The Jewels of Aptor
Delany, Samuel R.
Sold by Downtown Brown Books, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Association Member:
AbeBooks Seller since 3 May 2019
Used - Hardcover
Condition: Used - Fine
Ships within U.S.A.
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketSold by Downtown Brown Books, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Association Member:
AbeBooks Seller since 3 May 2019
Condition: Used - Fine
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketThe first hardcover edition of the author's first book, published as an Ace Double about the time he turned 20. This edition follows the second American edition, based on Delany's original manuscript, which was about 30% longer than the first edition. In 1976, the Gregg Press published Delany's preferred text. 189, [3:blank] pages. First hardcover edition, first printing (with no indication of later printings). A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with a £1.25 price sticker over the original 25/- printed price. The price probably dates to 1971, when the UK switched to decimal currency. The two prices are the same otherwise. This copy is inscribed to David Hartwell, an editor at Gregg Press. Hartwell's private press also published Delany. Hartwell later edited Delany's Hugo Award-winning memoir, The Motion of Light in Water. A nice association copy. "Best to David Hartwell- -from Samuel R. Delany. n.y.c. 79.".
Seller Inventory # 46219
Delany's stylish narrative serves up a mass of familiar science-fantasy props with a flair that makes them seem fresh. Long after nuclear holocaust, the rebuilding has got as far as wooden sailing ships. Mysterious fragments of old technology remain. Deadly radioactive zones spawn mutants and monsters with odd talents. "Good" and "evil" religions clash, even though the litanies of bright goddess Argo and dark god Hamaare are very nearly the same. Serving Argo, our heroes sail from civilized Leptar to the loathed, feared island of Aptor to seek the last of Hama's three mind-amplifying Jewels, weapons ultimately too dreadful to use.
Despite some youthful clumsiness, the flash and dazzle of the storytelling established Delany as a writer to watch. He goes beyond the usual homilies about misuse of power to examine distortion of religious feeling, and how a genuinely transcendent insight (as experienced by the worst villain here) can twist into evil. The living incarnation of Hama is not as expected, while devout Argo-worshippers may also be monstrous shapeshifters: "The nature of the Goddess is change ..."
The Jewels of Aptor is thoughtful, exciting, occasionally comic, and promises remarkable things to follow. Delany has amply fulfilled that promise. --David Langford
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