Meet five national authors who have ventured into this genre
A complicated year like 2020 it is approaching the end, and because it was a year that a pandemic took over the world, many people were quarantined, and in Brazil it was no different. The habit of reading gained strength during this period, among the most outstanding genres is fantasy, that stirs our imagination and takes us to another universe, serving as an escape.
When we talk about fantasy or fantastic literature, some works like Harry Potter already come to mind, the J.K. Rowling e Percy Jackson, de Rick Riordan, which are sagas very worshiped by young people both in literature and in cinema.
But did you know that these two works belong to a very specific type of fantasy called "urban fantasy"? After all, what is urban fantasy? This derived genre has a real context in its stories, an urban setting with fantasy elements (mythical beings, Magic, etc) and its impacts on modern society. Briefly, it's a “real fantasy”: Harry and Percy are ordinary kids who live in a city as we know it, but they are always involved with magic and mythical beings.
Now that you already know what an urban fantasy is and aiming at the tense period that we still live, we prepared a list with five national authors and their respective works that ventured into this literary genre.
Telma Brites
A Bahian graduated in Social Sciences and residing in Germany for nineteen years, she is currently a Portuguese teacher at a foreign language school, but her dream was always to be a writer.
In 2016 published by Futurama the Gaia trilogy (“The Wheel of Life”, “The Forgotten Temple” e “The City of Light”), with two published volumes. Telma introduces us to the story of Gaia, a young woman who goes through several common questions from this phase, against the backdrop of elements from Greek mythology. Now the trilogy will win a new edition by Grupo Editorial Coerência and is scheduled to be released in the first edition of FLISP (Literary Festival of São Paulo) in November.
Renata Ventura
The journalist from Rio de Janeiro was dedicated to documentary cinema before literature, produced screenplay and research for the films “Utopia e Barbárie” and “Memory and History of the Student Movement” alongside documentary filmmaker Silvio Tendler.
Published in 2011 by Novo Século his first book “The Scarlet Weapon”, the story takes place in a favela in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the years 90 amid a shooting, where Hugo, local resident, at the age of 13 years discover that he is a wizard. The book soon earned the nickname "Brazilian Harry Potter" by readers and the media, which pleased the author, since she declares herself a fan of the British witch. History won its sequels: Hatter Commission and The Owner of Time (part 1 and 2).
André Vianco
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Osasco paulistano, besides writer, is a screenwriter and film and television director. His real name is André Ferreira da Silva, but he became known under his pseudonym “André Vianco”.
Specialist in vampire stories with strong influences from Anne Rice and Stephen King, is one of the most traditional authors of its kind in Brazil: in 1999 launched "The Seven”, a story about seven 16th century vampires from Portugal who awaken from sleep after their bodies were found by two divers at the end of the 20th century on a sunken ship. The book had the sequence “Seventh”And the trilogy“The Night Shift”, all by Novo Século.
Eric Novello
The Rio de Janeiro resident in São Paulo is already familiar with the lyrics, precisely for working as a translator, editor and screenwriter. He also writes for the portal Aguarrás, dedicating himself to literature area, contemporary cinema and music.
In 2014 launched by Editora Autêntica the novel “Exorcisms, Loves and a Shot of Blues”, under strong influence of noir films, we know the story of the wizard and exorcist Thiago Boanerges, that after a failed exorcism is expelled from a council of magicians, and has the chance to turn his life around after receiving a mission from his former Libertá boss - a kind of steampunk São Paulo - but for that, need to get closer to your old love.
Aline Silvestri
Resident in Portugal for a year, where you take care of the elderly, the paraibana of 29 is an illustrator and has always been passionate about comics and manga, began his career with illustrations and from them his stories emerged, many published on Wattpad.
The author is currently working on launching her first physical books “Angel’s Blood” e “Black Ruby”, that emerged from illustrations - the first tells the story of an angel who falls in love with a human and her angel partner decides to take revenge. Both are under the responsibility of the Editorial Coherence Group and are scheduled to be launched during the first edition of FLISP (Literary Festival of São Paulo) in November.
