DEUS IRAE (with Roger Zelazny)
Back Covers
1977 Dell edition
On their own they have written landmark works that have added whole new dimension of wonder to the field of science fiction. Now, in Deus Irae, they have created that ALA Booklist calls "themost successful collaboration in years!" — set in a bizzare world where you will encounter...
–A bunch of backwoods farmers who happen to be lizards...
–A tribe of foul-mouthed giant bugs who worship a dead VW sedan...
–An automated factory that can't decide whether to serve its customers — or kill them
Across this nightmare landscape-pursued by an avenging angel on a bicycle-one man makes a painful pilgrimage in search of the one who changed the world so drastically-the legendary, but very real, God of Wrath...
1983 Daw edition
DEUS IRAE
Set in a bizarre future America, you will encounter:
–A bunch of backwoods farmers who happen to be lizards...
–A tribe of foul-mouthed giant bugs who worship a dead VW sedan...
–An automated factory that can't decide whether to serve its customers-or kill them
Across this nightmare landscape-pursued by an avenging angel on a bicycle-one man makes a painful pilgrimage in search of the one who changed the world so drastically-the legendary, but very real, God of Wrath...
2003 Vintage edition
In the years following World War III, a new and powerful faith has arisen from a scorched and poisoned Earth, a faith that embraces the architect of world wide devastation. The Servants of Wrath have deified Carlton Lufteufel and re-christened him the Deus Irae. In the small community of Charlottesville, Utah, Tibor McMasters, born without arms or legs, has, through an array of prostheses, established a far-reaching reputation as an inspired painter. When the new church commissions a grand mural depicting the Deus Irae, it falls upon Tibor to make a treacherous journey to find the man, to find the god, and capture his terrible visage for posterity.
1978 UK SFBC edition
DEUSIRAE
Deus Irae takes us into an America devastated by World War III in which Carl Lufteufel, the man who detonated the ultimate weapon of that conflict - thereby killing over a billion people - is worshipped as the Deus Irae, the God of Wrath. A .limbless artist, Tiber McMaster, is com. missioned by his church to paint a mural of the God of Wrath; but first he has to set out on a journey to find Lufteufel, so that the likeness will be exact. Towed in a cart by his faithful Holstein cow, armed with a Polaroid camera for the fateful encounter, he embarks on his unlikely pilgrimage. His travels take him through a weird, shattered countryside in which he encounters monsters and mutations, talking animals and malfunctioning (and sometimes malevolent) ancient machines. And when he finally reaches the end of his quest, what he finds is not at all what he had expected. Philip K Dick and Roger Zelazny are tWo of the most original modern sf writers, so it is to be expected that their first collaboration should be unusual and note. worthy. Deus Irae is no disappointment: unpredictable, humorous, readable and wildly inventive, it is a highly successful marriage of two remarkable talents.
1999 Sphere edition
AFTER THE HOLOCAUST A NEW GOD EMERGES. . . What chance has Tibor McMasters – one limbless heretic – against the awesome powers of the legendary Deus Irae, the wrathful entity behind World War III? Commissioned to paint the deity's likeness, Tibor must first find him. And to do so he must travel across the nightmare landscape of the post-holocaust world, braving its terrifying mutations while his Christian companion acts on orders to sabotage his mission...