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He was a master in arts magical, but not yet Incantor et Magus. Now Vergil Magus, the powerful sorcerer-poet, returns in the long-awaited prequel to Avram Davidson's best-selling novel of fable and magic, The Phoenix and the Mirror. Here, Vergil's extraordinary adventures begin as he journeys into the hideous heart of evil and darkness.... Enter the very rich city of Averno and discover a place of untold riches and untamed lusts, of orgies and drunken revelries, of madness and human show more corruption. Here is a decaying metropolis of wizards and warlocks, where old crones spin webs of cruelty and deceit, and hell lurks in a labyrinth of underworld caves. Vergil has come to Averno to uncover the secret of its eternal fires, the very center of its wealth and prominence. But as he explores the inner sancta of this ancient and heartless inferno, he finds, too, the fiery bed of Poppaea, the beautiful wife of the city's most influential Magnates. With this forbidden pleasure comes forbidden knowledge, and Vergil is drawn into a web of intrigue that threatens to turn the terrible power of Averno against him. For centuries, the lords of the city have thrived on the bloody sacrifice of their own people. Now they are determined to add one more name to the scrolls of Averno's dead...and to cast Vergil, now an outlaw, into the burning pits of the dying empire. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Just more of Davidson's wonderfully meandering sentences and wonderfully meandering plot, both of which snap into sense and focus with dazzling intellectual and linguistic dexterity. Vergil is drawn to Averno, a very rich and uniquely horrible city, but who has drawn him there and why? If not already familiar, worth quickly looking up 'Averno' when finished for a sense of how much of a satisfying medieval just-so legend this really is.
Dense, dark, dismal and almost opaque. Don't give up on Davidson after bouncing off this one. For Vergil fanatics, though, there's a lot of really interesting stuff in here. Just be prepared to fight for it.
Not as good as Phoenix and Mirror of course. Hard to read. More fun vocabulary. And fun stuff like ' the digit of infamy ' and ' the black weasel ! '
Not as good as Phoenix and Mirror of course. Hard to read. More fun vocabulary. And fun stuff like ' the digit of infamy ' and ' the black weasel ! '
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182+ Works 5,678 Members
Avram Davidson was one of the great masters of short fiction of the twentieth century, a writer who won the major awards in the science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery genres -- the Hugo, Edgar, and World Fantasy Awards -- while constantly pushing at the boundaries of those genres. He published seventeen novels and wrote more than 200 stories and show more essays during his lifetime show less
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Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Vergil in Averno
- Original publication date
- 1987
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 78
- Popularity
- 404,798
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 3
