The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

[Angela]

I'm reading this for Week 48 - a dystopian novel

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

This is one of my options for the wildcard- an alternate history novel.

Maybe your thoughts on it will help me decide :)

[Sophie]

I'm also reading this for week 48. I really like alternate history and I've been wanting to read this for years. I don't know why it took me so long to plan it.

[JoJo]

I'm currently reading this for Week 9: A book mentioned in another book. I'm liking it so far, but I'm only up to chapter 4.

[Maple]

The Man in the High Castle


GR synopsis:
'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 twenty 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 innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake.

I am reading this for my 2016 Topic Discard Challenge, an alternate history book. I am starting this one tonight and am really looking forward to it. So far, I have really enjoyed Dick's writing style, and can't wait to see what this book has in store for me.

[Maple]

This book is outstanding!! It was a little slow to get into, but once I found my hook I couldn't put it down. Dick creates a very interesting history in this book of what would the world have been had German won WWII. Then on top of that there was the whole alternate history book inside the alternate history book. That was some Inception level stuff in there. Mind blown!

5/5

[JoJo]

Manda wrote: "This book is outstanding!! It was a little slow to get into, but once I found my hook I couldn't put it down. Dick creates a very interesting history in this book of what would the world have been ..."

Check out Fatherland by Robert Harris. I loved this book, and it's along similar lines to The Man in the High Castle.

[Sophie]

Great Manda, I've decided to read this next!

[Sophie]

I'm starting this one right now! :)

[Marta]

I read it a few weeks ago. I thought the idea was brilliant. But as the book progressed, I felt Dick got lost and the book got gradually murkier. As people went from rational to crazy and explanations turned toward supernatural, I became disinterested, and finishing was a chore. Still, the alternative history was a brilliant idea, I wish it was hashed out more.

[Maple]

Sophie, that's awesome! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it!

[Sophie]

I finished this book today. I really liked the writing and the Inception stuff with the alternate histories! Sadly, the last 20% were a little bit too wtf for me. And I have to admit I didn't really understand the end.

I just read a short-story from Rogues and I didn't really understand it either, so maybe my brain's dumb today (I've been a little sick).

The Man in the High Castle was a 3.5 stars to me, but I gave it 4 because it's very original.

[Maple]

I hope you're feeling better!

Yeah, the ending is a bit weird. That seems to be Dick's style. A friend says it's because of all the LSD he was on during the time he was writing a majority of his books. Maybe it's true? I agree with you about the originality of it. The concept alone is so mind-blowing and really gets you thinking. What would life be like today had Germany won WWII? Yikes! I really don't think Dick was too far off, at least on the geographic divide.

[Angela]

I'm starting it today

[J]

^I had read that it was because he used the I Ching to decide the direction of his plots. It's a surprise to us, because it was a surprise to him.

[Tracy]

That is funny J; I am about 3/4 of the way finished and am reading this for the Hugo Award winner for the 2017 challenge. I must admit I am about finished with hearing about the I Ching.
I got interested in this after watching the first 4 or so episodes of the Amazon Prime series of the same name. They are based on the book, but quite a bit different as far as some of the story line goes.

[Tracy]

I finished this book today and I can't say I enjoyed it very much. It seemed like such a good idea, and then....not a very good interpretation. I really hated the way people spoke. Even the Americans spoke in broken English which really annoyed me. I know what I'm supposed to think, but getting there is hard. Maybe his main goal is to make us ponder.

[Joshua]

I read this one for Item #36 (A Hugo Award winner or nominee) and I loved the idea and loved the execution, but I wasn't sold on the writing style. Some things were difficult to follow, unnecessarily so in my opinion.

That having been said, it was still an excellent book with a unique idea. It felt very real, despite not always being as straight-forward as I would have liked. It gave everything a weirdly horrific vibe.

It's weird, there was an awful lot I didn't love about this book, yet giving it anything below four stars out of five feels too low. So my initial rating for this one is - you guessed it - four stars out of five.

[Brooke]

I read this at the very end of 2016, so unfortunately I can't use it for any prompts. Regardless, this wasn't a book I enjoyed. I actually had to make myself finish it. I had high hopes based on its accolades, the thought of an alternate country after WWII and enjoying the show on Amazon. But this just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Nathanael]

Just finished this one and I enjoyed it. I liked how it took the vast concept and brought it down to an individual level of what it would be like in culture and in person to person interactions. That said I too felt that the ending was rather abrupt and kinda left me hanging but sometimes books will do that to you like a good movie. 4 stars

[Tammy]

I totally dug this book. It was weird as hell, but thought provoking. I flew through the last 100 pages, so I think it is funny that most people lost interest by the end. I give it a solid 4 stars.

[Jody]

I read this for AtY 2018, Week 32 (An alternate history book). I loved the premise, but not so much the execution. I felt it was more like loosely connected vignettes than a cohesive story, and it was a little directionless for me.

[Sara]

I DNF'd this one, and I almost never DNF anything. I admit it was just not my style at all.

[Di]

I just finished "Man in the High Castle" as a hold over from last year. So, I'm filing it under Week 9 Top $ Making Genre (SciFi/Fantasy) and Week 19 Multiple POVs

After watching the series on Amazon, I wanted to read the source material because I was so engrossed and captivated. And I definitely wanted to finish before I watched the 3rd season. The novel is more grim and gritty. The situation makes everything that much more dire. It also explains a lot in the series I just didn't understand. A lot of what happened during the war to get the alternative ending just kind of blew my mind. I'm still trying to digest it all. However, I am glad there's a series because I don't like books with unresolved issues or plots. PKD definitely could've written a sequel. It's not the point I get that, but I just like absolute resolutions.


Note: I can't read a book a week, but I want to finish all the prompts so I task my self with finding books that hits multiple topics. It actually makes it more challenging.