"Boss in the Wall" by Avram Davidson and Grania Davis



			The Boss in the Wall by Avram Davidson and Grania Davis

Available as a trade paperback for $12.00
and as a limited edition hardcover for $50.00
Find out how to get a copy on our order information page.

Jacket design and illustration by Michael Dashow

Introductions by Peter S. Beagle and Michael Swanwick.

Grania Davis writes:

I have lived around a lot. I have dwelled in a mountain village in Mexico, on a primitive sandbar in Belize, and on a beach in Hawaii. I have taught in Tibetan refugee settlements in India, and worked as a military historian in neon-lit Tokyo. I have traveled extensively in North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacifica.

My travels have inspired a series of fantasy novels based on the interwoven myths of the orient. The Rainbow Annals is based on Tibetan legends. Moonbird uses Balinese myths. Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty, written in collaboration with Avram Davidson, is set in China.

I have settled down recently, dividing my time with my family in Marin County, California, and on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

I enjoy playing with time and space, but rarely write about other planets - this one is too interesting.


	What a scary story, like a modern Dracula but completely original in its concept and chillingly realistic in its narration. Avram Davidson was one of the finest writers the fantasy field has had, endlessly inventive and uniquely vivid. Grania Davis has completed this work, which he left unfinished, in a way that does him proud. *- Poul Anderson* The Boss in the Wall is a last powerful and major work by a major and powerful author. *- Gregory Benford* It is hard to imagine the genre that could encompass him; it is even more difficult to imagine fantasy or science fiction without him. *- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction* Davidson may be always doomed to be underappreciated, but he remains a true original, and in his own subtle way, one of the greats. *- The St. James Guide to Fantasy* . . . a truly remarkable short novel . . . . . . spectacular imagination and ingenuity . . . unafraid to wander off into more than a little delightfully goulish humor . . . guided by the Saturninely subtle genius of Avram Davidson. I began the review you are reading yesterday afternoon and of course this involved thumbing through the pages of the book as I wrote in order to refresh my memory as to its many horrors and avoid forgetting neatly nasty presentations of this or that appalling notion. Around three o’clock in the morning, long after I went to sleep, a squirrel scuttled across the roof over the bedroom of the charming old house in which I live. The noise woke me and my eyes opened to the sigh of the old open doorway leading to the darkness of the old stairway landing beyond and I must admit that a sudden awesome realization on my part that the darkness itself was old led me to think a little more thoughtfully than I had up until that very moment of the Paper Man, of the Greasy Man, of the Rustler, of the Clicker and Clatterer. So if you do decide to sample the many scary pleasures in this small masterpiece, please be warned: The Boss in the Wall really does bite! —Gahan Wilson in Realms of Fantasy The Boss in the Wall is more than is more than just a posthumous curiosity. Davidson and Davis have devised a story that works as both a chilling horror story and a sly satire of academia. Tachyon Publications, a San Francisco-based small press has done a splendid job of packaging this odd short novel, soliciting introductions from noted fantasists Michael Swanwick and Peter S. Beagle. The Boss in the Wall may whet the appetites of a whole new generation of [Avram Davidson] enthusiasts. —San Francisco Chronicle Book Review . . . very satisfying . . . a chilling story . . . *—The Bookwatch* . . . earns kudos for venturesome publishing . . . Recounted in Davidson’s elliptical, arch, apocryphal manner, this tale extends feelers toward Tim Powers' California ghosts and James Blaylock'ss cranky eccentricities, while always reminding us what a unique species Davidson himself was. —Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine


	Books by Avram Davidson Crimes and Chaos (essays) Or All the Seas with Oysters (1962) collection Joyleg (1962) with Ward Moore And on the Eighth Day (1964) written as Ellery Queen Mutiny in Space (1964) The Fourth Side of the Triangle (1965) written as Ellery Queen What Strange Stars and Skies (1965) collection Rogue Dragon (1965) Rork! (1965) Masters of the Maze (1965) Enemy of the My Enemy (1966) Clash of Star-Kings (1966) The Kar-Chee Reign (1966) The Island Under the Earth (1969) The Phoenix and the Mirror (1969) Peregrine: Primus (1971) Ursus of the Ultima (1973) The Enquiries of Dr. Eszterhazy (1975) collection. Expanded 1991 as The Adventures of Dr. Esterhazy Polly Charms the Sleeping Woman (1977) The Redward Edward Papers (1978) The Best of Avram Davidson (1979) collection Peregrine: Secundus (1981) Collected Fantasies of Avram Davidson (1982) collection And Don't Forget the One Red Rose (1986) collection Vergil in Averno (1987) Marco Polo and Sleeping Beauty (1988) with Grania Davis Adventures in Unhistory: Conjectures on the Factual Foundations of Several Ancient Legends (1993) collection Boss in the Wall (1998) with Grania Davis The Avram Davidson Treasury (1998) recommended The Investigations of Avram Davidson (1999) collection Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven (2000) collection The Other Nineteenth Century (forthcoming) collection Books by Grania Davis: The King and the Mangoes (1975) collection The Proud Peacock and the Mallard (1976) collection Doctor Grass (1978) The Great Perpendicular Path (1980) The Rainbow Annals (1980) Moonbird (1986) Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty (1988) with Avram Davidson Boss in the Wall (1998) with Avram Davidson


	News The Boss in the Wall has made the final Nebula ballot. This is the tenth nomination for Avram Davidson and the first for Grania Davis. The Nebula Awards, which began in 1965, are given by the Science Fiction Writers of America. The award-winners will be announced later this year in Pittsburgh.

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Last updated July 9, 2001.
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