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The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick

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Oct 14, 2024 Cool_guy rated it it was amazing

Leave it to PKD to get to the heart of alt-history genre. History contains an infinite number of possibilities but for us, there's only this, the reality we live in. Can't say much more than that, just read the thing. ...more

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Aug 21, 2023 Keenan Calhoun rated it really liked it · review of another edition

One might typically expect an alternate history World War II story to go something like this: The Nazis have consolidated power from the rest of the Axis Powers and are now running a crushing and efficient totalitarian regime while a plucky band of American heroes, inspired by a novel that looks into a world where the Nazis lose the war, fight back and eventually overthrow the fascists and begin American global hegemony, albeit a few decades late. Instead this novel presents a much more dire and ...more

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Sep 28, 2025 Juan rated it it was ok

2.5/5

I'm sad to be disappointed by Dick, it's a first. But in all seriousness, in spite of a solid (although a bit silly) alternate history element, the book suffers from trying too much with too many characters at the same time. Somehow it felt as if the only thing that bound them all together besides the setting was the I-ching.

Ultimately, the few plotlines that had been building up to something that felt consequential or exciting get resolved quickly and unsatisfyingly.

A sad waste of a great ...more

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