And let's go to another edition of Brazilian Thursday. This time with an author that's actually a dear friend of mine and we're working on some translation projects together - I'll keep you posted ;)
HUGO, the vampire: Lights at the Dark Age - Gabriel Arruda Burani
If you got here because you read Twilight and started liking vampires, stop. This is not a charming story, with lovely vampires, love stories and people thinking of their lives, good and evil.Hugo is a young prince living during the Middle Age, he's part of a vampire family and he goes on a quest to search for 5 mystical jewels.
The book is very short, only 126 pages, and still tells a lot of story, no long descriptions or long time passages with no actions - when nothing happens during some time, the author only says "x months or years have gone by", no stolling.
It's a very dinamic book, well written, but very far away from all the "hyped" vampire books.
Actually Hugo, the vampire - Lights at the Dark Ages is the first of a series, so don't expect to hear about the end of every character by the end of the book - many characters are only introduced and barely spoken about, hinting that they'll show up on the future books.
We're introduced to a medieval world, far from the Catholic Church that, despite being a risk to the vampires and influence their decisions, does nothing to help the people, that's left at the mercy of their mean and vengeful rulers. Hugo is a prince who cares for his people, who wishes their respect and not fear, which separates him from his father, Hegon - cruel, cold and violent - and brings him closer to his mother Eglantine, who is also a vampire, but highly instructed and respected by her people.
The book is built around Hugo's search for the jewels while, at the same time, seeking for the approval by his father and his people - two things aparently impossible to happen at the same time. We have a nice mix of battles, moral debates, friendship, love, faith and fidelity.
Don't get fooled by the length of the book (like I did before reading the first page) thinking it would be an easy and quick read - the book is very in-depth, the story is well written and there is no way to use the "skip description paragraphs" trick because there are few of those and they are short and direct!
It's worth reading, it's a brazilian author writing a book from a gender seen not often around here, that are medieval, historical vampires. And I wait, ansious, the sequel!
You can also follow @gaburani on Twitter, he's a very nice guy and he also sells his books signed, although you'd have to read in portuguese heh.
