Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Clans of the Alphane Moon
Book Review: Lord Running Clam and the Planet Sized Mental Home
Summary: 5 Stars
Clans of the Alphane Moon was written in the same year as three other books by Philip K Dick after he peaked early in his career with the Hugo award winning - The Man in the High Castle, highly original in either being a very divergent type of sci-fi or a deviating political comedy. Dick is often cited as the best science-fiction writer who does not write sci-fi, but some of his works, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner) and UBIK, come across as more descriptive in the future they present, rather than ideology and dialogue driven. Clans of the Alphane Moon tends to be a situational environmental type of Dick presentation, rather than then latter, somewhat harder, but more heady science-fiction herbs that rely on dialogue and thoughts to tell their story. It is the environments the writer conjures up that makes this one of Dick's easier books to read, comprehend and probably enjoy.
Clans of the Alphane Moon is like an early version of UBIK, developing a series of events, rather than a full story, to engage characters with other characters, in the most interesting of environments, under the most oddest circumstances. It focuses on dysfunctional relationships from the persona and how that is reiterated through the cosmos like an expanding fractal, Dick himself was married five times, here a couple, in process of getting separated, end up on a Moon run by the offspring clans of various mentally ill people who once occupied a Terra owned hospital there. Each clan has a personality character disorder that affects their role in life, down to their functions in government offices and their own disturbed nuclear family (again we have the dysfunctional relationship problem), with the looming background crisis of a CIA backed pharmaceutical company invading the Moon, to reclaim all the citizens and lands because they are all genetically insane - only to be double-crossed by Terra's entertainment industry, homicidal CIA agents turned scriptwriters, walking talking telepathic slime moulds, RBX303s and government executive love date drink spiking. It is not as funny or as heady as UBIK but certainly is a lot crazier.
Alphane Moon has all the ingredients that you can expect in a good Dick novel but maybe not as much philosophy as it could have delivered on given such a rich premise, but then again Dick is always more suggestive and overall elusive in that he never delivers on it straight in a predictable way and is the reason why second guessing the next page will never turn out the way you expect making Alphane Moon as original as any of his other works with classic characters like CIA robot simulacra and slime moulds that regenerate by sporing when they die, a galactic mini-drama with an innovative design, although crazy in parts, that is exactly what the Alphane Moon is... but then again how do the people from Terra really compare?
This is one of Dick's earlier works and maybe a little more down the avenue of choosing a follow up Dick novel to one of his more readable classics like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or Ubik, where the reader is urged to go first, and certainly try to get in The Man in the High Castle to see how polarized this science-fiction writer is, the latter works towards the end of his career more metaphysical in nature as the writer descended into his own madness or genius (he believed an entity called VALIS was controlling him and even wrote a book about it).
I choose this after reading "The Simulacra" and will move onto the other novel he did that same year "Martian Time-Slip" next. See you there.
Book Review: Neuroses, humor, and hope
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of Dick's funniest novels, in spite of the fact that the plot centers on a lethal marital relationship-Chuck and Mary Rittersdorf are actually trying to kill each other. He is depressed and resigned in the midst of their breakup; she is bitchy and vindictive, planning to take him for all he is worth and more. Their showdown culminates out on the distant moon Alpha III M2, a former hospital world inhabited entirely by the clinically insane. The former patients have adapted well to having been left alone by psychiatrists, living in relative peace with each other by grouping into different "clans" according to their psychosis. Their social functions are defined by their type of abnormality. For example, the Pares (paranoids) live in Adolfville and constitute the statesman class. But there is nothing inherently crazier about their society than the one we find on Earth. It should be noted that the sanest and most empathetic character in the book is Lord Running Clam, a telepathic Ganymedean slime mold, who saves Chuck from suicide and lines him up with a more compatible woman. This is classic PKD with all his usual neuroses but also a good dose of humor and hope.Book Review: Shark Sandwich
Summary: 1 Stars
I love PKD. But this book belongs at the bottom of the PKD pile. Don't make it your first read by PKD. Predictable, underdeveloped, ludicrous, and tedious, without the usual PKD reality or thinking challenges. Sadly, the best character is the slime mold.Book Review: Slime Mold resurrection
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading the Valis trilogy a few years back, I ...started the first couple chapters and wasn't very impressed; so I put it aside and read some other stuff. I always meant to get back to it - and now I finally did. I don't know what I was thinking!!! This book is typical PKD genius - Philosophy, theology, madness, and above all the looming question of "What is real?" - this book has it all. And delivered in a riveting, fast-paced and dizzying style. Even at it's most basic level - a story about a divorced man, down on his luck, trying to cope in a run down apartment - this novel succeeds. This book is one of Dick's best...Book Review: Stuck in The Middle With Lord Running Clam
Summary: 3 Stars
After my latest fugue on Planet Phil, I discovered that I had not reviewed this one. First off, I don't think this is Dick's strongest work but is certainly emblematic. Frustratingly it makes it an ideal entry point for the novice PKD fan but certainly obscures what makes him unique. While not as clunky as "The Pennultimate Truth", I just don't feel that it is Phil firing on all cylinders. While the characters are Dickian, the connect is not as strong as a "Radio Free Abermuth" or a "Valis". It is almost no surprise that the alien, Lord Running Clam, is the most sympathetic character here. Running Clam is almost like the reader in that he is involved but not entirely bonded to the lead character. Now the ideal rating would be three and half as the constant reader of PKD can see that this as a step in the author's movement from world builder to philosopher. Each turn of the plot points towards a unique point of view that pushes SF towards a more personalized vision than a mere excercise in space opera. Admittedly while I found the texture of the plot more interesting than the usual "how is this going to end", I do recognise the cleverness of the construction. And it is certainly more engaging than the dry construction of "The World That Jones Made". Dick is, if not a dazzling stylist, a remarkably focused writer. His interests are crystaline and consistent. It is just here that it is smuggled inside a late 50s/early 60s SF novel. While a novel like, say, "Counter Clock World" is more consistent with later period PKD, this is certainly the breeziest of Phil's novels and much better written than some of his early pieces. So if you are going to read this just make sure to make it part of a double header. Perhaps team it up with "The Man in The High Castle" (A classic with a bit more heart) or "Now Wait For Last Year" (A more mind-melting traditonal SF work from the mid-period). Then make sure to follow up with something really great like the aforementioned "Valis" or "Ubik".