The Man in the High Castle (Sf Masterworks) (original 1962; edition 2001)

This one might, I think, grow on me.
It's an alternative history, set in the early 60s, assuming that Germany & Japan had won WW2 and that they have subdivided the globe between them. There's a small buffer state, the Rocky mountain States between the two that is nominally independent. In this separate state, a book has been published that tells of an alternative future in which the Allies won the war and the horrors inflicted on the world since haven't happened. There are a number of separate strands of story in the book that overlap and gently touch each other. The text is, at times, written in a very formal, stilted manner, which makes it odd to read, but it does seem to reflect the formality of a Japanese society. At times it's a bit hard work, but the whole things does sort of tie up quite neatly. An odd, but strangely satisfying read. ( )

To start with, I think George R.R. Martin must have been a fan of PKD, as he really must have derived his "I'll throw loads of characters at 'em right quick, all the while jumping around from disjointed story to disjointed story to keep it all totally confusing. Along about halfway through the book I'll begin to cross the characters paths so the reader will FINALLY be able to make some sense out of what is going on and keep from confusing the characters! Brilliant!" manner from PKD.

It really wasn't until half way through the tale that I could keep from confusing the characters and begin to get a sense of WHAT THE HECK was going on. At that point I started to really enjoy the story and be interested in the outcome. This could have ended up being a solid three, maybe even four star book for me, if it weren't for the ending.

Basically the gist is, imagine for a moment that the Allied forces didn't win WWII. Hitler didn't die in a ditch like the dog that he was and Japan was never bombed with nuclear weapons. In fact, the entire world was nearly divided in half between Germany and Japan with a sliver going to Italy. The USA, in fact, was split down the middle with the west coast being Japanese territory and the East coast being German. Jews in any German area having been killed and the whole of the African continent having been annihilated by Germany in a "cleansing" measure. Germany has the H-Bomb and isn't afraid to use it! There are some human interest elements, love, lost love, lust, greed. There is political espionage, spies and what not; the underlying assassination plot. It really does get quite good.

Then the end. Huh? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Really, I don't get it! Am I supposed to take this as a dream? Some alternate universe? Is the Matrix involved somehow?

Stupid bloody ending gives this book two stars. I'll never read it again, and if it wasn't for the fact that there is another story in this particular volume, I'd give it away to the first taker.

Bah! ( )

At dinner recently, my wife wondered what the world would be like had the Axis powers won. She, her father (a World War II veteran) and I kicked the idea around a b it in conversation, and then I remembered this novel which I had read a few years after it was first published. I remembered it dealt with America in the wake of an Axis victory, divided between a Japanese ruled west coast, a Nazi-run eastern state, and an independent state centered on the Rocky Mountains. Rereading it, I found that was true but that Dick's novel is much richer, dealing with interpersonal relations, the nature of art and creativity, and the question of how true fiction can be. I ( )

This novel, an alternative history first published in 1962, has been sitting on my TBR list for a while now. I bumped it up the list after reading my GR friend Megan's recent excellent review. I was not disappointed. Instead, I was stunned and disturbed.

The novel takes place in a world in which the Axis powers won World War II and between them Nazi Germany and Japan - and to a much lesser extent Italy - control the world. What was the United States is split into three: the Eastern states controlled Germany, the Pacific states controlled by Japan and the unoccupied area in the middle which acts as a buffer state between the rival super powers - former allies now involved in a Cold War. In the world of the novel, Japan is a relatively benign conqueror, while Nazi Germany remains terrifying. Slavery is again legal, Africa has been devastated by a holocaust and what was the South of the former United States is a place too horrible to contemplate going to. The narrative follows a number of characters as they negotiate the uncertain and dangerous world in which they live. There is a story within this story. It involves an alternative history novel which a number of the characters read and discuss. In that novel, Germany and Japan lost the war, but the world of that novel is not our world. Moreover, as characters contemplate what their world would have been like had the Allies won the war, they each come up with different scenarios.

Dick creates a frightening world in which the confusion of realities is a central theme. What's real, what's not? Maybe everything. Maybe nothing. With its sharp, clear prose, interesting characterisation and claustrophobic and paranoid atmosphere, this is a novel which will haunt me for a long time. ( )

more to say later. it would be small-minded to pick on its flaws. ( )