Deus Irae

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, Tibor McMasters, is commissioned 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 noteworthy. Deus Irae is no disappointment: unpredictable, humorous, readable and wildly inventive, it is a highly successful marriage of two remarkable talents.