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Radio Free Albemuth

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A posthumously published novel by Philip K. Dick, Radio Free Albemuth is essentially a rewrite of his prvious novel Valis, with many of the strong elements of gnosticism in the latter work removed. The alternate history plot concerns the corrupt US President Fremont (a character with elements of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon) and the resistance movement to him, which is organised by a superintelligent, extraterrestrial, omnipotent being named VALIS, who is identified with God. Perhaps his most autobiographical novel (Dick himself is a major character), the book deals with his highly-personal style of Christianity (or Gnosticism), the moral repercussions of being an informer for the authorities, and his dislike of the Republican Party, in addition to his recurring themes of identity and reality.