Radio Free Albemuth
by Philip K. Dick · first published 1985
60% recommend27% neutral13% critical
Why HN recommends it
An early, shorter Philip K. Dick novel that serves as an accessible entry point. It offers a compact rewrite of the VALIS ideas and suits readers already familiar with his work who want to see those themes develop.
Common criticism: Several note it is not among his best novels and can disappoint as a first Dick read.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Science fiction novel, a wild and visionary alternate history of the United States. It is 1969, and a paranoid president has convulsed America in a vicious war against imaginary internal enemies. As the country slides into fascism, a struggling science-fiction writer named Philip K. Dick is trying to keep from becoming one of that war's casualties. Meanwhile, Dick's best friend, a record executive named Nicholas Brady, is receiving transmissions from an extraterrestrial intelligence, which he dubs Valis, who apparently wants him to overthrow the president.
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2023–2025Divine invasions
Lawrence Sutin
Recommended by 3 · mentioned by 33 recommend · 3 mention3 recommend · 33 recommend
2010–2026Flow my tears, the policeman said
Philip K. Dick
Recommended by 10 · mentioned by 2010 recommend · 20 mention10 recommend · 2010 recommend
2014–2026The Divine Invasion
Philip K. Dick
Recommended by 6 · mentioned by 106 recommend · 10 mention6 recommend · 106 recommend
2010–2025The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
Philip K. Dick, Joyce Bean, Carlos Peralta
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 154 recommend · 15 mention4 recommend · 154 recommend
2012–2026The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Philip K. Dick
Recommended by 19 · mentioned by 3819 recommend · 38 mention19 recommend · 3819 recommend
2014–2025Galactic pot-healer
Philip K. Dick
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 105 recommend · 10 mention5 recommend · 105 recommend
2017–2025We can build you
Philip K. Dick, Dan John Miller
0 recommend · 6 mentioned0 recommend · 6 mention0 recommend · 60 recommend
The VALIS trilogy and his exegesis are probably the most philosophical but almost most impenetrable of his works. Some of his intermediate period stuff, like Flow My Tears the Policeman Said and Radio Free Albemuth is a softer landing, as you can see the ideas that lead to his later work building from his earlier more facile metaphysics. I re-read his corpus last year in the order he wrote them -and finished feeling…
on “The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look” ↗…fan I broadly agree with the highlighting choices. My only further suggestion would be, maybe for the final "body and soul" category or maybe for those who already have some familiarity with the author, Radio Free Albemuth. This has an interesting history: PKD declined to make changes requested by the publishers who appeared unhappy with the novel's political content - it is in part a biting satire on Nixon era politics…
on “The Essential Philip K. Dick” ↗I've asked AI to help some, and maybe it's me who hallucinated it, but something that's super stuck with me from reading Philip K Dick's VALIS trilogy/Radio Free Albemuth were two dual modes: of the scorching mid-day heat of the Palm Tree Garden, a sweltering heat of the sun/that red even with your eyes closed, then at night, a sort of relief, an un-watched-over state.…
on “How the 'hypnagogic state' of drowsiness could enhance your creativity” ↗…wife about rare books. I say this to convey ersatz authority on the subject, and I 100% agree with this comment. Ubik is fantastic, and quite hard to read. I’ll add a few more bangers, Flow My Tears, Radio Free Albemuth, Dr. Bloodmoney, and The Zap Gun.
on “The Eyes Have It (1953)” ↗…very good stuff, but I think you need to be already well acquainted with PKD to fully appreciate them and see how his style and ideas were developing. - The Valis Tri/Tetralogy (Valis/Divine Invasion/Radio Free Albemuth/The Transmigration of Timothy Archer). That's where you start to get deep into PKD lore, and you should read about his life to get the context in which they were written. - Most of the short stories…
on “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (1975)” ↗…his you’ve read, you’re really missing out - it’s good, but not his best. I would recommend, and you are welcome to ignore should you choose: Ubik Flow my tears, the policeman said Dr Bloodmoney Radio Free Albemuth Time out of joint A scanner darkly Mary and the giant And finally as an aside, 334 by Thomas Disch. Fun fact: Dick shopped Disch to the feds for in his view pedalling anti-American views. These letters…
on “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (1975)” ↗I love the VALIS trilogy and like to recommend Radio Free Albemuth as an intro book to new PKD readers. It’s basically a rewrite of the trilogy in a single, short novel.
on “The “baseline” scene in bladerunner 2049 was written by Ryan Gosling” ↗Reading VALIS trilogy & latter Radio Free Albemuth was a lifechanging experience, about a core lifechanging PKD encounter. The idea of the BIP is a super strong idea among tbis, an atemproal archin dogging us. Very gnostic to me. There's some Discordianism…
on “Black Iron Prison from Philip K. Dick” ↗I have read a fair bit of pkd and found Valis an unsatisfying struggle. Radio Free Albemuth is an earlier attempt at similar ideas and is accessible.
on “The Essential Philip K. Dick” ↗…that effect"), and that weirdness seeped into his novels. I think you could try one of his semi-autobiographical novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scanner_Darkly or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Albemuth) to see where this weirdness in the more known novels comes from.
on “Translating Akkadian clay tablets with ChatGPT?” ↗…better than what resulted when he tried to write longer works. (This is unfortunate, since many people, when they hear about PKD, think “I’ll pick up one of his novels” and immediately get something like “Radio Free Albemuth”… and then never read something by him again. My aim with my comment was to get those people to try his short stories instead. PKD, unlike most authors, should not be considered a writer of novels,…
on “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (1975)” ↗…Tears, or even Divine Invasion. Supposedly Dick's experience conceived three published novels--Valis, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, and Divine invasion. There is a fourth, unpublished novel--Radio Free Albemuth that came from it as well. Valis seem to be the most personal since it someone named Philip Dick (or Horselover Fat) having the exact same experience then trying to make sense of it. Divine Invasion…
on “The Essential Philip K. Dick” ↗Absolutely. If you want to get a handle on PKD and his problems, it's so much better to read his work and get his own perspective. Radio Free Albemuth is interesting as a kind of precursor to Valis, but I must admit to not wanting to read Exegesis as it looks too in depth.
on “Philip K. Dick's Substance Abuse and Psychosis” ↗Radio Free Albemuth. Not exactly his best novel. Yes, if someone picks some random Dick novel, he's likely to be disappointed and your criticism of such a random Dick novel stands a good chance of being correct. I think…
on “Philip K. Dick: A Visionary Among the Charlatans (1975)” ↗…death. He scrapped the original idea when he decided to make VALIS much more directly about himself and his experiences. ...but in typical PKD fashion, it gets weird, because he adapted the rough plot of Radio Free Albemuth into the book VALIS as a fictional movie called VALIS.
on “The “baseline” scene in bladerunner 2049 was written by Ryan Gosling” ↗