Robert Psyck

A Junkie on Mars Robert Psyck

Originally penned in 1976--just a few years before its author's untimely death--"A Junkie on Mars" is cult writer Robert Psyck at his most feverish. In the bleak and distant future of 1996, cover musician Ziggy Floyd spends his nights in dive bars, serenading the disaffected colonists of Mars. He also pushes an illicit hallucinogen known as Tar-D, which immerses users in vivid memories of a better time. The drug is the creation of Ziggy's "uncle" Doc Katzka, a fugitive in exile from Earth--though so fried is Doc's brain that he can't recall what exactly he did to be exiled. Perhaps he can ask these armed police who've just kicked down his door. Now he and Ziggy must scramble to stay one step ahead of the police state--and it probably won't help that Ziggy has just been exposed to a concentrated dose of Tar-D. As the line between hallucination and reality becomes increasingly blurred, Psyck interrogates our faith in our memories, our penchant for nostalgia, and the very meaning of truth, all with characteristic verve, wit, and a healthy dose of paranoia. The rediscovery of this lost novel brings with it new and uncanny mysteries about the life and work of its late author. A foreword and notes by editor Robert Malone examine the legacy of the most influential science-fiction writer nobody's ever heard of.