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Loading... The Jewels of Aptor (original 1962; edition 1968)by Samuel R. Delany (Author)
Work InformationThe Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany (1962)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. There's a weird style to a lot of 60s science fiction & fantasy, and this one's got it; maybe it even started it for all I know. It's a blend of psychedelia and philosophy and whimsy that seems really dated to me. I also feel this in Confederacy of Dunces, which was written in 1963, so I guess it was just the way things were then. ( ) Samuel Delany is in my top 5 favorite SF writers - & there's much more to him than that. He might've been around 19 when he wrote this so it's pretty damned precocious but his later writing's so much 'better' that I have to acknowledge this as somewhat 'immature'. Brilliant, but obviously written by someone who has a long way to go. Delany's one of those people who sets just about anybody's stereotypes on their heads by being such a free thinking, strong minded individualist. I remember reading something by him where he discussed liking a Robert Heinlein novel b/c the protaganist isn't revealed as 'black' until very late in the bk - in a casual mention so casual that it establishes this particular fictional future as having gotten past the endless racism that our own time period is so sickeningly mired in. This, as I recall, stimulated his interest in writing SF. & Delany's bks address political issues of race & class & sexuality w/in fictional contexts in ways that few other people have ever had the inspiration to do. Or, at least, didn't until more recently than Delany did. More about that later. I'll probably read everything by him someday & I even recommend reading this one just for thoroughness's sake. Delany's worth it even at his 'worst' - b/c his 'worst' is far more intensely thoughftul than many, many writers' 'best'. I know I’ve read this before – I’ve certainly had the Sphere paperback edition pictured for several decades – so it was probably back in the late 1970s or early 1980s. And having now reread The Jewels of Aptor, nothing pinged any memories. Oh well. A poet and a sailor sign aboard an expedition to rescue the Goddess Argo’s sister from Aptor, a distant continent of horrors and monsters. They are joined by a four-armed boy who is telepathic. Once Geo and Orson and Snake have explored some of Aptor, it’s clear the continent was once technological and suffered an unspecified “atomic” disaster. Quite how this exists alongside a mediaeval style civilisation on Leptor, which is where Geo, Orson and the Goddess Argo are from, is never explained. Perversely, if the book has a flaw, it’s that it has too many explanations. Whenever something happens, Geo and Orson speculate on what it might mean, or what is being planned. Most of the time they’re wrong; most of the time, it reads more like the author is trying to figure out the plot. But for a work by a nineteen-year-old, this is a better novel than by some current authors twice Delany’s age when he wrote it. Yes, it’s an early work, and the plotting is a bit hit and miss, but the beginnings of the language are there, as is the singular approach to the genre. When I think about what Delany has written over the years… He was a genre stalwart and award winner but has since moved out to the edges of genre, and yet has continued to be one of the real innovators in science fiction, both as a writer and a critic, and more people in genre should pay attention to him. no reviews | add a review
When Argo, the White Goddess, orders it, Geo, the itinerant poet, and his three disparate companions journey to the island of Aptor to seize a jewel from the dark god, Hama, and return it to Argo so that she may defeat the malign forces ranged against her and the land of Leptar. But, as the four press deep into the enigmatic heart of Aptor and the easy distinctions between good and evil blur, their mission no longer seems so straightforward. For Argo already controls two of the precious stones, and possession of the third would make her power absolute. And the four friends have learned that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely... No library descriptions found. |
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