Clans of the Alphane Moon

Name: Clans of the Alphane Moon
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Philip K. Dick
ISBN: 9798894863764

Author: Philip K. Dick

Narrator: David Aaron Baker

Unabridged: 8 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/17/2026

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

From Philip K. Dick, the Hugo Award–winning author of The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—the basis for the film Blade Runner—Clans of the Alphane Moon explores the meaning of mental illness through the actions of people with clinical disorders and those of the doctors tasked with curing them. For years, the third moon in the Alphane system was used as a psychiatric hospital. But when war broke out between Earth and the Alphanes, the hospital was left unguarded and the inmates set up their own society, made up of competing factions based around each mental illness. When Earth sends a delegation to take back the colony, they find enclaves of depressives, schizophrenics, paranoiacs, and other mentally ill people coming together to repel what they see as a foreign invasion. Meanwhile, back on Earth, CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf and his wife Mary are going through a bitter divorce, with Chuck losing everything. But when he is assigned to clandestinely control an android accompanying Mary to the Alphane moon, he sees an opportunity to get his revenge.

About Philip K. Dick

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, PHILIP K. DICK (1928–1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned to deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Manny on April 28, 2014

The doorbell buzzed. Manny opened to find a breast-heavy young woman in a Venusian sludge-silk blouse. She had something in her hand. Without waiting for an invitation, she entered the dingy conapt and looked around her. "Otis said to bring this," she said, holding out the package. "He thought it cou......more

Goodreads review by Brett on May 02, 2021

I thought this was OK. From the get-go I was intrigued by the back story of patients from a mental facility evolving into a dysfunctioning society. But then the underlying plot of CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf and his wife took away from the potential of the mental patients. The plot was highly imagin......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on March 03, 2018

I started this book knowing nothing only to realize I had just fallen into the deep end of nutsville. Literally. The inhabitants of Alphane Moon are full of crazies. Certified mental hospital escapees. Of course, that hasn't stopped them from building a skewy-functional society over 20 years full of......more

Goodreads review by David on January 06, 2024

My 9th PKD novel. ~ and this is pretty much a flat-out comedy! WOO-HOO! It's always welcome when Dick interjects humor into one of his books; a number of them have a somewhat-generous sprinkling. But 'Clans...' is special in that regard. He must have found himself in a particularly buoyant mood. Odd......more

Goodreads review by Apatt on December 25, 2015

Read in November, 2015 but the review was accidentally deleted due to bone headedness. Thank you Cachedview.com for helping me rescue this review from the fifth dimension. Goodbye 24 Likes and nice comments and observations from my GR friends. 60s PKDs are some of the most weirdly funny sci-fi ever,......more