/lit/ - Literature

I thought I would share with you this engrossing SF book from 1985, one of those where several disparate plots and people converge in one place by the end.

In post-apocalyptic 22nd century America, the wandering protagonist has Lovecraftian visions of beautiful alien planets - he falls in with a group of murderous scavengers, whose likeable ringleader treats him like a lucky charm. They travel towards San Francisco to escape radioactive dust.

Near SF, patients at a psychiatric home, who are rehabilitated by a process of memory wiping, begin to have the same vision, along with the staff.

Meanwhile, a Dionysian cult marches from Brazil Northwards, along the West Coast, promising to meet the alien gods.

It's a mix of Lovecraftian flourishes, religious allegory, Mad Max, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Very new age. Long, but one one Silverberg's better books.