The Jewels of Aptor

A story of four companions working together to rescure a captive and recover jewels of great power. The basic tale is layered with explorations of human nature, motivations, duality, the corruption of power, and fantastic transformations.

The dialog is clumsy and awward, there are repeated intrustions of poetry which barekly connect with the ongoing story except to add a puzzle-like quality to the plot. So many disparate details and events are introduced that a lot is simply touched on and passed by, as if this were only the first exploration of the world.

It is, at best, an intrroduction to Samuel R. Delaney as a young writer, which will provide the curious with a starting point to better understand his evolution into a giant of the genre.