The Man in the High Castle

Rating:
Summary: A powerful and moving work of America in the year 1962......
Review: Philip K. Dick's work is terrifying to behold. A story of terror, alternative history, and lost souls bespeckle the book's landscape. Slavery, genocide and atomic war confront the main characters of this alternative America. A swiss national, who hides his true identity, holds a terrible secret. One of which will imperil Japan and possibly western America.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Food for Thought.....
Review: The Man In the High Castle is an extremely important and benchmark work in Sci-Fi. I have read it several times...every time you rad it and try to analyze the bok it leaves additional thoughts and questions unanswred. And for those of you who critique the book as being "incomplete", a recent Dick reader/compilation had a chapter of an uncompleted sequel to High Castle (sorry, I don't know the name of the compilation). Anyway, if you're thinking about buying this book...just get it. It's definitly not your usual science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Oh my gosh!
Review: This is the second Dick book I've read, the first one being The Ganymede Takeover (which I didn't enjoy). But this one! BLEW ME AWAY. I'm on a Dick reading spree and so far, I enjoy each one, except for VALIS. Once you read this, you won't be able to stomach mainstream sci-fi!

Rating:
Summary: An astounding literary achievement
Review: Wow! This is the first Philip k.Dick novel I've read and I guarantee it wont be the last. This man was a true genius, a brilliant visionary. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Very strange and confusing book
Review: Like many other PKD books, this is weird and in some ways, somewhat hard to follow. While I enjoyed reading it, similar to a view presented in someone else's review, I found it hard to empathize with the characters, and I felt some things, such as the German occupied portion of the United States, were not properly expanded upon.(Yeah, I know, run-on sentence) A worthwhile book, but when I finished it my first reaction was "Wait, what just happened? I'm confused." I'm more or less used to this from Dick's stories and novels, but this was a new spin on Dick-orientation(just made up word for PKD disorientation). My only recommendation is read the book, decide for yourself. Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: Things are not as they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream.
Review: Alternate history...Philip K. Dick style.

What does that mean? Well, basically, if you think that the characters in this book seem a little out of place, keep reading, and you may find YOURSELF out of place.

On the surface, it is the usual time-shifting novel...FDR was assasinated in 1936, and as a result, the United States lost WW II. Twenty years in the future, when the novel takes place, Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire have occupied the United States and imposed their brand of culture on their respective halves of the American populace.

But this book really isn't about alternate time lines...its about alternate realities. Things are not as they seem...characters' true identities are hidden, and their moralities are tested. It's about the nature of the true state of the universe, Eastern religion, and the I-Ching. When Philip K. Dick is at his best, his characters question their own existence, and it soon follows that the readers do the same.

So when you come to the end of the book, hopefully, a number of things will happen:
Number 1: You'll instantly re-read the ending.
Number 2: You'll throw the book against the wall and exclaim "that's it?"
Number 3: You'll probably re-read the ending again.
Number 4: You'll swear that you'll never read another Philip K. Dick novel.
Number 5: Later, you'll think a bit about the book, and realize that the novel wasn't really about what you thought it was.
Number 6: You'll read it again. And again...

This isn't your typical sci-fi novel. The story doesn't wrap-up into a neat little package. Like Eastern religions, time is not linear, it is circular, and that is the reality of the book.

Alternate histories are so commonplace in sci-fi today, that it is important to look at this book as the one that really started it all. A completely original masterpiece...even the followers can't keep up.

Rating:
Summary: Harry Turtledove must have read this book and said, "Hmm..."
Review: "Blade Runner." "Total Recall." What more needs to be said? Philip K. Dick is one of the most articulate alternate history/sci fi writers ever. If like either genre, then be sure to read Phil!

Rating:
Summary: Alernate history as seen from 1962 Nazi America.
Review: This Hugo Award winning novel is a little long in the tooth when it comes to believing the nuances.

Alternate reality fans should read this as a contrast to novels by other Sci Fi writers such as Norman Spinrad.

Rating:
Summary: If the Allies had LOST WWII...
Review: this is what life in the United States might have looked like! There's nothing like taking a different view of your own culture to put your own view into perspective. Expand your mind by reading this classic tale of an alternative history by one of the masters.

Rating:
Summary: Alright, but not great. Doesn't fulfill its potential.
Review: Although I was satisfied enough with the earlier portions of the book -- which introduced the characters, set the several interweaving lines of plot in motion, etc. -- I was ultimately disappointed as none of it ended up going much of anywhere by the conclusion.

The situations which have been developing throughout the novel get brought to a close in the last few pages in what I felt was a too abrupt and unsatisfactory manner.

The scene in which one of the characters finally encounters the author of the novel in which the Axis lost the war was especially disappointing. I found it muddled and confused and it seemed as if Dick were playing around with various ideas but didn't really know what to do with them.

Most of the book takes place in the Japanese controlled area of the United States and one of the constantly recurring elements is that numerous characters (both Japanese and not) are constantly consulting the I Ching for guidance. However none of the material relating to utilization of this oracle and the philosophy attendant to it struck me as terribly deep or convincing.

I would say the same of the book's presentation of Japanese culture in general: it has been done with far more depth and success elsewhere.

Also, several of the plot elements introduced in the book but never resolved -- such as the existence of a secret German plot against the Japanese and the fact that the potential German/Japanese conflict might force the Japanese to ally themselves with certain morally repugnant elements of the Nazi regime or the suggestion that the Nazi programs of genocide may ultimately backfire and cause them severe economic problems -- struck me as potentially much more interesting than those with which the book primarily concerned itself.

I guess, overall, my feeling about the book is that it was generally flat. It didn't involve me with the characters or with the world it created. I felt like I was an uninterested observer watching the events from a distance. It failed to convey to me any of the sense of convincing veracity which I think any novel needs, at least to an extent, to succeed.

Lest the above give you wrong idea and cause you to think me simply out of tune with Philip Dick ("Oh, the reviewer obviously doesn't appreciate Dick's predilections. He obviously wanted this to be an espionage novel or a geopolitical thriller!"), let me just say that that is not at all the case.

The only other Dick novel I've read is Valis. Now Valis, for those of you who haven't read it, is far more non-linear and discursive than The Man in the High Castle, and far more radical in its blurring of the lines of what constitutes reality. And Valis, I thought, was great.

And just for your information lest the "July 1, '92" date on Amazon confuse you, The Man in the High Castle was published originally in 1962. (Valis was published in 1981.)

Andy Bruce aka [e-mail] Sunday August 3rd, 1997