Stated first printing, dated: 3rd printing over all, with two previous issued in the United Kingdom. Tight, flat, square book with toned pages, tide stains. In the Great Hall of the capital city called Festival, the magic ritual of Soundcheck prepares the ancient loudspeakers for tonight's Celebration. It is the distant future, when all that remains of the ancient ways is a collection of sacred black discs which contain the words and music of the great prophets who lived before the disaster: Dhillon, Djeggar, and Morrizen, the fabled lizard-king. But in the hills and valleys surrounding Festival, a threat builds. An outlaw army, wasted by spirits and speeding on 'crystal,' works its way toward the dying city, raping and pillaging, gathering strength and weapons as it goes. In Festival, the population continues its preparations for the Celebration, unknowing, unsuspecting... In his first novel, Mick Farren, a leading writer in the underground press, combines the color and excitement of the finest fantasy writing with his own keen vision of a time to come when the Counterculture of today ascends to a whacked-out, chemical-crazed pre-eminence.