Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 What If...? May 24, 2008
Christopher Gallagher
This was the third Philip K Dick novel I have read. This novel was very interesting from an historical point of view and I became engrossed with the main characters. However I believe that this shouldn't be the first Philip K dick you should read, I think that "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is a far better book.
I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover... but isn't the cover just brilliant?
Please read this book... it gives a clever and witty insight of how the world would have been if Germany won WW2.
4 Stars
 Pure Genius? March 16, 2008
C. Hardy (Castle Donnington)
I first read this in my teens, and I think that much of the subtlety passed me by. I have just aquired a new copy from Amazon,decorated with one of the most un-pc book sleeves you are likely to come across ( not a "tube-reader" folks)! I have just finished reading it, and well, this is clearly a work of genius. The book for anyone who hasn't yet read it, contrasts a novel, The Grasshopper Lies Down, about our post-1945 world; within a novel where the Axis powers won the Second World War. Japanese- controlled West Coast of USA is honourable,spiritual and superstitious, and speak in clipped English; whereas the Nazi-controlled Eastern seaboard is materialistic and technologically advanced. Africa has been obliterated as an extension of the Final Solution. Dick's book questions the exact nature of history and reality; that what is real is only relative to the individuals own experience.
I have to say that I didn't wholly understand the ending; if anyone can explain this I would be grateful! I have read lengthy reviews which suggest that the world in Abendson's book is in fact, the real history of the 20th century. But this doesn't work for me.
If you think the previous paragraph contradicts my praise for this book, you are missing the point. It is a process-based novel and the ending is largely irrelevant, in my opinion anyway.
Has this novel ever been made into a film?
If not, why?
 Not bad, not great February 14, 2008
Ryan Lynch (UK)
From most of the reviews on this site and being a huge fan of AH I had high hopes for this book, but I felt let down.
Instead of a novel its more like a collection of stories that are slightly interwoven - characters from a few of the stories appear in others, but that's about it. I enjoyed all of these stories, the characters were well thought, as were the situations, the use of the I Ching was a great way to show how the Japanese affected American culture, although it appeared to be an ancient version of a horoscope in its vague superstitions, so I didn't actually like the way the story was so driven by it. The problems occur towards the end of the novel, when most of these stories just stop, without any sort of ending to that particular part of the overall story, that's it, they end. This doesn't happen until quite close to the end of the novel and its brought to the finish by a story which doesn't seem that important when it starts, but in my opinion becomes the most important story in the novel, and is the only one which comes to any sort of conclusion. The ending leaves quite a few questions, and as its quite a short book, I thought it could have been fleshed out at least a little by answering those questions and telling us what happened to most of the other characters in the other stories.
Reading the mostly positive reviews here and elsewhere I cant help feel I missed something reading this book, or maybe I misunderstood it. It isnt bad by any means, its ok, but thats about the best I can say about it.
World War II - but not as we know it. October 10, 2007
D. N. Carter (Christchurch, England)
You may never have come across the work of Philip K Dick before, indeed you may know nothing about this writer, but then again, if you have seen the film Blade Runner, perhaps you have. Blade Runner is a movie that was based on another of Mister Dick's work: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Man in the High Castle suggests that the Axis forces won World War II. The United States is split into three, the western part, now the Pacific States of America is Japanese dominated, while the eastern section has become part of Greater Germany, as indeed has Great Britain and all of Europe. Only the central part of the USA retains some form of freedom. Ultimately a recipe for conflict between the two superpowers and in that conclusion you would be right.
The book is set in the early sixties and you might think it owes something to Robert Harris's Fatherland, until you notice that this book was in fact first released in 1962. Perhaps it was the other way round as far as that is concerned. Hitler is still alive, but locked away in an Asylum suffering from Alzheimer's, leaving the way clear for yet another power struggle between the equally awful wannabes.
Some of the hellish results of this possible outcome to World War II act as a timely reminder of just why it was so important that this imagined result never came to pass. I came to this book through the 2001 re-release, and I am so glad I did.
Mister Dick lived a turbulent and all too short life, passing away aged just fifty-three in 1982. He somehow managed to fit in five wives and write more than thirty-five novels, (only one of which sold well during his lifetime), despite bouts of serious depression and periods of drug dependency. He craved success, as so many writers do, and no doubt he would have gained great satisfaction from the worldwide sales his books boast today.
If you enjoy novels about World War II where the writer imagines different scenarios to those that actually took place, or indeed if you like "What ifs" about any historic event, then The Man in the High Castle will not disappoint you, or may be it will, but then again...
I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have the opportunity, read it, and make up your own mind.
The Man in the High Castle
Philip K Dick
ISBN: 0141186674
My First Dick Novel March 8, 2007
kbp61 (UK)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the first novel I have read by Philip K Dick. I am familiar with those works of his that have been turned into movies over the years and I am not a big fan of SF. However, I was intrigued by the idea of an alternative world where the Axis forces were victorious in WWII. What I did not expect was the relatively downbeat, thoughtful nature of the novel.
The over-reaching theme is grand, contrasting an alternative society with that which existed in the early 1960's. Despite being born during that period myself, I imagine the familiarity of the setting would prove disturbing to readers at the time, especially as many would have vivid memories, or a fear, of what might have been. The focus on relatively ordinary people going about their lives against a backdrop of bigger political machinations works very well, and leaves one's imagination to easily paint the broader canvas.
The ending is neither conclusive nor ambiguous. For many readers, I am sure they will find it unsatisfactory as it leaves so many plot threads open-ended. In that respect, I found it quite hopeful. An understanding the world we live in is not easily grasped, or is ever likely to be, so consequently giving the reader the opportunity to draw their own conclusions works well, for me.
Will I read another Dick novel? Possibly not. But I will keep watching the movies. And I will recommend this book.
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