Review of 'The Jewels of Aptor: A Science Fantasy Novel / Captives of the Flame: A Science Fantasy Novel (Wildside Double #30)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This short novel/long novella is a solid piece of Delany juvenilia. It fits into the pulp scifi of the fantastical sort like John Carter of Mars and similar, but it's a little bit more high-concept in places. Those are actually the weak parts, because I guess Delany hadn't really gotten the hang of how to communicate his weird ideas yet. The action adventure parts are lots of fun. I would have loved to read a whole book about the prince among the forest people, but unfortunately that's not what the story focuses on.
You can get this book for free at Project Gutenberg because it's gone out of copyright. It's definitely worth reading if you like classic pulp scifi.