Radio Free Albemuth

Description

A preliminary to Dick's masterwork, Valis, in which Phil appears as an explicitly named autobiographical character for the first time. 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?

Philip K Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He attended college for a year at Berkeley. Apart from writing, his main interest was music. He won the Hugo Award for his classic novel of alternative history, The Man in the High Castle (1962). He was married five times and had three children. He died in March 1982.

'An engrossing, non-stop excursion into a believable vision of hell' Publishers Weekly 'The most brilliant sci-fi mind on any planet' Rolling Stone