCarlo (sort of, a psychic detective with a Wodehouse flavor), Kim Harrison's books always involve a mystery of sorts. Gah, I know there are more but my brain won't bring them up, bad brain.
Comedies of manners and SF in general are also a rare and enjoyable mix. Bujold's A Civil Campaign, Wrede's Mairelon the Magician, and Walter Jon Williams' The Crown Jewels are the ones I know about. Any others?
If you want a fantasy western I highly recommend The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. Guns and trains are possessed by demons and people pick a side and duke it out. Totally awesome book, starts out with more western and little fantasy at the beginning and the fantasy elements get larger as the book goes on.
Other fantasy westerns are the first half of The Etched City by KJ Bishop (the 2nd half takes place in something like a fantasy india) and my own favourite book Iron Council.
edited 11th Aug '12 12:41:40 PM by MrShine
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Melisa Michaels (doesn't have a page yet, but I'm working on it) has a couple of urban fantasy/mysteries, Cold Iron, and Sister to the Rain. And of course, there's Garrett, P.I.. Also, Jasper Fforde has the Nursery Crime series which mixes fairy-tales with Police Procedural.
edited 11th Aug '12 3:01:18 PM by Xtifr
Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.I do enjoy a bit of sci-fi comedy. Perhaps sci-fi turned more serious in an attempt to escape the Sci-Fi Ghetto?
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI'm gonna say Zombie Apocalypse and Americana? I got nothin. I originally put ZA and musicals, but then I realized that there's no musicals in literature sooo...
edited 11th Aug '12 6:26:11 PM by Eagal
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. Not quite Americana, but the mash-up is phenomenal and it reads like a real story, not just a bizarre comedy act. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter for the same, sorta.
edited 11th Aug '12 8:44:06 PM by sargecadet
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Oh, how could I have forgotten Garrett series! One thing I love about them is the long arc story of Glory Mooncalled running in the background. The Dead Man reminds me of Nero Wolfe. Never managed to get into his Black Company books. I did read the Melisa Michaels books several years ago too, I remember looking for her for quite a while afterwards in hope she'd write another. I should reread them, as I don't remember them very well. The police procedural mixed with fairy tales sounds intriguing.
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I'll have to try your recommendations, I've never even heard of them.
Lawrence Watt-Evens The Misenchanted Sword and his With a Single Spell are funny while having a serious undertone to them as well. The Particolored Unicorn by John deCles is simply very silly and enjoyable. Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds is always to be recommended in any situation and there's laughter running through the whole thing.
edited 12th Aug '12 3:32:21 PM by Lightningnettle
I'm reading the novel Red Country now, which is sort of a stand-alone in The First Law series, and is a fantasy western. It is a quite good novel as a whole, but the Western aspect is kind of strange in that the setting of the series is more or less a late Renaissance/early Baroque equivalent, and this novel achieves the Western effect both by having characters fit into Western character archetypes and by being stylistically different than other entries (basically, its hard to tell the setting isn't supposed to be like 1800s America, which is a problem).
There are two groups of Native American equivalents (haven't finished so far, so not sure if they are related), and I have some issues in presentation (they are kind of stereotypical, and the story "gets away with this" because they they are White people... who happen to act like stereotypical Native Americans.
edited 13th Feb '13 7:35:48 AM by Hodor
Edit, edit, edit, edit the wikiPostmodern experimental fiction and old-school cosmic horror.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
Hasn't read enough Jeff Vandermeer. (Okay so he probably doesn't count, his horror is more bioengineered than cosmic, but it does have a Lovecraftian vibe to it at points. And im not sure if he is postmodern but a lot of his writing is definitely experimental)
edited 14th Feb '13 9:07:54 AM by MrShine
I'm well aware of Mr. Vandermeer's oeuvre; I am also familiar with Thomas Ligotti, Caitlín Kiernan and China Miéville, all of whom do this to some degree. That does not make it a common practice by any stretch of the imagination.
Really, I'd love to see more experimental work written in the same vein of weird fiction as Arthur Machen. Lovecraft is the usual touchstone, and I have no intention of knocking him, but I've always preferred Machen, if only because his games with narrative feel more intriguing.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.Threadbumping to make a very old reply, but The Alloy Of Law is a fantasy western, kind of.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NOUrban Fantasy and Techno-Thriller. Although a High Fantasy Culture dealing with an Alien Invasion would be fun too...
Keep Rolling OnWoun't Weird West cover the whole fantasy western/horror western thing? While it's not High Fantasy Glen Cook has mystery-fantasy covered with his Garrett PI series and throws in some darkComedy for flavor.
edited 16th Jun '13 11:39:46 AM by tricksterson
Trump delenda est

The topic title is pretty self-explanatory. What are some genres that don't cross over very often, but should?
-Historical mysteries. Oddly enough, I don't generally like historicals and I don't generally like mysteries, but when you set a mystery in, say, the Persian empire or ancient Peru or Renaissance Italy, you get my attention. Hard to say what makes them so appealing to me, but I think I might like the fact that the heroes have to contend with finding clues the old fashioned way, and there's no modern forensics or DNA evidence to make things too easy for them.
-Fantasy Westerns. The Space Western is a thing, sure enough, but you don't often get a lot of magic and spellcasters way out West. I think the reason this idea appeals to me so much is because I'm a fantasy lover who lives way out West and who has been surrounded by Western culture from birth, and I love the rich landscape of the desert. Plus, the West has some amazing myths that would make for the foundation of a great fantasy culture. Both of the Native American variety and the imported cowboy folktale variety.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada