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Summary: meh... this was allllriiiiight
Review: I'm a PKD fan for sure... but, he was such a prolific writer... and he wrote most of his stuff in such a short period of time. And sometimes it really shows.
Clans is a fairly silly book... it has some interesting elements and all in all makes for a good read. However, this is in no way one of PKD's best. I would never recommend it to someone who wasn't already a PKD fan.
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Summary: If you've read every other PKD book...
Review: If you're like me, and you've read every other Philip K. Dick book cover to cover twice, Clans of the Alphane Moon may not be a breath of fresh air, but it is a new plot. Although I found it kind of slow, who knows psychoses better than Dick? There are better ones out there, but you need it for your collection to be complete
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Summary: A choice reprint of an obscure classic from Dick's past.
Review: In spite of many an opinion that this is a post-mortem revival of an unpublished work (I also have a paperback copy from 1964), this is an excellent example of the development of PKD as a writer during this period. The characterizations are crisp and well representational of our own inner reflections of his personal struggle as an independant thinker in a disfunctional world. A brilliant satire of the modern insistence of society to pigeonhole its members, the conflicts and characters show early keys to understanding the developement of later efforts in his writings.
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Summary: A minor work?
Review: Interesting premise, great characters. Sluggish, unsatisfying plot. (I am a huge PKD fan.)
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Summary: Feeble whisper from beyond the grave
Review: Like all the other posthumous PKD novels ("The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike," etc.) this novel needs no further explanation for why it wasn't published during the great man's lifetime. Really, there's no reason to waste any time with it when you have a (well-edited, suspenseful) simulacrum called "Valis," his never-topped Hugo winner from 1963 ("The Man in the High Castle") and a much spicier, sadder and more compelling '70s period romp ("A Scanner Darkly"). This is really nothing more than a draft, and readers who think this is a masterpiece just haven't read enough of the master to tell the difference. The grave robbers should have been content with their "Total Recall" residuals and left the corpse alone.
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Summary: Give this book to your shrink!
Review: Philip K. Dick had an on-again off-again relationship with the physchological crowd, and this absurdist novel sends up all the seriousness and pseudo science. Characters get trapped in their self-defined neuroses and adapt their traits to the rigors of interplanetary colonization. After reading it, ask yourself how these characters would do empaneled on Oprah. Only remember, the book was written in the fifties! PKD sure saw victim culture coming! It's a terrific book. Buy it
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Summary: Dick's most misunderstood and underated work.
Review: Phillip Dick was one the most philosophic of modern American writers. "Clans of the Alphane Moon", may be his most deeply personal revelation of what he saw as "Reality". Ultimate truth was his goal; a truth in the guise of science fiction. Undiluted Philip Dick can be a bit difficult even to veterans of his multi-dimensional perspective. "Clan" is not for the faint of heart. In my opinion it is his most misunderstood and underrated work.
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Summary: Very Good
Review: Really enjoyed i
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Summary: Psychiatry Humiliated!
Review: The idiocy of modern psychiatric notions are devastatingly exposed in this 1964 book by the master of the mind-bending novel. Follow the adventures of Chuck Rittersdorf as he tries to excape from the clutches of his shrewish, domineering wife who maneuvers him to the third moon of the Alpha star system where a lost colony of 'nuts' has long since been abandoned. But are they nuts? "Clinically": yes. But in actuality they're as 'normal' as the rest of us; that is, all screwed up.
The CIA is involved in its usual machinations but Chuck wins through in the end, loses his wife and gets the girl with the help of a telepathic Ganymedean slime mold. One of Dick's funniest and most pointed stories. And at $4.45 you can't go wrong for one of the best reads you'll ever have
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Summary: my favorite Dick!
Review: There are precious few books by Dick I haven't read yet, and I still consider this one to be my very favorite.
All of the classic, wonderful Dick themes are represented: Paranoia, conspiracy, maliciously evil women, simulacra, assassination attempts, and a telepathic slime mold from the planet Ganymede named Lord Running Clam, who may be the best Dick character ever written.
Of all Dick's books, this one made me laugh out loud and shake my head with amusement the most. I would recommend it to hardcore Dick fans and first time Dick samplers alike.
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