Radio Free Albemuth [Hardcover]

Philip K. Dick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1985

A preliminary to Dick's masterwork, Valis, in which Phil appears as an explicitly named autobiographical character for the first time. Soon to be a major new film. As America gasps in the stranglehold of a skull-crushing totalitarian regime, a supernatural intelligence speaks from the stars! ARAMCHEK! the word scratched in the sidewalk of the President's childhood home. ARAMCHEK! the name of the subversive society 'with no official membership' whose sole purpose is to overthrow the American government. ARAMCHEK! the word printed on a book which contains the President's signature -- a book in the hands of a Communist Party organiser. ARAMCHEK! the name of a woman who may hold the key -- and who has only weeks to live. Will the agents of the omniscient Valis succeed in their mission of liberation? Or will the seek-and-destroy tactics of President Ferris F. Freemont extend the mind-numbing grip of the Antagonist across the parameters of the free world? In Radio Free Albemuth, his last novel, Philip K. Dick morphed and recombined themes that had informed his fiction from A Scanner Darkly to VALIS and produced a wild, impassioned work that reads like a visionary alternate history of the United States. Agonizingly suspenseful, darkly hilarious, and filled with enough conspiracy theories to thrill the most hardened paranoid, Radio Free Albemuth is proof of Dick's stature as our century's greatest science fiction writer. This prophetic novel of social control and political oppression is now to be turned into a major new movie starring Alanis Morrissette, which promises a provocative and edgy antidote to the summer blockbusters.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Here is another of the unpublished novels science-fiction writer Dick left when he died in 1982. It recounts the friendship of two California men, Nicholas Brady, a record store clerk and later a record company executive, and Philip K. Dick, a writer. During the several decades spanned by the novel, America slides into fascism, particularly under the presidency of Ferris F. Fremont, who comes into office in 1969. Once entrenched, Fremont begins tossing dissidents into camps and in some cases executing them. Brady, meanwhile, has been receiving communications from a Godlike intelligence which he dubs Valis (an idea the author utilized previously in Valis). Valis guides Brady in the secrets of the universe, in the conduct of his life, and in a plot to bring down the monstrous Fremont, a cause to which Brady is finally martyred. This bleak political vision is given extra force by its autobiogrphical tone. Though not one of Dick's best novels, it is an engrossing, non-stop excursion into a believable vision of Hell. Foreign rights: Scott Meredith. January 8
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'An engrossing, non-stop excursion into a believable vision of hell' Publishers Weekly 'The most brilliant sci-fi mind on any planet' Rolling Stone --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Arbor House; First Edition edition (November 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877957622
• ISBN-13: 978-0877957621
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant portrait of our culture slipping into darkness., September 25, 1998

By 

J. A. Furgal (Naperville, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radio Free Albemuth (Paperback)

To me, this was the accessible, sentimental VALIS. While it is not so rich in detail, one does not have to read the exegesis of Gnostic terminology found in VALIS. I believe the story benifits from this as it allowed Dick to focus more tightly on his main characters and their emotions.

Parts of this books made me feel like I was reading a later day addition to C. S. Lewis' Perlandria series. The feeling of divine contact and its sudden withdrawal was just devastating. I have rarely read such a clear portrayal of the emotions surrounding direct religious experiences.

The other aspect of this book I liked was its obviously autobiographical narrative, and its dark hints at Nixon's raw grasping for power and possible responsibilities for the loss of some of our most popular leaders of the '60s.

Radio Free Albemuth provides a fascinating alternative to VALIS, and can be enjoyed at several levels. It also combines in an accessible manner the important themes Dick wrote about in "A Scanner Darkly" and "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said". While it is derrivative of these books, the insight and ideas have been honed to their essence.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dick 201: Intro to VALIS, October 8, 2005

By 

Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Radio Free Albemuth (Paperback)

Set in California in the early 1970's, record producer and hipster Nicholas Brady is receiving communications from outer space that put him in the thick of a political plot to depose the despised U.S. President from Orange County, while Phil Dick is his science-fiction writer friend in this outrageous novel. Do these outcasts have what it takes to overthrow an authoritarian government and right the social wrongs of America? Not if the administration's goons have anything to say about it. A marvelous romp through faith, insanity, free will, and paranoia.

While not technically part of the "Valis" trilogy, this book deals with many of the same themes and occasionally even the same events, some of which supposedly really happened. It seems likely that the reason Dick never published this novel during his lifetime is because so much of this material had already been covered in his other books. But this work is far more novelistic, telling a chronological story about how two individuals decided to stick it to the Man, and less a scholarly treatise on the nature of God, reality, the universe, etc... For those who found "Valis" a little too methodological in its analysis of comparative cosmologies and so forth, "Albemuth" is a much more readable, straightforward science fiction novel. If you haven't read the "Valis" trilogy yet, read this book first.

The characters are pretty much standard for Dick: the everyman who overdid the drug culture during the 1960's, and the science fiction writer who tries to turn everything into a story. Since both of these are Dick's alter-egos, they serve to bring the writer into the action and let him toy with both autobiography and meta-fiction. As a general rule, Dick's style is easy enough to read, but his plots are often difficult to follow, since things are rarely what they appear to be and some dichotomies are never really resolved. Unlike some of his better known works, this book at least has a fairly clear-cut conclusion. The bottom line is: if you're a fan of imaginative fiction who is still unfamiliar with the work of this astonishing writer, then you need to tune in pronto. And while this may not be the master's tightest work, those new to Dick might just as well start here as anywhere.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a great read, ultimate paranoia!, October 26, 2001

By 

thetwonky (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Radio Free Albemuth (Paperback)

This is a very well-written novel from an author who is generally hit or miss. It also has an unusual narative structure (which I will not give away) that provides a clue into Dick's own state of mind. Based on actual events of Dick's life, (as he sees them) this novel, published after his death, is the first version of what became (the very confused) VALIS. Read this first and you will understand VALIS much, much more. Dick's final four novels (RFA, VALIS, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) should all be read in that order to really unlock the mind of Dick in the last years of his fascinating life.