Damiano

I think the reason Roberta MacAvoy's fantasies are not better known is that they are so hard to classify. Is the Damiano trilogy an alternate history of a time when the pope was exiled in Avignon, and the Black Death and the condottiere made life miserable, brutish, and short for almost everyone else? Is it the story of a witch who wanted to be a musician, and his little talking dog? Is it the tale of a struggle between two brothers, who happen to be the Seraph, Raphael and Lucifer, Prince of Darkness?MacAvoy has a way of bringing me into every scene, using precise language and memorable detail:"His mind was flooded with the memory of this very pasture in the green of summer, when his father would treat the sheep with tar poultices and incantation. Grass up to his half-grown knees, except where the flocks had cropped it. It had been cool then, in the mountains, but pleasant. Sheep's milk. Napping at midday, surrounded by curious, odorous, half-grown lambs."I wish MacAvoy hadn't killed off my favorite characters, one by one, but it is a tribute to the power of her writing that I kept reading, anyway. I was hooked. I had to know how her trilogy ended.If history is fair to fantasy authors, Damanio and his lute and his little, talking dog will outlast all of the overblown 'ologies' of Brooks, Goodkind, and Stephen King.

I'm happy there are so many wonderful reviews, but surprised that one aspect of these 3 books (published together in this omnibus edition) has not been mentioned yet: Besides enjoying a superior (gently humorous and delightfully vivid) fantasy, you will also be rendered teary at the sad scenes. Until I read these books I didn't think it was possible, outside of a Victorian novel (or William Maxwell's short story, "Thistles in Sweden"), to find oneself wiping away beautifully sad tears. Another bit of clarification: If you can't stand "Wardour Street" medieval fantasies, this isn't one. It's altogether wonderful. Read it, read it, read it!

Macavoy's Damiano trilogy is rare in that she maintains the suspense and the interesting characters through all three books. It is one story which I find myself thinking about again and again. The ideas about God and life which Damiano considers on his journey come back to me in my own journey. I wish she would write more.

Its a historical, realistic fantasy that takes place in Northern Italy, Provencal France, and Moorish Spain in the thirteenth century at the tail end of one of the Bubonic plagues. For 600+ pages, with Damiano, Saara, and Raphael, I ate, slept, journeyed, witched, and loved, and also fought with Satan, while safely ensconced on my livingroom couch. Every sentence in all three books is a perfect little facet on this beautiful gem of a medieval epic about good vs. evil. My two regrets are that I bought the trilogy a decade ago but didn't read it until this week, and that it was not 1000 pages longer. It seems R.A. MacAvoy's books are out of print so Northern California used book stores beware: I'm on my way over to beg, borrow, or steal the rest of her stories. I must have them and you must also.

MacAvoy is a master of language and storytelling, and deftly manages the difficult question of intention vs. result in Christian beliefs. Her characters are vivid and endearing, and I have never read a book that consistently affected me so emotionally, no matter how many times I read it.