It began with an accident, as if Fate had a plan for Vergil Magus…

After his trials in the Very Rich City of Averno but before his crowning achievement of a certain magic mirror, the great sorcerer and alchemist finds himself on a journey nothing short of epic. Sure he is slated for death in Rome, Vergil seeks safety in the far reaches of the Empire — and finds a world teeming with wonders and magical oddities.

The “unhistoric” sea adventure is a deft mix of fantastic fact and fable, showcasing the author’s keen attention to the often forgotten connections between them.

Inspired by the legends of the Dark Ages, is the story of the mighty Vergil — not quit the Vergil of our history books (the poet who penned The Aeneid), but the Vergil conjured by by the medieval imagination: hero, alchemist, and sorcerer extraordinaire.

Hugo Award winner Avram Davidson has mingled fact with fantasy, turned history askew, and come up with a powerful fantasy adventure that is an acknowledged classic of the field.

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).