Customer Reviews

Limekiller

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This book is fantasy of the type sometimes sub-categorized as "magic realism." Jack Limekiller is a former Canadian, who has moved to the small country of British Hidalgo in Central America for a change of scene (to a scene that involves no snow). He stars in a series of short stories that were written between 1976 and 1993. The best part of all of these stories is the atmosphere, the way that Davidson catches the dialect of the people and the feeling of the land, down to the heat and wind and mosquitoes. Davidson himself lived in the country that would become Belize for quite some time, so truly knows whereof he speaks.

These stories barely have plots, and what plots they do have mostly involve ghost stories of some nature. However there isn't much sense of horror or mortal peril. They are almost treated as everyday or only slightly out-of-the-ordinary occurances. They seem incidental somehow to the overall flow of the stories, which deal with Limekiller trying to make a living and get some loving.

The writing style of the stories can best be described as stream-of-consciousness, which I personally can only take in small doses. And if you have trouble reading patois, that might cause you some trouble. However, the stories and the characters really grew on me over time. I found all the stories interesting, and I also enjoyed the inclusion of some non-fiction that Davidson wrote about Belize from when he lived there. The introductory material was informative, but was the hardest part of the whole book to slog through (introductions by Grania Davis, Lucius Shepard and Peter S. Beagle) and you can skip them if you'd like.

Overall, this is not the sort of thing that I usually read, but I really came to enjoy it.

I've been wanting these stories collected for DECADES; I've long since worn out the magazines they were first printed in.

An easygoing young man takes his boat down the fictional West Indies isles of British Hidalgo, where he encounters mysteries and terrors whose visible aspects also echo or hint at more superatural meanings. I can't convey how much sheer FUN these are; joyous travelogues and character studies, well plotted, and gorgeous with local dialects and all.

I can never decide which is my favorite Avram Davidson series; these, or the Dr. Eszterhazy stories (similarly half-real mysteries in the imaginary Ruritanian empire of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania).

These great stories were written in the 1970s-1980s but uncollected until now. Great glimpse of a country that sounds fictional but is absolutely real. Not a clinker in the bunch. I've spent years waiting for this book and it was worth it. Now if only someone would reprint Crimes & Chaos I'd be a happy man!

Avram Davidson was an idiosyncratic story teller (Fritz Leiber and Isak Dinesen also come to mind) with a particular genius for capturing a special place and time and fixing it, living, in the realm of the imagination. The Limekiller stories are definitely genre fiction yet they don't fit any tidy category. They aren't exactly fantasy or horror as much as a heightened realism which can only exist where cultures overlap, where land and sea overlap. Supernatural/folkloric elements -representing maybe the inexhaustible wonders of the wide world- lurk in a vivid but mostly mundane colonial tropical paradise where the living is often easy & always uncertain.

Enter Jack Limekiller, a Canadian expatriate seeking adventure, love, his next meal, seeking, let's say, to live as he chooses. A characteristic plot device involves a peculiar phrase heard and overheard -and misunderstood- in various patois until the awful truth literally leaps out; the consequences of which are both horrifying and amusing.

The Old Earth Edition is well made. It includes brief reminiscences by the late author, his former wife and their son. A trivial complaint- the stories are slightly out of order. I'd recommend reading them chronologically.

I have waited for the collected Limekiller stories for years. They are all I hoped for - simply superb (three new to me - ahh bliss!!)

Avram is one of the greats of our time - unqualified!

This or any other of Avram's collections of short stories? ... seize them, ... seize them all!! ... and enjoy ..... enjoy.

And, if you are lucky enough to find any out-of-print works, let me know - I deserve them more than you!!!