Clans of the Alphane Moon in Philip K Dick

Jul 24, 2019 Karl rated it really liked it · review of another edition

New introduction by Robert Silverberg, frontispiece by Hannah Shapero.

"Clans of the Alphane Moon" is based on his 1954 short story "Shell Game", first published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine.

This small habitable moon is an insane asylum. Its patients, abandoned long ago by planetary superpowers, have formed clans based on their respective psychoses. Till now, it's been an unstable yet viable society of psychopaths. But when Mary Rittersdorf, an over-zealous social worker, attempts to rehosp ...more

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May 31, 2022 Rob rated it it was ok

I’m a big PKD fan, but this book amplifies the worst parts of his writing. The initial premise shows promise, but is never fully realized into anything substantial. If I didn’t have the context from having read and loved some of his other novels, I’m not sure I would have been able to find much value in this at all.

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Dec 05, 2009 Ted Child rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I've read so many of Dick's books that I really enjoyed this one since it was so bizarre, even for Dick, and because it was so quintessentially SF, with laser guns, slime glob aliens and interstellar space travel, without losing the familiar phildickian elements.
Dick clearly had problems with the various women he was married to in his personal life and this translates quite clearly into how the various wives of his protagonists are depicted in his books. Mary Rittersdorf is no exception, show ...more

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