The Avram Davidson Universe

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Virgil and Bob discuss The House the Blakeneys Built with their friends:  Jake from Pulp Mortem: https://www.youtube.com/ @ PulpMortem Tim from Secret Fire Books: https://www.youtube.com/  ⁨@secretfirebooks7894⁩  Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (January 1965).   If you'd like a refresher before listening, check out our st...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Virgil and Bob discuss Sacheverell , originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , March 1964. If you want a refresher, you can listen to the story and our conversation with Ryan Sprinkle. https://youtu.be/NzyRt4Z3Zbo?si=5s39FQGpHyx2h5gv  Episode Summary: Virgil and Bob dive into one of Avram Davidson’s wonderfully strange and darkly funny...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Virgil and Bob discuss The Hills Behind Hollywood High, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April 1983), written by Grania Davis and Avram Davidson.  If you want a refresher, you can listen to the story and our conversation with Scott Bradfield: thttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUY9iRDtaIk  Episode Summary: What happens when old...

Send us Fan Mail The second half of our discussion looks at the deeper questions raised by “The Bloody Man” —faith, authority, cultural memory, and moral obligation. We examine how Davidson resists simple answers, allowing ambiguity and consequence to carry the weight of the story. #AvramDavidson  #JackLimekiller  #TheBloodyMan  #MythAndMeaning  #LiterarySpeculation  #ClassicWeirdFiction

Send us Fan Mail In the first half of our discussion of “The Bloody Man,” we focus on atmosphere, language, and the unsettling calm that defines Limekiller’s world. From social tensions to the weight of rumor and belief, this episode explores how Davidson builds meaning through voice and setting rather than exposition. #TheBloodyMan #AvramDavidson #JackLimekiller #WeirdTales #LiteraryAnalysis #Spe...

Send us Fan Mail Virgil and Bob introduce Jack Limekiller through the lens of Lucius Shepard’s remarkable introduction—part literary appreciation, part personal reflection. This conversation explores Limekiller as character, avatar, and aspiration, and reflects on Avram Davidson’s relationship to place, voice, and imagination. #LuciusShepard  #AvramDavidson #JackLimekiller  #LiteraryIntroductions ...

Send us Fan Mail Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction (June 1986), “ The Bloody Man ” introduces Jack Limekiller—a restless, observant outsider navigating a place where history, folklore, and uneasy truths overlap. In this episode, we set the stage for Avram Davidson’s singular voice, its rhythms, humor, and moral complexity, and the world Limekiller inhabits. #AvramDavidson  #JackLime...

Send us Fan Mail Chapters 17–20 bring everything to a rolling boil, as power changes hands, jobs vanish, pressure mounts, and the town’s many moving parts drift toward the same crowded moment. Avram Davidson balances tragedy, farce, and dark humor with astonishing ease—moving from private grief to public spectacle without ever tipping his hand. Old loyalties surface, institutions close ranks, and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Virgil and Bob discuss “The King’s Shadow Has No Limits,” unpacking Davidson’s portrayal of empire in decline and the quiet, unsettling ways power manifests among the poor, the faithful, and the forgotten. They explore the story’s historical texture, its use of religious ritual and civic tradition, and the unsettling ambiguity at its core. The conversation touches...

Send us Fan Mail Chapters 12–16 widen the lens, moving from the streets and sewers of Yokums into offices, courtrooms, newsrooms, and living rooms where everyone has an opinion and nobody has a clear answer. The mystery grows more elaborate, but Avram Davidson keeps it human—showing how power talks past itself, institutions protect themselves, and ordinary people quietly carry the weight of all th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we listen to “The King’s Shadow Has No Limits” by Avram Davidson, originally published in Whispers #8 (December 1975). Set in a fading, multi-ethnic empire straining under age, tradition, and unrest, the story follows Dr. Eszterhazy, a learned observer moving through the city and witnessing moments of labor, devotion, and poverty that quietly echo the fate of the...

Send us Fan Mail Chapters 9–11 deal with the morning after—when consequences arrive wearing sensible shoes and asking pointed questions. The town of Yokums sobers up just enough for authority, ambition, and self-preservation to reassert themselves, though not always in the order you’d expect. Avram Davidson is at his sharpest here, letting irony do the heavy lifting as plans unravel, alliances shi...

Send us Fan Mail Chapters 6–8 kick the door open on pure, gleeful chaos as Yokums stumbles into an impossible discovery that turns an ordinary workday into a civic fairy tale. The town reacts exactly as you’d expect during hard times: with wonder, hustle, disbelief, and a very practical approach to joy. Avram Davidson leans hard into his gift for turning civic minutiae, oddball characters, and mor...

Send us Fan Mail Chapters 3–5 plunge us deeper into Yokums, where politics, ethnicity, morality, and money collide with the steady thrum of everyday life. We meet larger-than-life civic figures, reformers who truly believe they’re saving souls, and working stiffs just trying to get through the week without losing their jobs—or their dignity. Avram Davidson’s voice shines here: wry, generous, and s...

Send us Fan Mail The opening chapters of BEER! BEER! BEER! drop us into a Depression-era New Jersey town that feels loud, crowded, funny, and just a little bruised, seen mostly through the wandering eyes of a sharp, restless kid. Chapter One is a street-level ramble full of smells, characters, rules, and small humiliations, where “go home” becomes a kind of local anthem. Chapter Two zooms out to C...

Send us Fan Mail In this special holiday episode of the Avram Davidson Universe, Virgil & Bob turn the season of giving into a season of reading by hand-picking the perfect Avram Davidson books for friends, creators, family, and fellow weird-fiction travelers. From occult detectives and haunted walls to eccentric wizards and classic science fiction, we match stories to readers with joyful enth...

Send us Fan Mail Virgil & Bob revisit the hilarious “Milord Sir Smiht, the English Wizard,” as collected in The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy (1975). In this episode of The Avram Davidson Universe Podcast , they return to Bella’s Court of the Golden Hart, where an English “wizard,” a roomful of snuff, and some very dubious odyllic forces somehow add up to one of Davidson’s strangest comic inv...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Avram Davidson Universe Podcast , Virgil & Bob try to figure out what the HELL is going on in “The Church of Saint Satan and Pandaemons,” originally published in Fantastic (December 1975) and later collected in The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy and The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy . This one left them baffled, amused, and occasionally questioning the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Avram Davidson Universe Podcast , we present “The Church of Saint Satan and Pandaemons,” originally published in Fantastic (December 1975) and later collected in The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy and The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy . In the next episode, Virgil and Bob will try to unravel what this story is really about — and they may need a little help...

Send us Fan Mail Join Bob and Virgil for an in-depth conversation about Avram Davidson’s unique storytelling. They discuss “The Old Woman Who Lived with a Bear” (from The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy, 1975).  They explore: The strange blend of folklore, satire, and legal reasoning in the Triune Monarchy, Eszterhazy’s role as a rational observer in a world full of myth and superstition, The story...

Send us Fan Mail Step into the Triune Monarchy with Avram Davidson’s unforgettable story “The Old Woman Who Lived with a Bear” (from The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy, 1975).   This professional narration brings to life the wit, mystery, and folkloric strangeness of Dr. Engelbert Eszterhazy’s world — where Gothic traditions, superstition, and rational inquiry intertwine.  Whether you’re a longtim...

Send us Fan Mail  Avram Davidson (himself) warms up for a lecture and pulls you aboard a lateen-rigged dhow to ask the irresistible question: where, exactly, did Sinbad sail—Borneo, Sumatra, Serendib, even Madagascar—or only through our imaginations?   Show notes:  • Paul Bunyan vs. Sinbad: why tall tales can still point to real shores  • Baghdad’s golden age, Harun al-Rashid, and merchants’ cargo...

Send us Fan Mail  Bob and Virgil unpack Avram’s clues—dhows, monsoons, Borneo and Sumatra, Sri Lanka’s dagobas, Madagascar’s giant eggs—and debate how far a fable can take you toward the truth.  • Reading the text like a chart: Kabil/Kasil → Borneo?  • Sumatra’s “island of apes,” ears to the shoulders, and traveler’s overlap with the Odyssey  • The roc vs. Aepyornis: why giant birds matter even wh...

Send us Fan Mail  A polished, front-to-back performance by David Pickering of Avram Davidson’s masterwork on Sinbad: a lyrical, scholarly, and funny voyage that charts the blurred edge where sailors’ yarns become maps.   • From Baghdad to Basra and out across monsoon routes  • Kabil/Kasil and the “drums” of hollow rocks; giants with barge-long ears  • Diamond valleys, sea-horses, and why travelers...

Send us Fan Mail Adventures in Unhistory is a literary journey into the strange, the mythical, and the half-forgotten—led by the genius of Avram Davidson and explored by Bob & Virgil. Each episode dives into Davidson’s witty and erudite examinations of myths and legends: mermaids, dragons, werewolves, unicorns, the phoenix, Sinbad, Prester John, Aleister Crowley, and more. Davidson’s essays, a...