At the command of the goddess Argo, the poet Geo and his companions Urson, Snake, and Iimmi travel to the island of Aptor to steal a powerful jewel from the god Hama. They contend with monsters, mystery, and the ruins of an earlier age-but their quest is not what it seems.

The Jewels of Aptor is Samuel R. Delany's first published novel, written when he was a teenager. In it we see many of the concerns that occupied him in later work: language, poetry, myth, perception, and tensions between worldviews, wrapped in gorgeously poetic prose.

A lush, strange, and swiftly moving adventure, The Jewels of Aptor is a remarkable debut that blends pulp quest storytelling with a poet's eye for language and myth.

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