Vergil in Averno

Vergil Magus #2

by Avram Davidson

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 bestselling 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 on untold riches and untamed lusts, of orgies and drunken revelries, of madness and human 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.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Novels, Alternate History

100 pages, ebook

First published December 23, 1986

About the author

Avram Davidson was an American Jewish writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genre, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award, and a Queen's Award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Normally, however dark his topic, Avram Davidson writes like a dream. But here it's one of those fretful, feverish nightmares where you never even quite get all the way to sleep, tossing and turning and sweating with the sense of being lost in some dark and tangled labyrinth. Continuing the saga of Vergil not as he was but as the Middle Ages imagined him, this is still rife with the abstruse in-jokes and strange Latinate sentence structures one would expect, but as against the dappled Mediterranean light of The Phoenix and the Mirror, the atmosphere here is filth, rubble and stink. Averno, the Very Rich City, is made wealthy by its forges, which are themselves made possible by the volcanic activity which leads other cities to think it an outpost of Hell. And they're not far wrong - it's grimy, unhealthy, devoid of culture or charm. To some extent the book reads as a critique of industrial capitalism at its ugliest, but where some writers are naturals at the requisite savagery, here you just feel it's saddening the writer as much as the reader. And I'm made more uneasy still by having read two books in a row which hinge on catastrophic volcanism; there have been more than enough natural disasters lately without that proving prophetic.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still loved Davidson's rich prose, but I felt more detached from the story and characters (even Vergil) in this book than in The Phoenix and the Mirror, so I didn't like it quite as much.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vergil in Averno is the second book in Avram Davidson’s trilogy about Vergil Magus. It was published in 1986, 20 years after its predecessor The Phoenix and the Mirror which told how Vergil (yes, that Vergil) created a magic mirror for Queen Cornelia. I enjoyed that book for its interesting period details and the appealing humor. You don’t need to read The Phoenix and the Mirror to understand Vergil in Averno. This story can stand alone.

In Vergil in Averno, Vergil travels to (surprise!) Averno, a region in Italy where volcanic activity has created a toxic lake and boiling water travels just below the surface of the earth. (Early Romans thought Averno was a gate to Hell and ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first one, I found it interesting and different. This one, though, I'm just finding sloggy. I have a few basic requests when I'm reading a book: unless it's some kind of twist, I generally like knowing (a) what the story might be about, (b) who the main character is, what makes them tick, what do they want from life, (c) what's going on right now, and (d) where are they? And, at least for the first 50 pages, I felt that I only got about 22% of the answers I was expecting.

Sometimes I'm willing to play along (i.e. when it's Gene Wolfe, and even then only sometimes) because the magic of the story might be getting those answers. But in this case it just felt like lazy writing, as if the author knew what/who they were writing about, but forgot to put it on the page for us. And since life is short but my bookcases are full of unread works, I'm moving on (I recently sorted my "Want to Read" in order of priority, which I carefully, one-by-one, decided for myself, and it's almost as much fun as actually reading them. Next up is Augustus Carp).

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book is infinitely better, but no matter how easily distractible the narrative voice of this book is, it’s still a joy to bask in it again, perhaps even more witty this time around. Vergil’s rampant memory problems kinda drove me crazy after a while, but meh, the book was short enough to shoot past that.

[Sineala · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sequel to The Phoenix and the Mirror, concerning the further adventures of Vergil as a magician. I was really hoping that the title would mean that he went to hell in this book, but, alas, it's really only a metaphorical hell -- it turns out that Averno is a city. A very rich, very corrupt city.

That is pretty much all I can tell you about this book.

Yes, I read the whole book. I have absolutely no idea what happened. It's a very pretty book, much like the previous book in the series; Davidson's use of language is gorgeous. But it's really hard to figure out what's going on. There's a lot of dreams and prophecies and visions of things that haven't happened yet in the novel, or happened earlier, and reality as a whole seems very malleable. It's confusing. Maybe that's the point. I don't know.

So I liked it, but not as much as the first book -- the first book was a little easier to follow -- and I will still read the third one, because why not? I still think a series about Vergil the magician is a nifty idea, so I'm still reading. But I just wish there was a little more clarity here.

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vergil in Averno is the second book in Avram Davidson’s trilogy about Vergil Magus. It was published in 1986, 20 years after its predecessor The Phoenix and the Mirror which told how Vergil (yes, that Vergil) created a magic mirror for Queen Cornelia. I enjoyed that book for its interesting period details and the appealing humor. You don’t need to read The Phoenix and the Mirror to understand Vergil in Averno. This story can stand alone.

In Vergil in Averno, Vergil travels to (surprise!) Averno, a region in Italy where volcanic activity has created a toxic lake and boiling water travels just below the surface of the earth. (Early Romans thought Averno was a gate to Hell and ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[egelantier · Rating 3 out of 5]

a sequel to a phoenix and the mirror, which i picked mostly to see how davidson will cope to add a woman (vergil marries in the end of the previous book) to the universe. turned out, no how, since the book is a prequel, dealing with young vergil's rise to power and a problem of horrible stinking city of averno he tries to deal with. even less plot or coherency than in a phoenix and a mirror, and the subject matter and setting are much more unpleasant, but there was still a certain appeal in the labyrinth of references, dreams, philosophical passage, sly allusions and alchemical procedures described.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 2 in the Virgil series. Avram Davidson's Virgil series had all the potential of Zelazny's Amber series, Or Steven Brust's Vlad series, in my opinion, but never really got traction. Virgil seems like a scientist, or a scholar, until you see his magical abilities. And, as he's willing to explore and experience different things, sometimes the descriptions are of altered states, which make it hard to follow, but well worth the trip. If only he'd lived long enough to write more! I didn't discover him until after his death, and have spent time in used bookstores (back when that was the way to find used books!) looking for his works.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Davidson is acclaimed mainly as a short story writer, but he could excel at longer fiction, too. This is my favorite by him of what I've read. Wonderful and unique use of language, a splendidly realized setting, and a good story.

[Caleb Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great odd fantasy. Davidson writes of Vergil using the Medieval impression of him, as a magus more than a poet. In fact Davidson's Rome (actually the land around it) is all seen through the misunderstandings of the Medieval period, though all written in his own unmistakeable voice.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 ! '

[Brian Wilkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but drifts and can get too languid.

[Denise Rawling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual, sometimes irritating but strangely mesmerising. Only my second Davidson after the much loved Rork! But won’t be my last.

My second read confirms the first - still strangely enjoyable.