Bibliography Entry: The Jewels of Aptor
The Jewels of Aptor
Editions
Brain-dead publishing hack summary:
"A poet, a thief and a bear-like giant follow a triple
goddess in search of gems of unimaginable power, to a ruined land
ruled by monsters." (Bantam 1982)
What the book is actually about:
Like most of Delany's early work, this book is prototypical
post-nuclear adventure fiction. Three characters, all archetypal
adventure heroes of one variety or another (the sailor with a dark
past, the post-adolescent adept, the spunky, spoiled prodigy) travel
across a decayed and ravaged North America on a quest to reclaim
religious artifacts of great power. Delany's fondness for
self-sufficient female characters expresses itself in several
different ways in this book, as well as his fondness for improbably
contemporary-sounding dialogue. By the end of the book, plot has been
rendered more or less irrelevant, and the characters are likeable and
recognizable as the sorts of people that Delany was probably hanging
around at this point in his life. A fun book, but not particularly an
essential part of the Delany canon.
Last updated: Jan 9, 1998 at 14:57
Forrest L Norvell