Clans of the Alphane Moon
Clans of the Alphane Moon is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick that explores mental illness and the definition of crazy. Based on Dick's 1954 short story "Shell Game", originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. Second paperback edition published by Ace Books 11036 ($0.75).
Softcover. Second Ace Paperback Edition. New York: Ace Books, 1972. Levack 4c. #11134.
Cover price scratched out and store stamp inside cover, else a near fine copy with lightly creased spine.
Clans of the Alphane Moon is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, written during one of his most prolific periods. Alpha III M2 is a former psychiatric institution located on a satellite moon inside the Alpha Centauri (“Alphane”) star system. Since being abandoned the inhabitants of the Alphane Moon have formed themselves into caste-like groups determined by their clinical diagnoses. There are the Pares, people suffering from paranoia; the Manses, people suffering from mania; the Skitzes, Heebs, and Polys, all suffering from different types of schizophrenia; and the Ob-Coms and the Deps, the obsessive compulsives and clinically depressed. Sent on an expedition with questionable motives to the Alphane Moon are the CIA agent, Chuch Rittersford, and his telepathic slime mold companion and advisor, Lord Running Clam.