Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Man In The High Castle

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 29,322 ratings · 1,554 reviews

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war - and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an i...more

239 pages

Published (first published 1962)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

The Best Classical Science Fiction Works

77th out of 107 books — 107 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 07, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this book broke my brain.

I mean, it's so many things tied up in a slim little volume - an alt-history "what if Germany and Japan had won the Second World War," a meditation on the inability to ever accurately try to reconstruct what-might-have-beens, one of the most interesting literary experiments I've ever read, a look at chance and fate in how the world unfolds, and a book that can definitely bend your sense of reality.

The alt-history portion takes place after Germany and Japan have d...more I think this book broke my brain.

I mean, it's so many things tied up in a slim little volume - an alt-history "what if Germany and Japan had won the Second World War," a meditation on the inability to ever accurately try to reconstruct what-might-have-beens, one of the most interesting literary experiments I've ever read, a look at chance and fate in how the world unfolds, and a book that can definitely bend your sense of reality.

The alt-history portion takes place after Germany and Japan have divided up North America, after Nazi programs have decimated Africa and started to send rockets to Mars. The action takes place mostly on the West Coast, where the Japanese hold sway. There, we jump between a Japanese trade envoy, a secretly-Jewish craftsman, his estranged wife who teaches judo in a small town in Colorado, a white seller of American "antiquities" to Japanese buyers, and a secret messenger from certain factions in the German regime to certain elements in the Japanese government.

The world that is created is distinctly different from our own, but not impossible to grasp. Dick examines how he thinks Japanese culture would affect San Francisco, and the changes in a society in which the Japanese are the conquering power.

The Man in the High Castle refers to the author of a book within this book, if you follow me. That author, Abendsen, has written an alt-history book about what the world would be like if the Allies had won the war. But it is not a world in which someone has written a book about our world. Abendsen's alt-history differs strongly from our own. But more than that, every time someone mentions the book to someone who hasn't read it yet, each has a theory for what the world would have been like, had the Allies won the war, and no two are alike.

Dick explores the limits of actually attempting to reconstruct what might have happened in any circumstances. The book strongly implies that this is impossible - chance or fate will have its way, and the factors we pick out as important and the ones we dismiss as irrelevant make this a loser's game, if you're going for accuracy.

The I Ching is another recurring theme of the book, and here's where it becomes a fascinating literary experiment. Every time the characters in The Man in the High Castle consult the I Ching, Dick did as well, and used the resulting hexagrams not only in the book, but to shape the subsequent narrative. Despite, or perhaps because of, this trick, the book hangs together remarkably well, becoming a powerful look at interpretation and chance, the moments you can control and those you can't.

The momentum around this builds to the conclusion which scrambled all my thinking for a while. If I remember the paper I heard on this book years ago, writing this book sent Dick a little around the bend into paranoia about the I Ching and the reality of the world.

This book is trippy. There's no two ways about it. It is also audacious, thought-provoking and rewards attention and, I imagine, will hold up to rereads. I look forward to tackling it again in a few years and seeing what I discover the second time.

Crossposted to Smorgasbook (less)

72 likes · like · see review

Jun 12, 2012 brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

the plot is simple enough: an alternate history detailing what would've happened had the axis powers won the second world war. thankfully, there's very little of that obvious government intrigue and new-world-order shit that lesser writers focus on -- rather, Dick's obsession is the spiritual life of the individual in a totalitarian society told in the form of a wonderfully messy jumble of ideas and ruminations on race and history and human connection and destiny. in fact, i think dick's ideas a...more the plot is simple enough: an alternate history detailing what would've happened had the axis powers won the second world war. thankfully, there's very little of that obvious government intrigue and new-world-order shit that lesser writers focus on -- rather, Dick's obsession is the spiritual life of the individual in a totalitarian society told in the form of a wonderfully messy jumble of ideas and ruminations on race and history and human connection and destiny. in fact, i think dick's ideas are so powerful, they somewhat take over the novel... his characterizations, on the other hand, are not as strong as they could be; as a result, they're crushed under the weight of plot and idea...

imagine a hybrid of, say, Philip K. Dick and Richard Yates? he'd pump out a few of the greatest novels ever written. that said, i expected a novel of utter strangeness and great ideas and got it; what i didn't expect was such a human and humane one.

well, there's only so much to say, best to read these passages:

on the Nazi leaders of America:

"Their view; it is cosmic. Not of a man here, a child there, but an abstraction: race, land. Volk. Land. ...It is their sense of space and time. They see through the here, the now, into the vast black deep beyond, the unchanging. And that is fatal to life. Because eventually there will be no life; there was once only the dust particles in space, the hot hydrogen gases, nothing more, and it will come again. This is an interval, ein Augenblick. The cosmic process is hurrying on, crushing life back into granite and methane; the wheel turns for all life. It is all temporary. And they - these madmen - respond to the granite, the dust, the longing of the inanimate; they want to aid Natur.... And, he thought, I know why. They want to be agents, not the victims, of history."

And there's an obsession with objects in the book... with the spiritual 'life' of objects. check this passage:

She said, 'what is "historicity"?'

'When a thing has history in it. Listen. One of those two Zippo lighters was in Franklin D. Roosevelt's pocket when he was assassinated. And one wasn't. One has historicity, a hell of a lot of it. As much as any object ever had. And one has nothing .... You can't tell which is which. There's no "mystical plasmic presence", no "aura" around it...

A gun goes through a famous battle, like the Meuse-Argonne, and it's the same as if it hadn't, unless you know. It's in here." He tapped his head. "In the mind, not the gun"'

good shit.(less)

50 likes · like · see review

Mar 02, 2013 Werner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Science fiction fans

Recommended to Werner by: It was required reading in a graduate-level course in science fi

Shelves: science-fiction, alternate-worlds

Note, March 2, 2013: A recent comment on this review prompted me to reread it, and I discovered a typo --I'd accidentally omitted a key word in one sentence! So I've just edited it to correct that mistake.

It has been said that Dick was the most skeptical writer in the history of science fiction towards the idea that the world of normal human perception actually reflects ultimate reality. After his thought and writing took a more Christian turn in the early 1970s (though he was always a professed...more Note, March 2, 2013: A recent comment on this review prompted me to reread it, and I discovered a typo --I'd accidentally omitted a key word in one sentence! So I've just edited it to correct that mistake.

It has been said that Dick was the most skeptical writer in the history of science fiction towards the idea that the world of normal human perception actually reflects ultimate reality. After his thought and writing took a more Christian turn in the early 1970s (though he was always a professed Episcopalian) he ultimately came to the belief that the 20th-century world is an illusion caused by Satan and that we are actually living in the period described in the New Testament book of Acts. In this earlier work, the religious influence comes more from Eastern thought, particularly the Hindu-Buddhist idea of maya, the concept that our material world is a veil of illusion masking the true reality. (Dick also refers to the Chinese I Ching, and reportedly used that method to divine the different turns his plot should take.) The alternate world scenario described above is only one competing "reality" in the book. Several of the characters pay a great deal of attention to a novel in which the course of World War II was very different than it was in their world, though not identical to events in our world, either (the author of that novel is the titular "man in the high castle"). At one point, one character temporarily slips into a reality very different from his own; and the reader is always aware that our own perceptual world is entirely different. Dick's message appears to be that NONE of these worlds (including ours) is any more "real" than the others; all are to some extent illusory fictions.

Even within the context of their own alternate world, Dick structures events and dialogue to make it clear that his characters' perceptions are subject to a very high degree of distortion and illusion. They can be altered by drugs, states of temporary insanity, ideological prejudices, and misunderstandings of other people's speech and behavior. People often lie, to themselves and to each other; supposed valuable antiques (or other treasures) may turn out to be clever fakes, and people's real identities may be hidden.

Though this is a novel of ideas, it has action and incident that keeps the plot moving and holds the attention; the characters are real and evoke our interest, and the prose is vivid and free-flowing. Dick very artfully uses the content of the book to effectively communicate his message by showing, rather than preaching, it. IMO, the literary quality of this work fully merited the Hugo it received!(less)

34 likes · like · see review

Apr 11, 2013 Anthony Vacca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-lo-fi, 2013

Also posted at SHELF INFLICTED

I don’t know why this is, but for some reason at the library where I work as a sexy librarian (catwoman glasses and tight turtleneck sweaters are standard issue) it has been decided by my co-workers that I am the go to guy when it comes to all matters concerning science fiction and fantasy novels. I find this odd considering I haven’t read a fantasy novel in about eight years and I can count the number of sci-fi novels I have read in my life on one metaphorical hand...more

35 likes · like · see review

Apr 02, 2013 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Richard by: SciFi & Fantasy Group 2010-05 SciFi Selection

Shelves: scifi, bookclub, classic, california, san-francisco, my-best-reviews

I’ve always enjoyed the idea of Philip K. Dick, but have to admit that I haven’t read as much of his work as I might like. After all, he is a difficult author, so it is easier to enjoy his works in the adaptations of others. I have read some though and, based on that, The Man in the High Castle is the best I’ve read yet.

Dick has several problems as an author. His drug use and chaotic lifestyle are widely accepted explanations for the slap-dash quality of some of his output. It does seem sometim...more

18 likes · like · see review

Oct 29, 2012 Ken-ichi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, escape

On Wednesday I found myself at a party (an occurrence itself worthy of remark) at which everyone wore "I'm currently reading..." stickers, so I had several opportunities to explain why I was loving The Man in the High Castle. One such conversation went like this:

"So what's that about?"
"Well, it's scifi. Or rather speculative fiction."
"Er, hm. No. I don't do scifi."
"But it's got Nazis!"
"Oh my god I love Nazis!"

Another conversation involved me explaining to a white guy how interesting I (a half-Ja...more

17 likes · like · see review

Jan 26, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Becky by: Me

Shelves: 2012, real-life-bookclub, reviewed, science-fiction, ww2, political, nook, multi-dimensional, holocaust-and-atrocities, dystopias, blog_etb, challenge-1010

Preface: I chose this book for my very first real life bookclub meeting ever. There was also much drinking (by me) at this meeting, so... if my review is less than coherent, well, actually, I think that's fitting, isn't it?

So, right. I chose this book blindly. Never read PKD before, although I have seen a few of the movies based on his work, and they are all interesting, to say the least. Having just read the amazetastic 11/22/63 by the King, I was in something of an alternate history mindset,...more Preface: I chose this book for my very first real life bookclub meeting ever. There was also much drinking (by me) at this meeting, so... if my review is less than coherent, well, actually, I think that's fitting, isn't it?

So, right. I chose this book blindly. Never read PKD before, although I have seen a few of the movies based on his work, and they are all interesting, to say the least. Having just read the amazetastic 11/22/63 by the King, I was in something of an alternate history mindset, and so TMITHC was chosen.

Nerves were on edge while I anxiously awaited the meeting to see what people thought. Hell, to see what I thought, even, because I finished it literally minutes before the meeting. Because I'm a slacker procrastinator who barely started it this week and read 90% of it between last night and today. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed this quite a lot, even though "enjoy" isn't really the word that comes to mind first... maybe "pondered"? Let's try that one out: "I pondered this quite a lot." Yes. That works. I pondered, and I discovered that I arrived at many more positive feelings than negative, and thus the term "enjoyed" enters into my vocabulary. I'm pleased to announce that my bookclub-mates also arrived at ponder-positive assessments. Bookclub choice #1: Success!

I feel like this is the type of book that begs to be re-read. I don't feel like I really "got" very much of it... or maybe I do/did and I'm
just overthinking it? I don't know. Parts of it really frustrated and unnerved me, and I found myself angrily typing notes on my nook, like how "Lotze can go screw himself the shit" and "yay!! Baynes - show that shit what fear is!" and "seriously?!??!" (These are actual notes that I made while reading. That last one makes sense in context, I promise.). Parts of it were disturbingly unnerving in a "can't look away from the train wreck" kind of way. Fascinating and horrific at the same time.

There were some very interesting concepts in this book, and I thought that PKD did a fantastic job at capturing the different cultural nuances of both the Japanese and Germans. At first I was concerned that I wouldn't like the book because the writing was off-putting. Clipped sentences. No connecting words. Interrupted thought proc--. Then I realized that this was on purpose, after it switched for a bit, and I was actually really impressed. It worked well. The concept of Place was interesting to me, though not because I'd want to live with it. I would be Place-fucked because I can't be bothered to constantly worry about the formality of every single situation. Seriously, who has time to worry about whether the random person on the street is judging you for carrying your own bag, or walking when you could take a cab? Not me. No Place Becky, that's what they'd call me. But hey, at least I know my Place. Zing!

Anyway... I really enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to reading more PKD in the future. Yes indeedy. :)(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Dec 20, 2011 Emanuela rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, narrativa-straniera, fantapolitica

Ciò che vorrei dire di questo libro è ancora nebuloso nella mia mente. Vedo un po' se l'idea si dipana e si chiarisce strada facendo.
Si tratta di sciogliere delle sovrapposizioni, di vederle singolarmente e di ricomporle in una sintesi, il tutto senza svelare la trama del romanzo perché toglierei all'eventuale lettore il gusto della scoperta. Incrocio le dita.

Partirei dal titolo: "La svastica sul sole" potrebbe avere come significato "Il sole sul sole ": la svastica o svastika rappresenta secon...more

8 likes · like · see review

May 05, 2012 AC rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, fascism

(Best to skip the review and go right to the comments!)

Dick seems to have been a very good writer who could have been a magnificient writer -- but who just had too much of the hack in him. He had an astonishinly fertile and vivid imagination, and the ability to bring the reader to a seriousness that is utterly convincing, only to descend into useless plot twists, pseudo-mysticisms (iChing, and the like. It appears, in fact, as if he would start with a great idea, a few star paragraphs (like Bayn...more

15 likes · like · see review

May 23, 2012 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

An alternative history tale set in a US where the Axis powers won the Second World War. America has been divided into a Japanese colony on the West Coast, a German colony on the East Coast and sort of a midwest buffer state between the two. The themes of the two intertwined stories are familiar to PKD veterans; People are not who they seem to be, reality is not as real as you might think, the counterfeit is indistinguishable from the "real". Paranoia and epistemological rantings abound.

This is n...more

12 likes · like · see review

Jan 01, 2013 Tatiana rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sciencefiction

Just started reading this so I'm not sure yet what I think about it. I got it because Ursula K. Le Guin said at one point that it was the best science fiction novel ever, or something like that. So far it's done one cool thing which is show me my American privilege, that I'm not usually very aware of. Everyone in the world wants to learn to speak English. Nobody looks askance at me because I'm in too nice a neighborhood for my ethnicity. And I don't feel like a stranger or outsider in my own cou...more Just started reading this so I'm not sure yet what I think about it. I got it because Ursula K. Le Guin said at one point that it was the best science fiction novel ever, or something like that. So far it's done one cool thing which is show me my American privilege, that I'm not usually very aware of. Everyone in the world wants to learn to speak English. Nobody looks askance at me because I'm in too nice a neighborhood for my ethnicity. And I don't feel like a stranger or outsider in my own country. The racism and anti-semitism of this society are much worse than us here now, but part of it is that what there is doesn't happen to people of my ethnicity and skin color. That reversal is very interesting to explore. The sexism, though, seems completely unconscious, as is unsurprising for the early 60s. So that's doubly ironic. More to come later.

The novel dropped down behind my bed for a few days, but tonight I fished it out and finished it. I realized I didn't much like any of the characters or any of the action so far, when I faced my reluctance to get down and find it under the bed. The action became compelling shortly afterward, but I still found the ending very unsatisfying. Maybe in 1962 just the fact of an alternate history was sufficient to make it cool? Maybe knowing that he actually used the I Ching in writing the book makes it cool, in some 60s hippy way? Maybe the suggestion that truth is contingent, that history isn't fixed, was why people liked it so much? I mean, UKL loved it! I'm kind of appalled at that. Am I so dumb that I just don't get it? Or did that boat sail in 1965 or so and 47 years later it's just too dated to be good anymore? I'm not really sure.

In what sense was the book-within-the-book actually true inside the book (as the oracle declares at the end)? In what sense is the book actually true inside our world? The book-within-the-book that the oracle declares as truth is not equivalent to our world, not even back then when he wrote it. A number of major things are different, including Churchill still being in power and Hitler living to be tried as a war criminal. So why is it true? Is it just that reality, history is a matter of the imagination? I don't think I'll be seeking out and reading more PKD on the strength of this one. Please, people who loved it, feel free to explain why I'm wrong in the comments.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 15, 2009 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, fiction

I'm not going to spend too much time on this one, since folks way more steeped in sci-fi than I am have written some fine reviews on this novel. I do however believe it deserves its fame. On surface the alternative world Dick created is OK. The Germans and Japanese win World War II. (Sounds like a bad novel dream of Newt Gingrich.) The strength of the novel lies with its characters (my favorites were Juliana Frink and Nobuske Tagomi). Possibly because in two remarkable chapters (13 & 14) in...more

14 likes · like · see review

Feb 08, 2013 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who enjoys alternate history

Recommended to Bill by: nobody

Shelves: alternate-history, bill-s-favourites, sci-fi

One of my all-time favourite SciFi stories. I've read many times; the first time while at university back 74ish. Great concept, got me interested in the I Ching. So much to it.

Update 08 Feb 2013

Read this for the third or fourth time this past week. As good as ever. It's a story that passes the test of time. Such an interesting concept. It's the first alternate history type story that I ever read. It's an alternate history within an alternate history. The basic premise is that Japan and Germany w...more

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 25, 2012 Yahya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am ashamed to admit that this is the first novel by Philip K. Dick (1928-82) that I've read. He is considered to be among the most seminal writers in twentieth-century American science fiction. Eleven (and counting) of his books have achieved great posthumous popularity through Hollywood adaptions such as Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002). The Man in the High Castle (1962) is widely regarded as being his finest novel, so I came to it with high expectations. I...more I am ashamed to admit that this is the first novel by Philip K. Dick (1928-82) that I've read. He is considered to be among the most seminal writers in twentieth-century American science fiction. Eleven (and counting) of his books have achieved great posthumous popularity through Hollywood adaptions such as Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002). The Man in the High Castle (1962) is widely regarded as being his finest novel, so I came to it with high expectations. I wasn’t disappointed.

The novel is set is an alternative future America, divided between the victors, Japan and Germany, after the Second World War, but, unlike a lot of other counterfactual historical fiction, Dick foregrounds the struggles of ordinary people to lay bare what messy surprises defeat brings to Americans as does victory to the Japanese. There are five main characters in the book whose paths are all interconnected, and they are real fleshed-out characters who live in a severely compromised world as best they can. The two main characters, Mr Tagomi, a minor trade functionary on the West Coast, and Julia Frink, an aimless divorcee, have their commitment to the philosophy of the I Ching tested in very different ways. Dick contrasts the Taoist philosophy of interconnection and synchronicity with a mechanistic Western machine-like view of cause and effect.

The high politics is mostly in the novel's background in which the battle for a new Nazi Chancellor threatens further war. Clearly Dick’s fascination the I Ching and Taoist philosophy and some measure of sympathy for the Japanese mean that they portrayed at least in shades of grey. Despite their racism and sense of cultural chauvinism and partial complicity in German crimes, the Japanese, personified by Mr Tagoni and others, try to be decent and do the right thing within the constraints of a military occupation. For Dick, the real monsters are the Germans who have continued their expansion to include some of the inner planets of the solar system and continued mass genocide in Africa. There is also a book within the book, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, banned by both the Japanese and Germans, that heralds a different future in which the British and the Americans win.

The novel is sober, subtly constructed, and tightly plotted. Dick disliked tidy endings as he rightly felt that life itself was rarely neat: so the ending here is 'messy' inasmuch as the characters look to a future that is highly unresolved. Thought-provoking and highly recommended.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 16, 2012 Andrew rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm going to be honest, I'm not really sure what I think of this book.

There was like this weird interconnected plotline between all the characters, but I don't think it was even really relevant to anything. Japan and Germany won World War II. America has these little hold out places and The Man in the High Castle wrote an alternative history book where America and Great Britain won the war instead. Then you have this whole antique collection angle and people schemeing to reignite wars. I just ha...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 01, 2009 Aerin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, science-fiction, americana, twisty-turny, alt-history

The Man in the High Castle is almost too strange to be enjoyable. Besides Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, it's probably Dick's most famous novel, and the one that popularized the alternate history genre. I've wanted to read it for awhile, not just because it's one of those Important Sci-Fi Novels That All Fans Must Read, but because it sounded dystopian and interesting. All I knew about it was the premise: the Axis powers win WWII.

Set in the then-present day of 1962, The Man in the High ...more

15 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2011 Lynn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Man, this is one weird book! It's a nightmare-come-true scenario, where the Axis powers - Germany and Japan (Italy has been sidelined) have won the Second WW, and have carved up the globe and run it their way. Only they are at each other's throats, using fair means and foul, to control the world. The Japanese seem to want to atone, for example, by preserving pieces of America's lost heritage, such as a Mickey Mouse watch (!), while the Germans continue their genocidal path, for instance, by drai...more

1 like · like · see review

May 19, 2012 Arwen56 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi

Oh, madonnina. Ma quanto sfigata sono ultimamente? Finisco di leggere, con enorme fatica, Il Golem di Gustav Meyrink e dove vado poi a parare? Niente popò di meno che ne La svastica sul sole, di Philip K. Dick. Il mio primo Philip K. Dick, aggiungo. Che ha un titolo, nella traduzione italiana, che più balengo di così non potrebbe essere, dato che non c’entra una mazza col tenore del romanzo.

Trecentodue pagine per non dire assolutamente niente se non che gli uomini sono spesso confusi sulle scel...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 20, 2012 Sean DeLauder rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pkdick

I once spoke briefly with a relative of mine about story construction. His advice, which he followed from Kurt Vonnegut, was to establish the central conflict of the story early (i.e., what is the goal of the story?). In doing so the reader isn't left to wonder why they're bothering to read the book.

This is, to say the least, not the strategy employed by Dick. Almost 70 years have passed since the conclusion of the second world war, so the Gasp factor of imagining a world where the allies lost t...more I once spoke briefly with a relative of mine about story construction. His advice, which he followed from Kurt Vonnegut, was to establish the central conflict of the story early (i.e., what is the goal of the story?). In doing so the reader isn't left to wonder why they're bothering to read the book.

This is, to say the least, not the strategy employed by Dick. Almost 70 years have passed since the conclusion of the second world war, so the Gasp factor of imagining a world where the allies lost to the axis has diminished somewhat--at least for me. What remains as impetus for the book is shrouded in allusions that gradually become more coherent and forceful as the book progresses, and is actually far more fascinating than the presumption of a tables-turned version of the US and world. That impetus is the existence of a book that, in a metafictional bit of drama that threatens to break the fourth wall, presumes what the world would be like if the US had won.

Dick plays with this assumed book and its narrative vision with comical expertise, deliberately avoiding the history the reader knows for a UK that returns to global dominance. In what I consider the most comical line in the entire story, a character muses why such an alternative history had never been written before--it seemed such an obvious premise. I envision Dick penning this line with a grin on his face and pausing to enjoy it for some time before moving on.

Throughout, Dick is a master at, at the very least, extrapolating perceived WWII Nazi and Japanese motives past the point of an imagined victory. From Nazis bolstered by rare scientific genius and hamstrung by depravities, to Japanese masters of formality, control, and manipulation, yet trapped in a (according to Dick) non-creative cultural stasis.

I have to take a star away only because the story doesn't quite satisfy. Apart from meandering between a few characters that provide opportunities to better explain the nature of their existence in their alternate timeline, they are not central to the main plot, if it can be said that there really is a main sequence of Action. [spoilers removed]

Of course, most striking about the story was the idea that despite these changes, despite control of the world being ceded to what we perceive as one of the most evil regimes in history, there are plenty of parallels to be drawn to the modern world. We still suffer from, what in this political environment seem, high levels of intolerance. We still fret about the destruction of our country or our world for the purpose of an ideology. Perhaps the most poignant line in the story, in light of the election season, was this, following the death of the Nazi regime leader:

"So we presume that the worst, rather than the best, choice will be made. The sober and responsible elements will be defeated in the present clash."

This certainly seems like the perception of the voting parties. To each, the alternative is not just a bad choice, but will bring about annihilation through the profoundest ignorance.

Maybe it is because these are universal, eternal, and sobering truths about humanity, that this story, in spite of its age and twist on history, remains both relevant and disquieting.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Dec 23, 2012 Perrin Pring rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, sci-fi, wwii

Wow. Could writing get any worse? I guess it could have been longer. I know that Dick won a Hugo for this book in 1963, but I attribute that fact to the fact that the entire award committee must have been on drugs. There is no other possible explanation for how anyone could have enjoyed this book, let alone thought it was worth an award.

In this post-WWII novel, Dick assumes that the Nazis and Japan won WWII, and have since divided up the world. The story follows several different characters (wh...more

1 like · like · see review

May 27, 2013 kaelan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From The Man in the High Castle:

"Not a mystery," Paul said. "On contrary, interesting form of fiction possibly within genre of science fiction."

"Oh no," Betty disagreed. "No science in it. Nor set in future. Science fiction deals with future, in particular future where science has advanced over now. Book fits neither premise."

Here, the book in question is The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, written by fictional author Hawthorne Abendsen—a man who exhibits more than a passing resemblance to real-life aut...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 14, 2010 Gregory Rothbard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cluck It Loud. A Good Book Worth Reading.

Well this book is fully loaded; and my review for it has taken a long time. Part of the reason for the long time, is the fear that I will not quit get the gist of the book, how do I summarize something that is so broad in its perspective.
The first time I saw Blade Runner, and then heard that it was an adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I fell in love with his mind and the time portrayed there, the architecture, and the lovely cyborgs. I fe...more Cluck It Loud. A Good Book Worth Reading.

Well this book is fully loaded; and my review for it has taken a long time. Part of the reason for the long time, is the fear that I will not quit get the gist of the book, how do I summarize something that is so broad in its perspective.
The first time I saw Blade Runner, and then heard that it was an adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I fell in love with his mind and the time portrayed there, the architecture, and the lovely cyborgs. I felt "cool" watching it and wanted to walk into that world. I have always been attracted to the foreign feel of new places. The cantina in Star Wars, the hyper reality of Cool World, the funny world found in Tank Girl, were places that I explored in my dreams. I participated in this world once in Israel, at the London Underground, with a few friends from Belgium.
So all of these thoughts and more kept me from writing a review of a good book. But as it is said in the movie Risky Business, "Sometimes you got to say what the... hey."

In some ways the story is an easy go. It takes place in Denver, and San Francisco; in a future reality of 1964 America, but a 1964 America that did not occur. This world is ruled by both Japan and Germany after their winning of World War II (bummer). Denver is in the DMZ, the no man's land between two great powers.
What gets complicated is the premise of the story: "What would happen if...or why we see what we see when we see it?" What is the power that shapes our reality? What happens to the people that are caught between hither and tether, when trifles clutter up a landscape? How does one get out of the flotsam and jetsam universe one is currently a participant in?

Philip K Dick's answer to these questions lies in the infrastructure of ones current reality. If one understands the infrastructure then one is better equipped with dealing with the flow of reality. Thus Robert Childan attempts to hold onto hope through his American Artitistic Handcrafts an American antique business. His creed is that antiques have power to mold reality. He cherishes the former pre-war Americana. e value of the past is weighed in its pragmatic effect on the future. He is in search of the authentic. The authentic anchors the reality of the near future."Art or something not life is long, stretching out endless, like concrete worms. (Dick 184)

The artifact's value is assessed by the historians, critics and curators of antiquities. Alexander pope wrote of this valuable role in his essay on criticism in 1711;
Critic fanned the poet's fire,
And taught the world with Reason to Admire.
Then criticism the muses Handmaid proved
to Dress her charms, and make her more beloved.
The Critic creates a community of enabled others to embrace the art.
The individual does not matter, as long as there are key players to play specific parts. The parts and past actions are only successful by their effect on the future. "What has happened here is justified by what happens later." or Alexander Pope said, "It self unseen, but in the effects remain."
Time itself is the only variable that is not affected by outside forces.Time is played out by it's own rhythm of uncontrollable variables. The role of the artist, is to seize time, freeze time, and make a shrine to that moment in time. The artist provides the public a way to pause and reflect on their experience. "And if one person finds his way-that means there is a way An artist provides a way.

Once the art is created the critic puts order to the art.Critics frame our world viewpoint. Who/what is the good, the weird, the obscene, and the copied. The holy, the vile and the diabolical are shaped by the words of a critic. The critic/historian shapes how facts are used in the retelling of the stream of time. History is merely a tool, a gun from the Civil War Era, a lighter in the pocket of an assassinated president.

A good but difficult read. I would suggest that anyone interested in how to deal with their conflicting world, should read this book. It gives some outline to the crazy facts we are fearful of today. Give this book to your favorite libertarian so they can reflect and write about today's American Experience.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Mar 25, 2010 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, transcendent-experiences

My favourite parallel universe story. Germany and Japan win World War II, and it has something to do with the I Ching. Much more controlled than the average Philip K Dick - for once, you don't feel that he threw it together in a few weeks to pay for his next batch of drugs. It is in fact quite poetic.

Remarkable that no one has filmed it, considering that it's almost certainly his best novel and many others have become movies.

___________________________________________

The other day, there was a...more

20 likes · like · see review

Feb 25, 2009 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 male cha...more

5 likes · like · see review

Jul 27, 2007 Dr M rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

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 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 had lost the war.

Mostly, "The Man in the High Castle" is a book about issues such as culture-dependent human interactions, colliding cultures, racism etc. To a lesser extent, it also deals with the evils of totalitarian societies, but also emphasizes how different the societies of the P.S.A. and the Reich U.S. have become, despite being in their own ways totalitarian. It is also very much a story of views of reality and in particular East-Asian mysticism. The alternative history within the alternative history plays a surprisingly small role both in the plot as a whole (being truly relevant only to one of three parallel sub-plots), and in the ideas presented in the novel.

The story is told in an erratic manner, with quick changes between and within subplots. The story is told entirely through the characters, with very little descriptions in between. Much of the describing is done by the method of internal monologues of the characters.

"The Man in the High Castle" is a widely praised science-fiction classic. I wish I could join the cheering crowd, but I cannot. For me this is an interesting novel, but ultimately one that never really "gets there" for me. One problem is that I don't find the insights presented in the book very... well, insightful, with a few notable exceptions. In particular I cannot stand Dick's almost fetischist interest in eastern mysticism and fortune telling, and I really expected Dick to make much, much more of the extremely intriguing idea of alternative history within alternative history. Also, I find Dick's language irritating. He tends to write in short, erratic sentences, and after a while this becomes an annoyance and an impediment to the reading. What is much worse though is his use of "Japanese English". It is all well and good when the Japanese characters speak their broken English, with missing articles and what not, but when the characters think, we get long monologues in the imitation of a Japanese accent. Not only is this unnecessarily hard to read, it also breaks the illusion, since native speaker of Japanese would hardly formulate his internal thoughts in broken English, but rather in fluent Japanese (which must the be rendered as fluent English). Finally, the abrupt ending is characteristic of Dick, as I understand, but in my book that is not an excuse for it being too abrupt and leaving just too many thoughts half-thought.

"The Man in the High Castle" is worth reading simply for being an interesting classic, it is well worth the time and effort. It is, however, not as full of interesting ideas as one might expect, and there are some flaws in the language and the plot that I simply cannot ignore. Therefore, three stars.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 24, 2009 Kallierose rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 16, 2010 Paul JB added it · review of another edition

It feels somewhat churlish to give this 2 stars, given that it has such a wealth of praise behind it. I feel as if the fault is almost certainly mine, for not catching on to some kind of important nugget of philosophy contained within. Occasionally, when reading, I did get an inkling that something important might be about to be revealed - perhaps when Tagomi considers the pin, or most likely in the final confrontation between Julia and the eponymous Man.

Eventually, however, I couldn't see how...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 20, 2008 D. B. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Harry Turtledove fans, WWII geeks

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-horror

High-concept, low return what-if alternate history. The idea is interesting, if a little tired: what if the Axis won World War II and divvied up the world between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan? The answer is, not much, apparently. This new world order only really serves as a backdrop for Dick's slightly skewed storytelling, which jumps between the more interesting plot of a shadow conspiracy to nuke Japan, and a painfully tiresome tale of modern-day antiquing. Somewhere else in there is a poin...more

6 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2011 Olinda Gil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gostei muito deste livro, e considero-o próximo de outros como 1984 de George Orwell e Fahrenheit 451 de Ray Bradbury.

A leitura é um pouco difícil de início, dada a multiplicidade de perspetivas narrativas. Assim que se ultrapassa este obstáculo, essa mesma perspetiva narrativa torna-se um dos aspetos mais interesssantes do livro.

Reflete sobre a construção de uma narrativa de ficção científica (e sobre o que é, de facto, ficção científica), a partir de um romance que as personagens leem, e em vo...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 09, 2009 Margaret rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

I was amazed by the detail into which the author went when creating his alternate universe. It was not only chilling, but so very real.
I am confused by the end...anyone willing to discuss/explain/interpret?

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Book Club: Quiz	4	3	Jun 08, 2013 09:56am
Book Club: Childan	4	5	May 30, 2013 08:16pm
Book Club: The I Ching	2	6	May 30, 2013 11:01am
Book Club: A Map and The Rockies	1	4	May 27, 2013 10:13pm
Philip K Dick: Ridley Scott does Man in High Castle!	15	49	May 23, 2013 01:33pm
The Sword and Laser: Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle to be adapted into a mini-series	18	123	Apr 29, 2013 02:49am

combine
Other Editions (100)

More editions...

Genres

Science Fiction

1,086 users

Science Fiction > Alternate History

238 users

Science Fiction > Dystopia

130 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

91 users

Classics

89 users

Fantasy

79 users

Speculative Fiction

70 users

Novels

64 users

Historical Fiction

62 users

Literature > American

45 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He briefly attended the University of California, but dropped out before completing any classes. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memo...more

More about Philip K. Dick...

Books by Philip K. Dick

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Man in the Hi...

24 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Man in the High Ca...

“A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope.” — 83 people liked it

“Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.” — 83 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Man In The High Castle
avg rating	preview: Man In The High Castle Goodreads rating: 3.84 (29322 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14191.Man_In_The_High_Castle?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1229226223l/14191.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14191.Man_In_The_High_Castle?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick[/url]

Man In The High Castle

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website