Radio Free Albemuth

by Philip K. Dick

A philosophical science fiction novel from Hugo Award–winning author Philip K. Dick, Radio Free Albemuth is a visionary alternate history of a dystopian United States, full of the conspiracy theories and religious themes that became the foundation for his celebrated VALIS trilogy.It is the late 1960s, and a paranoid incompetent has schemed his way into the White House and convulsed America into a vicious war against imaginary, internal enemies. Philip K. Dick, a struggling science fiction writer, is trying to keep from becoming one of that war's casualties.Meanwhile, Dick's best friend, record executive Nicholas Brady, is receiving transmissions from an extraterrestrial entity that may also happen to be God—an entity that apparently wants him to overthrow the president. Suspenseful and darkly hilarious, Radio Free Albemuth cements Dick as the twentieth century's greatest prankster-prophet. "An intense, often very moving book...touching on all the major Philip K. Dick themes."—Philadelphia Inquirer

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, American

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1985

About the author

Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a

Reviews

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 2023 reread -

Good evening and welcome to another episode of The Alec Smith Show on your AM dial WKRZ. Tonight we’ll be talking about Philip K. Dick’s posthumously published novel Radio Free Albemuth.

Smith: This is a conspiracy theorist’s best dream! Full of Phil’s inimitable great writing and his keen insights as to what’s going on behind the scenes. While the president in this book is called Fremont, we know that it is really Nixon and Dick had his finger on the pulse of what was really going on. Hey, we have our first caller, go ahead to our long time listener Dr. Peter Venkman.

Venkman: Hi Alec, thanks for taking my call. Wow, lots to unpack here, we have a Nixon like character who has some very interesting backstory, a fascist takeover of the country, or is it? Also plenty of alien references, and as this was a part of his later canon, lots of theological discussion.

Alec: We also had some surveillance by a mysterious orbiting satellite and of course, like VALIS, we have our author making a guest appearance and is actually an integral part of the story. Dr. Venkman, did you pick up on the paranormal qualities?

Venkman: [closing his eyes and then smiles at Alec]

Alec: Were you just mentally answering me? Yes! Of course you were and you picked up on the creepy and spooky parts. OK, thanks Doctor and we have our next caller, go ahead, em Walter Sobchak? Am I pronouncing your name right?

Walter: Yes, thanks Alec. Dick’s book was spot on and relevant for our viewers today, he really understands the secret societies that are shaping our reality. There is the VALIS god-like creature, first century Christ followers, government informants working for the FBI, communist sleeper cells. He’s got it and it’s too bad he died so early.

[long pause]

Walter: You don’t think … ??

Alec: All I’m saying is that Phil was on too some serious government surveillance and it was just a little too easy to play him off as a drug addled, mentally unstable paranoid. 53 is too young to die.

Walter: Oh my God, you’re right. Phil was turning us on to the truth and they got to him! Why those miserable ####! Those dirty, rotten - Phil died like so many of his generation, betrayed by his government, guys who died face down in the mud of Vietnam -

Alec: Of course, Phil was an accomplished fiction writer, this could all be explained as an intricate and meticulously delivered social satire, poking fun at the fear and paranoia inherent in our culture.

Walter: Um, er, no, ah, no, that can’t be, he was really - on to something.

Alec: All good questions to ponder. Thanks Walter. OK after this message from Red Wigglers, The Cadillac of Worms, we’ll go on to our second half of the show, Was Elvis an Alien?

***

There are many talented writers who could tell the story of an America that had been surreptitiously taken over internally by a power mad fascist who closely resembled Richard Nixon.

It takes a genius of Philip K. Dick’s stature to tell the same story while also maintaining sub-plots involving alien telepathic transmissions, erudite references to God and the Bible, alternate realities, mental illness, drug use, schizophrenic delusions and enough conspiracy theories to choke a wub.

This, in a nutshell, is Radio Free Albumuth, a story that PKD drafted along with his VALIS trilogy but was not actually published until after his death. Like VALIS, Philip K. Dick is also an integral character and one of the novel’s narrators. And also like VALIS, the pink ray transmissions are back as well as PKD’s fascinating, hypnotic use of the unreliable narrator. As good as VALIS and Ubik, this one keeps the reader on his toes.

Preachers: beware of the weird guy in the back pew scribbling notes, he may be writing science fiction.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This, I realized, is how a man becomes what he is not: by doing what he could never do"
- Philip K Dick, Radio Free Albemuth



My brother and I were discussing how PKD would absolutely lose his shit to see how much the world has become what he wrote. I think he would AND wouldn't be surprised by Facebook, the NSA, the surveillance state, cellphones, robots, talking refrigerators, fake news, pharmaceuticals, Trump, perpetual war, fake news, virtual reality, corporatism, etc.

For me this book was a bit of post-Trump-election therapy. Well not therapy. No. Perhaps, acquiescence? Resignation? The resemblance between Ferris Fremont seemed uncanny. Even the relationship between the election of Ferris Fremont and the Russians seemed a bit too close to reality:

"Why should disparate groups such as the Soviet Union and the U.S. intelligence community back the same man? I am a political theoretician, but Nicolas one time said, 'The both like figureheads who are corrupt. So they can govern from behind. The Soviets and the fuzz, they're all for shadow governments. They always will be, because each of them is the man with the gun. The pistol to the head."

The second part of this book that was fascinating was the semi-autobiographical presentations of Dick's own 2-3-74 experience with the "vesicle pisces" and the "pink beam". This experience in February - March of 1974 lead to PKD's gnostic trilogy (VALIS, The Divine Invasion, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) and his later assembled The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. This novel was the first he wrote AFTER his visionary experiences of 1974, and every work after seemed impacted by this experience. There is a part of me that thinks the probability of a PKD religion coming into existence is fairly high. Hell, if Hubbard's Scientology can exist, why not one that worships a Vast Active Living Intelligence System?

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

What a damned miracle it is to find this book again. In the Year of Our Suffering 2018, the weird way of PKD's imaginary travels has become our reality. Yuck! The fact that this wasn't published until after PKD's death suggests to me it wasn't fully baked yet. That is pretty much how I felt about the writing. He just didn't have a chance to get down into the working parts of the book before he died.

But damn, it's really really really scary how the imaginarium in his head led PKD to predict our present.

Then there's a 2014 movie that makes my hair stand on end. A good and faithful adaptation of the novel, a low-budget proof that the passion of a filmmaker makes for a good watch. I like this story because of how much it scares me. I think I should re-read the VALIS trilogy now!

[Dagio_maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

”Dentro di me l’immaginazione cancellò la realtà”

Potrei quasi fare un copia e incolla di alcune considerazioni che scrissi a suo tempo nel mio commento ad Ubik oppure a La svastica sul sole..

La letteratura, lo sappiamo, offre una sua lettura del reale e, nella sua versione fantastica, spesso ne dilata i contorni per mettere in luce gli eccessi e/o i difetti del genere umano.
Dick compie un passo ulteriore e lo fa soprattutto in questo romanzo che per quanto si fondi sui temi cari all’autore va oltre in una continua fusione di temi. Si parte dalla politica ma ci s'inoltra, sempre più in una dimensione trascendentale e mistica.




Siamo in California e, precisamente, a Berkeley, culla del pensiero anticonformista in un'America sempre più reazionaria.
Rappresentante del crescente pensiero conservatore è Ferris Fremont (che in sostanza è Nixon) che si sta spianando la strada per entrare alla Casa Bianca.

Nicholas e Philip, intanto, diventano grandi amici.
Entrambi sono commessi: il primo in negozio di musica, il secondo in una libreria.
Non hanno molti segreti tra loro e quando Nicholas comincerà ad avere esperienza paranormali sarà naturale per lui confidarsi con l’amico.
Qualcosa o qualcuno sta cercando di mettersi in contatto con lui:

«Credo che conosca le mie esigenze.
Credo che voglia dirigere la mia vita verso qualche grande meta che al momento non riesco nemmeno a immaginare. Io...»
Nicholas assunse un’espressione furtiva, riservata.
«Io ho un nome per questa entità: Valisystem A. Sta per Vast Active Li¬ving Intelligent System A. Lo chiamo A perché potrebbe essere semplicemente uno dei tanti.
Possiede tutte quelle caratteristiche; è vasto, è attivo, è intelligente e forma un sistema coerente.»

Parallelamente all'esperienza di Nicholas, lo scenario politico si trasforma, di fatto, in una dittatura di Fremont che installa uno stato di polizia anticomunista....


L’asse portante di questa storia è, a mio avviso, quello di una voce narrante dissociata.
Apparentemente ci sono due protagonisti:
Nicholas Brady e lo stesso Philip Dick che veste i panni di se stesso.

Non si tarda però a scoprire che lo stesso Nicholas è un alter ego dell’autore che così si autorappresenta in due ruoli differenti.
Metafisico uno, razionale l’altro eppure entrambi legati allo stesso destino.

Un libro che scrisse nel ’76 ma non volle pubblicare (uscì postumo nel 1985) ma riscrisse creando al suo posto “La trilogia di Valis”.

Quel che mi ha colpito di più in questa lettura è la fusione tra mondo reale ed immaginazione letteraria.

In un’annotazione, Dick, scrisse:

«Mi sembra di vivere sempre di più dentro i miei romanzi.
Non riesco a immaginarmi perché.
Sto perdendo il contatto con la realtà?
O forse è la realtà a scivolare verso un certo tipo di atmosfera alla Philip Dick?
E se è questo che succede, per amor di Dio, perché?
Sono io il responsabile?
Come faccio a essere io il responsabile?»

Interrogativi che rispecchiano un romanzo dove la ricerca di risposte è il filo conduttore.

Dicono che lo scrisse in preda a crisi mistiche allucinazioni che ritroviamo in questo romanzo come ad esempio la visione che lo informa dei problemi di salute del figlio oppure la comparsa di una ragazza che porta il segno cristiano del pesce, l'impressione di vivere parallelamente nella California del presente e nella Roma imperiale del primo secolo dopo Cristo.

Ci sono un sacco di elementi che mi hanno fatto pensare a tutta quella serie di teorie complottistiche oppure alla miriade di speculazioni che circolano su realtà aliene e dimensioni parallele.

Mi chiedo: la letteratura è servita a Philip Dick per allontanare i suoi fantasmi?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 30th PKD novel.

I'm nearing the end of my 'PKD SF-Titles' project - with 'A Scanner Darkly' and 'The VALIS Trilogy' remaining. The reason I jumped ahead and sidestepped 'ASD' to read 'RFA' is because I wanted to leave a little space between 'RFA' and 'VALIS'. They seemed too similar to read back-to-back.

The hard-to-substantiate story goes that PKD had originally intended 'RFA' as what would shortly after be published as 'VALIS'. However, "[w]hen his publishers at Bantam requested extensive rewrites he canned [RFA] and reworked it into [VALIS]." (Wikipedia)

So, in a sense, 'RFA' wasn't meant for publication. It was only in 1985, after the author's death, that (somehow) 'RFA' was deemed worthy in its own right as some sort of stand-alone work, as opposed to being a first draft of 'VALIS'.

Judged on its own merits, 'RFA' reads much better than a first draft, esp. in its opening and closing sections. (The book is divided into 3 parts. The first and last are subtitled 'Phil' and operate from PKD's POV. The midsection - 'Nicholas' - brings us a significant tone shift as it focuses on PKD's doppelgänger.)

The first part has genuine momentum and succeeds as a spiritual thriller. Moving then into 'Nicholas', we're thrown a narrative curveball as this section takes great pains in documenting PKD's real-life experiences with phenomena that left him largely flummoxed (though significantly altered). The author makes a valiant attempt at integrating the unexplainable with the very real atmosphere of paranoia that swept through America during the eras of both Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon. (Cementing the basis of unrest during this time, Wikipedia points out that the book's shadowy nemesis - Ferris F. Fremont - has initials that correlate alphabetically to '666'.)

'Nicholas' reaches a rather shattering apex as PKD's stand-in faces point blank-confrontation with a slick-tongued henchwoman grunting with neo-fascist intent. The aftermath of this particularly powerful sequence returns us to PKD's view - as well as a satisfying twist that helps substantiate the validity of the just-out-of-reach VALIS.

Its mind-boggling content notwithstanding, 'RFA' is a surprisingly quick read. Dick writes as though his goal is to clarify for the layman what could easily confound those not only uninitiated but skeptical.

Here also, he has the mainstream aim of warning us about the burgeoning, fetid seeds taking root in the modern Republican Party. What was noticeable then has only grown since.

A cunning propulsion runs throughout 'RFA'. It's both heady and rational; 'imperfect' by design (in its address to an imperfect world). It's also vexing - but in a way intended to invite you in.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Radio Free Albemuth: Divine messages via a pink laser from space
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Radio Free Albemuth was written in 1976 but only published posthumously in 1985. Even for Philip K Dick, this is a bizarre and partly deranged book. It’s a deeply personal autobiographical attempt for him to make sense of a series of bizarre religious experiences he collectively referred to as “2-3-74”. So if you are only a casual fan of PKD’s books or movies, this is probably not for you. However, if you love his novels and know something of his troubled life, it will provide an absolutely fascinating picture of a man struggling to extract meaning from it all, using every resource his powerful, wide-ranging and increasingly unstable mind can muster. It may be a confounding mess for many, but what a gloriously courageous attempt he makes. For me this book and his later complete rewrite VALIS (1981) provide a window into PKD’s mind that no other books can (other than the massive and unreadable Exegesis of Philip K Dick), and is a moving and profound experience if you go along with it.

The story starts out quite simply. Part one is narrated by none other than Philip K Dick, a struggling science fiction writer and friend of Nicholas Brady, a Berkeley dropout who works at local record store. It is the late 1960s, and the book humorously depicts the growing counter-culture in Berkeley, with its legions of anti-establishment intellectuals roaming the streets and coffee houses on Telegraph Ave. It turns out that this is an alternate history United States where despotic right-winger Ferris F. Freemont has become President after Lyndon B. Johnson (think a sinister amalgam of Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy). He is determined to crush liberals, free speech, and communist conspiracies. There is also a citizens militia of sorts called “Friends of the American People”, which serve to investigate anti-government groups including a (perhaps fictitious) organization called Aramchek dedicated to overthrowing Fremont’s government.

Nick’s career at the record store is going nowhere, though he has an encyclopedic knowledge of music. He begins to receive strange visions that he believes are signals from VALIS, a Vast Active Living Intelligence System. These signals come to him at 3am at night, delivered by a near-earth satellite firing a focused pink laser beam (I’m not joking here) straight to his brain. At first he is not sure what is happening, but gradually he understands that VALIS is a super rational alien collective mind that has chosen him (and a select few others) for a mission to overthrow the fascist dictatorship of President Freemont. This revelation is of course quite disturbing to his wife Rachel, but when VALIS warns him that his infant son Christopher has an inguinal hernia, something that did not show up in any medical exams, they rush him to the hospital and the doctors are shocked to discover his diagnosis was right, and do an emergency surgery to save his son (this actually happened to PKD in real life apparently). This causes their belief in VALIS to grow.

Eventually VALIS grants visions to Nick that he should move to LA and become a record producer for folk musicians. He moves his family to LA and very quickly finds success in his new job. VALIS then reveals that this is all part of his mission to embed secret anti-Fremont subliminal messages in the songs he produces, in order to overthrow the totalitarian regime and bring freedom to the masses, who do not realize they are trapped in the Black Iron Prison that is representative of the evil Roman Empire that persecuted early Christians and has never ended. We also learn that VALIS has made previous attempts to heal the world of its madness, including various early Christian Gnostics, Elijah from the Old Testament, Jesus, etc. However, the Empire has continued to prevail, but VALIS has not given up the struggle. PDK provides dozens of pages explaining the philosophy of VALIS and all the obscure historical clues as to why the world is ailing. He dives way down the rabbit hole into cosmogony and cosmology, explaining how the creator of the universe is irrational and separate from the Logos, or rational mind, that is the ultimate source of wisdom. VALIS has sent homoplasmates to bond with certain chosen humans and impart this secret wisdom. HAVE I LOST YOU YET? ONLY PKD COULD COME UP WITH THIS STUFF, AND HE ACTUALLLY BELIEVES IT TOO.

One day Nick has a vision of a folk singer named Sylvia, and soon after this she shows up at his office, asking for a clerical job. He hires her but convinces her she should be a songwriter instead, and they reveal to each other that they have been having similar dreams from VALIS. Having finally discovered a kindred spirit (which turns out to be part of the Aramchek movement), they seek to put VALIS’s plan into action, recording a hit song with the message “Join the party”, a subliminal appeal to revolution. His relationship with his wife is strained by his friendship with Sylvia (whose real last name turns out to be Aramchek). However, his good buddy Philip K Dick stays true to him despite being skeptical of this craziness. For some reason a lot of this weird 1960s conspiracy stuff and obscure underground societies reminded me of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1966).

Nick and Sylvia think they have successfully produced the song that will launch their revolution, but the FAPers (Friends of the American People) have actually been spying on them the entire time, and seize both of them along with PKD and throw them into a secret confinement facility outside the justice system. The FAPers reveal that they know about the plot, and that it has been foiled. There are some final events I won’t spoil, but suffice to say that the real PKD was clearly VERY PARANOID about the Republican Party, the FBI and CIA, and right-wingers in general. As everyone knows, they really are out to get us all.

Whether or not you buy into any of PKDs paranoid fantasies or strange religious experiences, it’s undeniable that he wrote this book with searing honesty, pathos for the struggles of his characters (himself, really), and out of a genuine desire to understand what exactly was happening to him with all these visions and hallucinations. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book and its successor VALIS is that PKD separates himself into two characters, Nicholas Brady and PKD in Radio Free Albemuth, and Horselover Fat and PKD in VALIS. This essentially allows him to have an extended dialog with himself, as the Nick and Horselover characters undergo the strange visions and hallucinations, while the PKD characters are separate from this and serve as devil’s advocate. I’ve never seen a clearer fictional depiction of schizophrenia, but the fact that PKD could control the process and explore his own mental breakdown in a fictional narrative is simply incredible and to me was quite moving, particularly in VALIS. You can feel his struggles with sanity, even if you don’t believe in his gonzo religious philosophy. It’s a unique literary experience for any hardcore PKD fan, though it may make no sense whatsoever to most readers.

Film Version (2010): I was surprised to discover a film version of Radio Free Albemuth had been made as a low budget indie production back in 2010 starring Jonanath Scarfe as Nicholas Brady, Katheryn Winnick as his wife Rachel, Shea Whigham as Philip K Dick, and Alanis Morisette as Slyvia Aramchek. With great trepidation but irresistible curiosity I watched it on Netflix. Basically all the dream sequences are laughably bad, and the actors struggle to deliver all of PKD’s bizarre dialog with straight faces, but that is really due to the source material itself. Frankly, I don’t think this book was ever meant to be filmed, and is almost impossible to make convincing. So I don’t blame the filmmakers, but I think this would be impossible to watch except for die-hard PKD fans like myself who’ve read the book already. It seems the producers also have the rights to VALIS as well, but I sincerely hope they don’t try that one. It makes Radio Free Albemuth seem downright conventional. I do give kudos to Shea Whigham for portraying PKD as a smart and somewhat cynical SF writer, but the real PKD was actually a combination of both Nick Brady and SF writer PKD, which makes for a much more complicated and unstable personality.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was about a third of the way through this novel before I remembered that not only have I seen the movie, but I've met the director (or at least someone who claimed to be the director). This was in December '12, in a major American city, at a UFO conference I attended for reasons that simply mustn't be discussed here, nor even so much as hinted at, and I asked him why he'd chosen to adapt this novel in particular.

Unfortunately I don't remember what he said, but I think the reason I asked is that Radio Free Albemuth (originally titled Valisystem A) isn't one of Phil's better-known works; he finished it in 1976, but when his publisher "requested extensive rewrites" (according to Wikipedia), he re-worked the material for what eventually became VALIS (the movie the characters go to see about halfway through VALIS is essentially the plot of Radio Free Albemuth). Radio Free Albemuth does somewhat echo A Scanner Darkly (finished in 1973, and my favorite of Phil's novels) plot-wise, as well as in its elegiac tone for a generation becoming middle-aged, its grounding in time and place- Marin County, California, mid-70s- even if in an alternate universe, and the belief in a spiritual vision as either the only thing to keep a person going in a world of shit or as the source of the knowledge that makes the world of shit unbearable. But as to where Radio Free Albemuth fits in with Phil's other work, it should really be considered a part of the "Valis trilogy"- or make that tetralogy, or maybe just Valis 1A, one in an infinite series of alternate Valises- because this is very much a "Valis novel", which means among other things that there's an occasional tone of proselytization that happily never becomes overbearing, because Phil was way too self-questioning to proselytize that ardently.

One of the charmingly antiquated things about this old edition is that there are actual character descriptions on the first page, which include "Nicholas Brady: The hero, record-store manager/talent scout who gets strange messages in his dreams", "Ferris Freemont: Nixon/McCarthy-like weirdo with an unspeakable secret; President of a nightmarishly normal alternate-history America", and "Philip K. Dick: Hero's best friend; chunky, bearded, middle-aged SF writer; suffers from paranoid fantasies." So yes, roughly the first half of the novel, which I prefer to the second half, is narrated by "Phil", a middle-aged science-fiction writer who's as modest as possible about his desire to write the great American science-fiction novel, and a bit melancholy but generally pretty unsentimental about both the passage of time and the culmination of his generation's political idealism and vision of a better world in the reign of fascist president Ferris F. Freemont (sometimes spelled "Fremont" in the novel, his initials are FFF, "F" being the sixth letter of the alphabet...you get the idea), as well as bitingly skeptical (at least at first) of his friend Nicholas's claim that he's been contacted by some kind of...well...whatever Valis is supposed to be, exactly. Something that often gets overlooked about Philip K. Dick, the actual writer, is that he was a great comedian, and it really comes through in this section, for example when Phil the character tries to convince the fascist authorities (who are called Friends of the American People, or yes...FAPers) in a letter that he and Nicholas are not subversive elements but merely harmless religious wackos:

Perhaps, because my profession is that of a science fiction writer, you imagine that I am spinning a...fantasy to see how you react. Not so, authorities. I only wish it were so. I have with my own eyes seen Mr. Nicholas Brady demonstrate fantastic supernatural powers, bestowed on him by the alien suprahuman entity known as Valisystem A. One afternoon, to demonstrate the staggering magnitude of his powers, Mr. Nicholas Brady caused Cleveland to materialize in the open pasture along the side of the 91 freeway and then disappear again with no one save ourselves the wiser.

I enjoyed the second section, told from the perspective of Phil's buddy Nicholas, slightly less, maybe in part because Nicholas's thoughts about Valis are more reverential than skeptical and coruscating. These passages are not too long, thankfully, but I've read VALIS, I've read some of Phil's other post-2/3/74 work, and I guess I just wasn't in the mood to hear about the fish pendant, the Roman Empire, the Black-Iron Prison, and the beam of pink light...again. I'm not sure what I would have thought of these passages if I'd read them in 1976 (which would have been impossible, first of all because Phil didn't publish them, and secondly because I hadn't yet been born- not that that would necessarily stop a character in one of Phil's novels), without knowing that the characters of Phil and Nicholas represented two poles of the real Philip K. Dick's obsession with what he called Valis; but I do know, or at least suspect strongly, and maybe these passages fall flat for me because Phil is trying to express the wonder of a personal, spiritual vision that is self-evident to him but not to the reader, or at least not to me.

The plot eventually becomes pretty patchwork, although the very last section- back to "Phil" again- is dramatic and bleak, yet also hopeful. There are some strong echoes of A Scanner Darkly in this last section, but I don't think it works as effectively as in that novel. I appreciate, however, that Phil, as in the author, never gives the narrative over to total belief and conviction. Even after Phil the character has come to believe essentially what Nicholas believes, another character- a sort of gentle Nietzsche- provides what might be the moral of the story:

"Did believing that, about a heavenly father, get your friends anywhere?" Leon asked presently.
"Not in this world, maybe", I said.
"Then I'm going to tell you something you maybe don't want to hear. It's not worth it, Phil. It has to be in this world."
"They gained immortality", I said...
Leon said, "There has to be something here first, Phil. The other world is not enough."

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published as a prequel to the divine trilogy, this is a novelization of Philip K. Dick's series of mystical experiences initiated in February 20, 1974.

Matching Soundtrack :
Les Chants Magnétiques - Jean-Michel Jarre

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Une version romancée de la série d'expériences mystiques de Philip K. Dick qui a commencé avec l'épiphanie du 20 février 1974. On le présente comme un préquel à la trilogie divine.

Suggestion d'accompagnement musical :
Les Chants Magnétiques - Jean-Michel Jarre

[George K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Έχω διαβάσει 14 βιβλία του Φίλιπ Ντικ, ο πλέον πολυδιαβασμένος από μένα συγγραφέας μαζί με τον Στήβεν Κινγκ, και μπορώ να πω ότι είμαι κατά κάποιο τρόπο ειδικός. Αυτό μπαίνει με άνεση στο top5 το δικό μου. Ίσως το UBIK να παίρνει την πρώτη θέση, κάποιο άλλο την δεύτερη, αλλά αυτό σίγουρα παίρνει το χάλκινο μετάλλιο.

Τι μπορώ να πω για την υπόθεση; Τίποτα! Γίνεται ένας χαμός οπότε τι να πω; Θα πω απλώς τι περιέχει το βιβλίο αυτό: Πολλές συνωμοσίες, φασιστικό αστυνομοκρατούμενο αμερικάνικο κράτος γεμάτο ρουφιάνους και πράκτορες, ψυχροπολεμική παράνοια, αντικομουνιστική υστερία, εξωγήινους εισβολείς (κατά κάποιον τρόπο) και εξωγήινους δορυφόρους που στέλνουν για εκατοντάδες χρόνια σήματα στη Γη, ιστορικές αναδρομές στην αρχαιότητα και μπλέξιμο με ελληνικά, ρωμαϊκά και άλλα ιστορικά στοιχεία μέσω διαφόρων οραμάτων μερικών χαρακτήρων του βιβλίου, "θεϊκές" παρεμβολές και διάφορους προβληματισμούς γύρω από τη θρησκεία, ναρκωτικά και άλλες ψυχοτρόπες ουσίες, και γενικά τα πάντα όλα!

Το βιβλίο θεωρείται αυτοβιογραφία (ή κάτι τέτοιο) του Φίλιπ Ντικ. Με ό,τι αυτό συνεπάγεται. Πολύ ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες, κλασικοί χαρακτήρες Ντικ, και καταπληκτική γραφή, με χιούμορ σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can P.K. Dick please stop being so damn ahead of his time?! I promised myself I wouldn't read any more books about the current depraved political landscape, and I just wanted some nice trippy escapism. Somehow I forgot how poignant this 1976 book would be...

Get this: In Radio Free Albemuth (the sort of 4th book post-script of the VALIS trilogy), there is a dystopian present in which the president is below average right-wing idiot who has used the lowest common denominator of paranoia to claw his way to the top. He's actually a secret Russian agent though, and has a lame son named Don!

Somehow Dick was able to predict that the worst America could offer wasn't some highly intelligent dictatorship, but a pathetic state where misinformation and fear would dumb down the public enough that the most cynical fascists could easily take over. It all comes across as very familiar, sigh~

Ostensibly, Ferris F. Fremont is an analogue of Nixon. Although the 666 aspect seems like Ronald Wilson Reagan as well. The politics of Radio Free Albemuth are all over the place, in excellent P.K. Dick schizo fashion, with satires of Berkeley radicals. And the take on how intelligence agencies actually prefer corrupt politicians as easier to exploit is extremely fascinating. It's about sci-fi Gnosticism as much as anything else, with "God" as a pink light feeding information in order to save the world, and all the mindfucks therein contemplating such.

I happen prefer the first half of the book, which is pseudo-autobiographical in which Phil narrates and talks about his crazed friend Nick. Then it gets into Nick's point of view which has far more theological ranting. And, being that this is Dick, the writing isn't always polished but it does have a certain brilliant energy so don't overly nitpick.

Essential reading for latter-Dick cannon, but do ignore if you are in the mood to ignore the daily onslaught of Prez T****.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sublime. In what are essentially many of the same themes from VALIS, PKD again plunges us into a semi-autobiographical world of paranoia, conspiracy theories, alien/divine influences and an alternate reality of political tyranny, cold war fervor and McCarthyism. Well crafted and paced, and told through multiple narrators, including PKD as himself.

[Joey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if I just read a book about aliens or a book about religion. Maybe it was both. The book started off interesting enough but the middle part was a chore reading about all the different theories the two came up with and then there was a long, long Bible lesson. I still don't know what to think about the ending...WTF sums it up about right I guess.

[Kevin Lopez (on sabbatical) · Rating 5 out of 5]

My new favorite PKD book!

[fromcouchtomoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on a true delusion. BUT NOT NEARLY AS DELUSIONAL AS HARLAN ELLISON WHEN HE WROTE IN DANGEROUS VISIONS THAT ONE TIME ABOUT HOW PKD WROTE HIS BOOKS WHILE TRIPPING ON DRUGS. BECAUSE THAT'S A TOTAL LIE AND HARLAN ELLISON IS A LYING LIAR PANTS ON FIRE. PKD DIDN'T DO DRUGS. EVER. EXCEPT FOR WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT DOING DRUGS IN THE EXEGESIS. BUT REALLY, PKD DID NOT USE DRUGS. AND IF DRUGS WERE INVOLVED, AND I MEAN THIS IS A BIG IF, IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE OF THAT ORAL SURGERY MEDICATION THAT ONE TIME WHEN HE WAS SEEING AND HEARING THINGS FOR TWO ENTIRE MONTHS IN 1974.

[Antônio Xerxenesky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sim.




(o capítulo final é Tolstói melhorado).

[Angie Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely the best Phillip K Dick book I've read so far. Basically it works as an alternative reality autobiography of Dick. I've read quite a lot of reviews of the VALIS stuff before and people say it's mentally unwell and drug crazed, but this book is actually very cogent and straightforward... so maybe a lot of Phillip K Dick fans only read your standard sci-fi and don't delve into more abstract fiction. The paranoia expressed in this is very real, therefore it's not paranoid. It was happening in America at the time so all Dick is doing is taking the current politics to their extreme. Also the stuff about VALIS itself is just Dick tapping into the kinds of things Buddhists believe but with a sci fi slant on it. There's really no evidence of mental illness here, only a great writer writing an amazing book despite his mental illness.

[Saturn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sono contenta di aver letto la prefazione prima di cominciare questo romanzo, perché mi ha preparato a ciò che stavo per affrontare. Questo romanzo di Dick è davvero molto particolare ed è fortemente influenzato dalle esperienze personali e biografiche dell'autore.
Il racconto è da subito molto coinvolgente, in particolare nella prima parte che vede come voce narrante lo stesso Dick in veste di personaggio. Gli eventi descrivono degli USA distopici, una dittatura nata col consenso popolare, dove ci si trova sempre più invischiati in una logica di nemici e amici, buoni e cattivi, con la nazione o contro. Vige la logica del pensiero unico, dove tutti devono essere d'accordo col governo e concorrere ai suoi ideali. Ricorda molto il maccartismo ma ci sono chiari riferimenti anche alla presidenza Nixon.
L'intreccio politico-fantascientifico diventa sempre più particolare e spesso sorprendente.
Ho fatto un po' fatica a entrare in sintonia con la seconda voce narrante, ma è proprio nella seconda parte che diventa chiaro quanto sia molto meno rilevante l'intrigo politico rispetto a temi molto più alti e legati alla religione, alla spiritualità e alla trascendenza.
È un romanzo tutt'altro che semplice o lineare; un romanzo pieno di interrogativi, che lascia spesso spaesati e dubbiosi. Non ho amato il fatto che sia molto incentrato sulla mitologia cristiana, perché mi è sembrato un po' limitante. Però nel complesso ha un fascino davvero unico, che mi ha portato alla mente autori che amo.

[Effie (she-her) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Κάπου στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του '60, ο Φέρις Φρέμοντ γίνεται πρόεδρος της Αμερικής πατώντας επί πτωμάτων και συντάραξε τη χώρα κάνοντας τους πολίτες να στραφούν ο ένας εναντίον του άλλου σε μια μάταιη προσπάθεια να αντιμετωπίσουν ένα φανταστικό εσωτερικό εχθρό.

Ο Νίκολας Μπρέντι, μουσικός παραγωγός, δέχεται παράξενα μηνύματα στα όνειρά του από μια οντότητα που αποκαλεί Βάλις. Μαζί με τον γνωστό συγγραφέα επιστημονικής φαντασίας, Φίλιπ Ντικ, θα προσπαθήσει να κατανοήσει αυτά τα μηνύματα και να ανατρέψει τον Φέρις Φρέμοντ.

Στο τελευταίο του βιβλίο, ο Philip Dick καταπιάνεται με τα αγαπημένα του θέματα: την πολιτική καταπίεση, την παρακμή της Αμερικάνικης κοινωνίας, τις ψυχικές ασθένειες και τα ναρκωτικά.

Διαβάστε αναλυτικά την άποψή μου στο blog μου.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Muy Dick; hasta demasiado Dick para ser Dick.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Un empleado de una tienda de discos, un escritor de ciencia-ficción y un presidente de Estados Unidos de América viven en un país casi dictatorial en el que las ideas contrarias al régimen se pagan muy caras y donde una entidad sobrenatural manda mensajes subversivos a ciertas personas. Versión inicial y diferente de lo que luego fue “Sivainvi” (o “Valis”, según en qué idioma se haya leído), cuyo manuscrito fue regalado por el autor a Tim Powers y que éste cedió para su publicación tras la muerte de Dick.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Oleh Bilinkevych · Rating 4 out of 5]

Сюжетно дуже схожа на книги Воннеґута.
Замінити персонажа Діка на Кілґора Траута і перед вами постає ”Божої вам ласки, містере Роузвотере”

[Yannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect I'd like it so much. I wanted to read mostly to read about some things mentioned in biographies, interviews etc.
Now, this is quite well written for Dick's standard. Some of his books are obviously produced to quickly and are thus lacking a bit in writing quality although the ideas and the plot are usually mind blowing. This one combines a fine science fiction story, good writing, nice twists and a lot of clues from Dick's life. Of course he is himself a character of the book but it's obvious he's also the main character, the protagonist. Some of the incidents in the book have been mentioned in interviews etc as real(?) events of PKD's life. For some Americans it's prophetic in the sense it speaks about this age for some reason. Well, maybe but I wouldn't say that. Not only I don't want to mess with politics but, more importantly, I think PKD's work speaks for all eras. Not his own, not our own but throughout the ages.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

PKD did something I never thought he'd do for me: literally left me in tears. But filled with hope as well. His final lines in this novel are his best yet and are heavily reminiscent of Pynchon's message at the end of Bleeding Edge.

This novel predicts the coming fascist police state in the US, and shows how artists, those who distribute art, and the average person can help subvert this type of regime. It shows how working with one's common man, the willingness to put one's life at risk, and the realization of the person beyond their own individuality are necessary tenets to achieving this goal. The book has some flaws because it clearly was not fully edited and wasn't published until after PKD's death, but if you can look past those flaws (and they are minor) then this is a phenomenally prescient, beautiful, and important work.

Last thing I have in my selected PKD read-through is the Valis Trilogy!

[Denis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was PKD's the first shot at novelizing his Feb.'74 experience. Sometimes one's first ideas are maybe not the most developed or executed but are still essentially the best.

He used his own name in this one, rather than "Horselover Fat" which he used in Valis. Horselover Fat: narrator; Philip in Greek means "fond of horses"; "dick" is German for "fat", which is clever.

It is another strange yet entertaining and enjoyable and unforgettable story of extreme paranoia. It reads more like one of PKD's posthumously published non-genre novels as PKD writes sci-fi as if it were true conventional reality.

[Ajeje Brazov · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Mi giunse un'altra immagine, chiara e netta. La mia amicizia con Phil, il fatto che lui abbia scritto decine di popolari romanzi di fantascienza che si vendono nei negozi e nelle stazioni degli autobus, anche quella è una falsa pista. E' proprio quello che le autorità cercano: qualcosa che emerga da quei romanzi da quattro soldi. Vengono studiati e vagliati uno a uno dagli uomini dei servizi segreti. Anche noi del campo discografico siamo controllati, ma più che altro si cercano allusioni nascoste alla droga e al sesso. Gli argomenti di tipo politico le vanno a cercare nel campo della fantascienza."

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe this was the first book I ever read by Phlip K. Dick. It wasn't published during his lifetime, although he used themes from it in his book VALIS and its sequels. Basically, it is set in a world slightly ahead of the time it was written, in which totalitarianism has begun to take hold in America through President Ferris Fremont and his “FAP” (“Friends of the American People”) movement. In the midst of this, an obscure record clerk in Berkeley starts getting messages from space, which roughly correspond to certain Gnostic gospels and heretical Christian ideas. His life and that of his closest friend, is turned upside down by the experience.

This is the most "autobiographical" of Dick's fiction, even to the point of having a character named "Phil Dick," who narrates 2/3 of the novel. That's a bit of a trick however, because Dick actually divides his own personality between that character and Nicholas, who narrates the middle third. Let me see if I can unpack that a bit for you.

Someone who knew Dick once said that he had long conversations with him about an alien who he was in contact with. Dick would go on and on and give great detail about what the alien had said, what its stated purposes were, what Dick suspected might be behind it, how far he could trust it and so on. When his friend would ask, "Do you really believe all this?" Dick would stop short and say, "If I believed all this, I'd be crazy, wouldn't I?" In terms of the novel, Phil is the part of Dick that thinks believing in aliens is crazy, while Nicholas is the part that really, truly believed. Nicholas has direct experiences of Gnosis, in which he knows at a supra-rational level that the being exists, while Phil is excluded from such experiences, being able only to appreciate Nicholas's claims through reason (or dianoia, to stick with the Platonic terminology). Phil, in the book, is at some pains to point out that he doesn't do any kind of drugs, while it's pretty well established that Dick experimented some. This seems to speak to the two parts of Dick's mind that were working here - one part believed what it experienced while on drugs, the other part was eternally skeptical.

This book probably represents Dick's efforts to unpack this experience to the best of his ability. That makes it interesting that we begin and end with the rationalist side in control. Dick could never completely commit to the reality of his experience, and always came back to saying “I’d be crazy if I believed all that.” The book is less explicit, and maybe we need to see his “wouldn’t I?” at the end as a real question for each reader to decide for him or herself. It may therefore have been too personal to publish in his lifetime – some questions are better left unanswered. Dressing it up and making it more sci fi probably made it safer to share. But, apparently, he did finish and correct the proof that was discovered when this was published after his death, so he probably meant for it to happen. Readers today are free to make their own assessments.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was published posthumously, set from a completed and corrected manuscript that Dick left to a friend. It contrasts starkly with the completely niave prose of Dick's early work, the author being so technically assured as to even change narrators in mid sentence...twice.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

See the complete review here:

http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/33...

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dystopian tale set in a USA under a totalitarian President who is merely a puppet for Russia.

Ideal escapist fiction in today's world!

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 3 out of 5]

a usa president planted by the Russians. the guy predicted trump 30 years earlier? wow!

[Regina Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fascinating precursor to VALIS and very, very good.

[Gökhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tam da Dick'in zihninden çıkabilecek , usta işi bir paranoya. Kitap açıklamasında söylendiği gibi günümüze de ışık tutan bir kehanet anlatısı adeta. Her olay, her konuşulan şey büyük bir komplonun küçük parçaları gibi. Sürekli bir şüphe ile okumak ruh sağlığı açısından yorucuydu. Kitap Dick'in genelde akmayan üslubunun aksine akıcı bir okuma sunuyor. Dick'in kitapta bir karakter olarak yer alması, otobiyografik özellikler içermesi de kitabın kıymetli bir yönü. Çeviri 6:45'den beklenmeyecek şekilde iyi, okutuyor kendini.