Vergil Magus: King Without Country

Although he never met Avram Davidson in person, Michael Swanwick has always been a great admirer of his work. When the estate asked him to complete one of Avram’s unfinished stories, he was happy to do so. “Davidson was one of the great prose stylists of science fiction, and it was no easy task emulating him. As I wrote, I could feel Avram’s ghost standing grumpily at my shoulder, making disapproving noises whenever I got it wrong. He had left clues throughout the text, however, pointing the way to the story’s resolution, and I am confident not only that ‘Vergil Magus: King Without Country’ ends the way he intended, but that I have correctly identified and solved each and every clue he planted. Except one. I never did figure out the onions.” Grania Davis, Avram Davidson’s former wife and literary executor, recently finished one of Mr. Davidson’s novellas—The Boss in the Wall (Tachyon Press, May 1998).