Deus Irae by Phillip K. Dick and Roger ZelazneyGenre: Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Bob's Thoughts "A Strange book full of interesting ideas and distracting subplots."
Grade: C
Available in Local Bookstores or Libraries.
100 Books 100 Posts (#9)
This book is like one of them superbands. You know the ones, where key members of different bands form a band together. Sometimes, this works out swimmingly, and other times there are moments of greatest bogged done in a whole lot of mess. Unfortunately, for these two greats of science fiction this book is more firmly in the latter category.
Dick's prose dominates this novel, and in the characters you can see a lot of similarities between Tibor, the protagonist here, and Hoppy, the protagonist in Dick's post Nuclear "Dr. Bloodmoney." Both are surly limbless men who rely heavily on technological "contraptions" to live day to day.
I think the book has a solid foundation. The idea of a new religion springing out of the fallen post apocalyptic society that basis it's self on the idea that god is not benevolent. The idea of a "Deus Irae" or "God of Wrath" being humanized as the designer of the Weapons of Mass Destruction that caused the destruction of the world was intriguing, yet, the have developed subplots of mutants and strange machines seemed like ridiculous ideas, just thrown in to flavor the overall pot, but offering little to give the book substance.
Overall, I found the book fascinating of an "idea" level, but lacking on the execution side.
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