Radio Free Albemuth

"The U.S. and the U.S.S.R., I understood, were the two portions of the Empire as divided up by the Emperor Diocletian for purely administrative purposes; at heart it was a single entity, with a single value system. And its value system was the concept of the supremacy of the state. The individual counted in its scales as nothing, and individuals who turned against the state and generated their own values were the enemy."

Radio Free Albemuth is actually better than I thought it would be. Philip K. Dick's novel is very similar to the other Valis-themed novels of his late period, but more restrained than the more self-referential Valis with less overt Gnostic and Jewish references than Divine Invasion. In fact, I think Dick inserting himself as a character but creating Nicholas as a similarly autobiographical character for his own experiences with Valis succeeds marvelously here. Nicholas, like Dick, not only undergoes a theophany, predicts his infant son's ailment, worked as a clerk in Berkeley, dropped out of the University, and moves from Berkeley to Southern California, but also shares with Dick a similar paranoia and experience of being recruited to spy by the FBI. Phil Dick in the novel is, of course, another extension of the same person, and the juxtaposition of both 'halves' of the same being as narrators works well here. It's familiar ground for any fans of Dick, employed excellently in A Scanner Darkly. Indeed, Radio Free Albemuth brings to mind the optimistic conclusion of Scanner (sowing the seeds) with the dystopic vision of Flow My Tears and conspiratorial Nixonian nightmare of Valis. Like Divine Invasion, one finds two seemingly opposed forces that represent the same evil, Fremont's fascist US and the USSR, united against the people, which could almost be read in a libertarian or leftist light, more likely left-wing given Dick's background with Berkeley bohemia. 

Moving on, Divine Invasion, Christian themes and Gnosticism play a significant role, as well as numerous allusions to Rome, early Christianity, and references to Philip K. Dick's struggle as a writer, artist, and self-doubt. For that reason alone, it's fascinating to read this work. Radio even hints at his late masterpiece, Transmigration of Timothy Archer, through Nicholas's experience with the "professional students" and leftist scenes of Berkeley. Even more so than in Valis, what particularly stands out here is Phil's conversation with Leon, an ex-pastor who stresses the importance of faith and millennialism in the present, material reality (a reality that is, when you stop believing in it, ceases to disappear, to paraphrase Dick). Much like Maze of Death, for those willing to put their faith in Valis or the higher power, beaming to the Aramcheks through satellite, one can still effect change in the surrounding real world of suffering or physical ailment. He somehow manages to avoid hitting the reader over the head with the dense spiritual and religious references. 

As for "ranking" the Valis-period work of Dick, I believe I would rank the four novels in this order:

1. Transmigration: Amazing female narrator and central character, effusive prose, inspired by "true" story of Jim Pike, Christian conspiracy, and a central idea of agape and life after death. 

2. Radio Free Albemuth: More restrained and still exciting Valis hinting at the masterpiece above

3. Valis: An emotional and theological rollercoaster into Dick's life after 1974

4. Divine Invasion: A little too melodramatic and Gnostic for my tastes, but intriguing use of Zoroastrian and Jewish ideas and metaphors with an intriguing conclusion and idea of parousia. 

Side Note: One of Futurama's best episodes revolves around a similar deity/entity Bender encounters in space. Methinks the writers of the show were fans of Philip K. Dick. Unfortunately, the film adaptation of the novel is horrible, and Alanis Morisette does not have the "Afro-natural" hairstyle of the character she plays from the book, Aramchek (I suspect an Afrocentrist reader would have a field day with the hair texture of Aramchek). Similarly, the film, from what I recall, omits the redemptive ending of the novel while underplaying the role of Rachel and Johnny, the wife and son of Nicholas.