▷▷▷▷▷ Great Price for $7.50

The Man in the High Castle Review

Alternate history works are perhaps the ultimate What If? stories - in this case, what if FDR was assassinated in 1934? Such a small change; the United States has gotten through several presidential assassinations with barely a hiccup. But here, in this book, the end result is that Germany and Japan win WWII and have split the US in two, Japan controlling the West Coast, Germany the East.

Dick looks at this scenario not from a historical or geopolitical viewpoint, but rather focuses on just what life is like for several fairly ordinary Americans under this regime. By doing so, he manages to convey not just the events, technology, and rules of this world, but also the flavor, the cultural assimilation, the everyday decisions and opportunities that spring from this different set-up.

Each of his characters is sharply shown, from the small business owner selling `authentic' American collectables to the Japanese, to the machinist trying to realize a dream of becoming independent by making truly new American jewelry and getting out from the enforced regimentation of working for an American owned but Japanese controlled factory. These people ring true-to-life, and their daily decisions and circumstance paint a by-the-way picture of the entire society that would have been difficult to delineate by any straightforward discourse.

But on top of all of this, Dick throws a ringer into the game, for in this alternate reality, there is a book written, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, that supposes that the U.S. and its allies won WWII, with its own depiction of just how the world would have developed under that scenario. By presenting both projections, Dick also manages to slide in a fairly satirical look at the America of the time this was written, and which still echoes very well against today's world. As becomes clearer and clearer as you progress with this book, the very nature of what is real, what is `authentic', what force(s) drive the universe, is being called into question, and the answers the reader may find here might be somewhat disturbing.

This is a quiet book; there's not a lot of action, no blow-em-up revolts, and the depiction of Japanese society as benign and law-loving contrasted with German technological prowess coupled with total moral absence may perhaps be too limited and naïve to really satisfy. But nevertheless it is a book that will grab, that will force an examination of what forces underpin any society, that will present a definite and memorable picture of an alternate culture that is very foreign to most Americans.

Clearly Dick's best book, and appropriately honored with 1963 Hugo Award. A must read for any reader who wishes to call himself well versed in the category of science fiction.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

The Man in the High Castle Feature

ISBN13: 9780679740674
Condition: New
Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

The Man in the High Castle Overview

It's America in 1962--where slavery is legal and the few surviving Jews hide anxiously under assumed names; all because twenty years earlier America lost a war and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

Customer Reviews

Potent historical parable - reader 451 -
The Man in the High Castle is, unusually for Philip K. Dick, not science fiction but a reflection on history and how it is written. Japan and Germany have won WWII. A novelist, hiding in the buffer Rocky Mountain State, has produced the ultimate counterfactual: what if the Allies had won? But far from resembling the reality we know, this bold, forbidden pamphlet is, in spite of its audacity, permeated with totalitarian thinking. So is, indeed, the rump United States in California, a Japanese puppet state - or rather it is permeated with a strange hybrid of oriental culture and paternalistic, Nippon Americophilia.

The novel tracks a parallel spy story, a ploy to assassinate the 'man in the high castle', the writer of the forbidden novel, and attempts to revive authentic American handicrafts by two unemployed workers. The plot, though, isn't the book's attraction. And as a reconstruction of a what-if world, this isn't as convincing as, say, Harris's Fatherland. But no matter: what is interesting is how Dick creates an imaginary fusion culture, in particular through the unique Japanese-English style of his dialogues and through the oracular I Ching, or Book of Changes. His novel has most value in creating an alternate mentality. Less convincing as an alternate reality, The Man in the High Castle is utterly absorbing as a cultural and historical parable.

A new history or a new world? - Michael Valdivielso - Alexandria, VA
Philip K. Dick isn't writing about alternate history. He is asking us what reality is. What do we see and feel and taste and is there only one outcome or is there many outcomes all overlapping at once? This isn't a Sci-Fi book, this is a book about the human mind, about space and time, about how we see our world.
The author is a wonderful builder of worlds. He never just goes outside the box - he has no clue that there ever was a box. And he forces you to look at both the good and the bad, the beauty and the ugly, the human soul with all the flaws, hate, razorblades and booze!
Here we have a world split between the part ruled by the Japanese and the part crushed by the Germans. A world that is about to have another war of wills, a war between the two empires. And no matter who wins, it will not be a world any one would wish to live in.
Get it used or new, but get it.

The Ending SUCKED - Brian M. Farmer - Detroit Michigan
This book is strong on character development but weak on alternate history. Please note, the ending was horrible. With the Nazis on the cusp of a nuclear attack on their unsuspecting Japanese aly, Mr. Dick chose to leave us hanging. I acknowledge this novel/alternate history story was written in 1962, a period in which authors attempted to "wow" their readers with sophisticated, nuvo, hanging endings but give me a break. I can envision bohemian hipsters with black cigarette holders dangling from the corner of their lips exclaiming with their best Thirsten Howell, accent, "Philip is the most spectacular writer, darling,...". So come on, ending such a riveting story with a woman walking away from an alternate history aruthor's house is plainly egotistical laziness. I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading the inappropriatley titled "The Man in the High Castle."

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 02, 2010 03:25:07

Books Teens

Thursday, September 2, 2010