AN APPRECIATION
Avram Davidson was one of the most eloquent and individuals voices
in science fiction and fantasy, and there were few writers in any literary
genre who could match his wit, his erudition, or the stylish elegance of
his prose. Typical of his range and eclecticism, he may be the only writer
ever to win the Hugo Award, the World Fantasy Award (including the prestigious
Life Achievement Award), and the Edgar Award. Avram was at his best at
short story length, but it is a mistake to dismiss his novels; although
they may not reach quite the level of accomplishment of the best of his
short stories, still contain much that is brilliant, engrossing, and fascinating,
especially the underrated Masters of the Maze, Rork!, Rogue
Dragon, and The Phoenix and the Mirror. (Avram was also an accomplished
essayist, one of the most interesting and flavorfully eccentric to work
in the field since the late Willy Ley, and his typically eclectic series
of non-fiction essays, exploring little known backwaters of folklore and
natural history, have been collected in the book Adventures in Unhistory.)
Unlike many Grandmasters at the end of their days, Avram's recent work
was as strong or stronger than ever, and his series of stories about the
bizarre exploits of Dr. Engelbert Eszterhazy (collected in the World Fantasy
Award-winning The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy and the strange
adventures of Jack Limekiller (as yet uncollected, alas) must rank among
the best short fantasies written by anyone in the last ten or 15 years.
Avram was not always an easy man to work with, but I was one of the
editors who thought that his stories were worth every bit of the aggravation
you sometimes had to put up with in order to obtain them -- at his best,
he may have been one of the great short story writers of our times, and
he was certainly one of the Uniques, an absolutely individual voice and
perspective and mind; nobody other than Avram could possibly have written
any of Avram's stories, nor could you have possibly mistaken a line of
Avram's prose for the prose of any other writer, and that's something rare
and valuable in a day when some people are trying to force fiction to be
as bland and interchangeable and ãmarketableä as possible. Avram fit no
molds, and can not be replaced. He will be missed. The only comfort we
can take from his death is that his work survives, and will be there
to speak to us in that unique, instantly recognizable, quirky, intensely
flavored voice every time we open the page and read.
-- Gardner Dozois
Originally published in Locus magazine, June 1993.
Reprinted with permission.
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