"The West African jungle starts to crystallize. Trees are metamorphosed into enormous jewels. Crocodiles encased in second glittering skins lurch down the river. Pythons with huge blind gemstone eyes rear in heraldic poses. Most men flee the area in terror, afraid to face what they cannot understand. But some, dazzled and strangely entranced, remain to drift through this dream-world forest. There is a doctor in pursuit of his ex-mistress, an enigmatic Jesuit wields a crystal cross, a gunman searches for his wife, and a tribe of lepers search for Paradise."

• commentary from the back cover of the Triad/Granada edition