The Man in the High Castle
by Philip K. Dick
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2892)
it's difficult to write about this book... the plot is simple enough: an alternate history detailing what would happen had the axis powers won the second world war. thankfully, there is very little of that obvious and dull government intrigue and new-world-order shit that lesser writers focus on -- rather, Dick takes on the spiritual life of the individual in a totalitarian society as his main concern... it's a wonderfully messy jumble of ideas and ruminations on race and history and human conn...more
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Read in July, 2007
This is an alternative-history novel with a twist. It is the 1960s in North America, and after the axis powers won World War 2, the former United States is divided into Japanese-controlled Pacific States of America on the west coast, the German-controlled United States on the east coast, and the neutral Rocky Mountain States in between. In this neutral zone lives The Man in the High Castle, the writer of an alternative-history novel describing the world as it would have been if Germany and Japan...more
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Read in January, 2008
Dick is generally known for his science fiction that blends mysticism and philosophy in a dystopian future. His novels and stories are products of his neurosis (he was diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic and his condition was exasperated by amphetamine abuse) and his reaction to the rise of technology in the human condition. Generally, Dick's novels ask serious questions about humanity and consciousness, hence is plays on perspective and sometimes the unraveling of entire plots as the narrative c...more
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Read in April, 2008
I have never been much of a fan of 'alternate reality' fiction, and as such it took me a long time to get around to reading this Philip K. Dick novel, written in the early 60's. I have to admit, the only reason I read it is because it was the only of Dick's works to win a Hugo award, and so I figured there had to be something special about it.
As it turns out, the book was well worth my time, although it's not a book for everyone. Set in the 60's, the book examines a world in which Japan an...more
As it turns out, the book was well worth my time, although it's not a book for everyone. Set in the 60's, the book examines a world in which Japan an...more
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Read in April, 2007
Dick maintained that all his fiction was realistic. Sometimes this amounts to an omnipotent, childish motive in which one's inner thought directly changes the reality of others. But in this book, somehow this idea works.
Two aspects that impressed me in this book: how the author imagined the inner subjective worlds of his characters under a different political and social order--and expresses it in the very language these characters think through--especially the mental makeup of those colonized...more
Two aspects that impressed me in this book: how the author imagined the inner subjective worlds of his characters under a different political and social order--and expresses it in the very language these characters think through--especially the mental makeup of those colonized...more
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I'll start with the positives.
The alternate reality of a world where the Axis won WWII is very interesting and well thought out in my opinion. Also, the characters in this book seem realistically complex and deep, especially when compared to those in the other books I've read recently (Snow Crash and Neuromancer). Juliana was particularly interesting and her scenes were very well written. Generally the plot line is pretty good.
But as good as the characters are, I did find that the main ...more
The alternate reality of a world where the Axis won WWII is very interesting and well thought out in my opinion. Also, the characters in this book seem realistically complex and deep, especially when compared to those in the other books I've read recently (Snow Crash and Neuromancer). Juliana was particularly interesting and her scenes were very well written. Generally the plot line is pretty good.
But as good as the characters are, I did find that the main ...more
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Read in July, 2008
This book had quite a different feel from other books by the same author. I really enjoy Philip's writing because he's always asking the same question: "What is real?" He's pretty obsessed with that question, and if you know about his personal life it makes sense. The thing about this book is that I enjoyed it, but I want to read it again, more carefully, now that I have a sense of it. It's a book that I would've like to have read in a college level course so that I could hear the prof...more
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Read in January, 2008
An alternate history with a science-fiction twist! The author explores a victory in World War II by Germany and Japan, with most of the United States under Reich or "Home Islands" control. There are a lot of ideas packed into this novel, about history, time, authoritarianism, art and artifact, identity, human relations, cultural conflict, etc. The Man in the High Castle won a Hugo award for SF, and it is easy to see why. The end of this book keeps you going through the last page. I fou...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
alternate history enthusiasts, nerds, and peole that like the I Ching
This is not a perfect book, but it is a brilliant one. That earns it the fifth star. :)
Philip K. Dick apparently utilized the I Ching himself; it's a well-done conceit, as the novel itself details a cast of characters dependent on the Book of Changes for their every decision. In short, it's the early 1960's, the United States stayed neutral in WWII, and subsequently suffered massive defeat and partition at the hands of both Hitler's Reich and ...more
Philip K. Dick apparently utilized the I Ching himself; it's a well-done conceit, as the novel itself details a cast of characters dependent on the Book of Changes for their every decision. In short, it's the early 1960's, the United States stayed neutral in WWII, and subsequently suffered massive defeat and partition at the hands of both Hitler's Reich and ...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
classic sci fi lovers
When I was first getting into scifi, way back sometime around the Norman invasion (or was it the signing of the Magna Carta?), I heard from some review or something that Philip K Dick was a terrible misogynist. Thus, I never wanted to read his books. Then, in my senior year of college, I watched Blade Runner in one of Geller's classes (cause she is awesome) and decided to read the book it was based upon. What a great book! I looked around for misogyny but it didn't seem any worse than your u...more
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Read in October, 2007
The strength of the story largely rests on its premise as an alternate history, presenting a world in which Japan and Nazi Germany were the victors in WWII. His descriptions of a Japanese and Nazi-led world are interesting if largely unrealistic, amounting to something like political horror with hints of a genocide in Africa and the reconstitution of slavery in the American South. The book contains a number of parrallel plot-lines, which are interesting but don't really deliver. Most annoying...more
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An interesting take on the 'Alternative history' genre of Science fiction. Dick himself didn't consider this to be among his Sci Fi work and was one of the few books he wrote that got published by a main stream publisher during his lifetime (most of his books were published by a sci-fi pulp publisher called Ace who payed by the word and printed 'double backs';two books in one).
A lot of the book is put into constructing this alternative world, not through overt means but mostly by way of char...more
A lot of the book is put into constructing this alternative world, not through overt means but mostly by way of char...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Nancy by:
Peter and Marisa
Philip Dick's drama takes place fifteen years after WWII in a world conquered by Nazi Germany and Japan. We are in the United States. It has been divided between Germany and Japan. The main characters are people living in the West...dominated by Japan. Each individual drama is an interesting point of view of the larger nightmare. The Asian Oracle, I Ching, is used skillfully by most of the characters to help them understand what's going on in their lives....The book moves very quickly and is ...more
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What should had happened if Nazist Germany had won World War II? This novel is a possible answer to the question and it's a rare example of "earthly science fiction".
Quoting the Italian title of the book, Swastika is over the sun and Dick tries to explain us the reasons why.
Yet I remember how I was disappointed while reading at this book for the relatively few interesting elements given by the author. I mean, starting from such a premise Dick could use more imagination while ...more
Quoting the Italian title of the book, Swastika is over the sun and Dick tries to explain us the reasons why.
Yet I remember how I was disappointed while reading at this book for the relatively few interesting elements given by the author. I mean, starting from such a premise Dick could use more imagination while ...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone!
After reading A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I was hungry for more Philip K Dick. I picked this up, as it had won a Hugo. It deserves a Hugo and a half. When describing the premise of this book to people (Allies lose World War 2, World divided by Reich and Japan), everyone assumed it would be an epic novel that would end with the Axis being overthrown. It does not. This book is more personal, about the emotional journeys of individual characters, and it is far more sat...more
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recommends it for:
Anyone who likes things that don't suck
The esteem in which Dick is held seems to be growing as his untimely death recedes into the past - all the better. Philip K. Dick is arguably the best American author of the second half of the twentieth century, and certainly it's most prophetic; Today's world, mediated and virtual, becomes ever more the world that inhabits Dick's best work.
This novel, however, is not Dick's best. It's got a great meta-reading moment at then end that will make your brain pause completely for a good ten sec...more
This novel, however, is not Dick's best. It's got a great meta-reading moment at then end that will make your brain pause completely for a good ten sec...more
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Well, I read this book only because the alternate history approach seemed so appealing, and yeah it was. After the allies got defeated europe turned into "third reich" and Nazi Germany also was in control of the eastern part of the US while the western coast was part of Japan. A small fraction of the US was still independent. I like the way of Dick letting us follow the lives of different people separately from a main storyline, and this is what moves the book forward. There are som pa...more
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Read in June, 2001
For some strange reason I was expecting an Iain Banks-ish kind of story here. I have no idea why. This is an alternate-history tale, set in the western U.S. a couple of decades after the loss of WWII to the Nazis and Japanese. It's a bleak setting, with a few interwoven slice-of-life storylines.
I didn't like it.
The use of I Ching, or the oracle, whatever, and its acceptance of truth by everyone bugged me, as did the ending. I'm not one to pretend to understand something when I don't, so it ...more
I didn't like it.
The use of I Ching, or the oracle, whatever, and its acceptance of truth by everyone bugged me, as did the ending. I'm not one to pretend to understand something when I don't, so it ...more
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Read in December, 2007
Great book - P.K. Dick has an amazing talent for describing how people behave, think, react - usually to some fairly extreme external influences - but i guess his writing has never really been about the "science", it's about how people react to it, and of course he makes it work best when those people are stressed, paranoid, and generally having problems.
One really fascinating thing with this book is how he managed to change writing styles to reflect/impart different cultural atitude...more
One really fascinating thing with this book is how he managed to change writing styles to reflect/impart different cultural atitude...more
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