I have enjoyed novels of ideas immensely over the years and The Man in the High Castle is one of the best I have read in a long time.
In his novel the author, Philip K. Dick, has created an alternative world and then tops that by having his title character author a book within the novel that imagines the world as it really is. What if the allies had lost World War II? That is the premise, and Dick's ability to build a believable alternative reality based on that premise is the foundation of this exciting, suspenseful and enjoyable book. The characters, German spy, Jewish businessman, Japanese trade representative, Italian war veteran, and others, are each given individual fates that, woven together through a plot that creates suspense and wonder, inhabit a world that is scarily believable. Beyond them all lives "the man in the high castle" -- the author of the book about an alternative reality, a book that is banned throughout most of the world, inspiring even greater readership and fear. Philip K. Dick has written a novel that truly makes you think about the nature of fate (the I Ching is also an important element in the plot) and the small changes that could change history. An award-winning work of fiction, it is a book that recreates the universe. ( )

This book was good, but not as good at Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. It runs the typical Dick story of "what is the nature of reality."

I like the idea that there is a "true" reality that lies in some kind of competition with other realities, but I don't think it gets enough fleshing out in the book. I also like that the concept of "true" is called into question. Ultimately, though, this is subdued underneath political machinations that go nowhere.

I leave the novel feeling pretty underwhelmed, especially being aware of what Dick can do if he just lets go a little bit more. On the whole a fine book, but nothing that I'm going to read again for a while. ( )

Possibly my favourite PKD book, this alternate history has a ring of authenticity about it, rare perhaps for PKD - Messerschmitt sub-orbital rockets; power struggles between the Gestapo and the Abwehr; tensions between Germany and Japan, once allies but now rivals; Nazi Mars missions and jokes circulating about whether this is a good place to build a concentration camp. At the same time, there are Dickian touches enough to keep fans of the seriously wierd happy: the I Ching and a reclusive sf author writing an alternate-universe novel about a world where the Nazis did not win the war - but not depicting our world; oh no, that'd be too easy. Recommended even to those who aren't too keen on PKD. ( )

Wow. I've read a lot of Dick's work, and this is probably my favourite (though I'll have to sleep on it before I can decide). It's the most measured, most thought-provoking book I've read in a long while (and I've read a lot!).

At first, the style seemed all wrong - dropped articles, missing subject words in the sentences, and then I realised what he was doing - by showing the way people would have thought in an area so strongly influenced by Japanese culture, it was necessary to show the pidgin English that would probably have developed. The refinements of thought and expression are clearer when the characters we follow are out of Japanese territory; in short, the stylistic device works because the story is stronger because of it.

Speaking of the story, I won't go into details, because the bumpf does enough to make you want to read the book, and I don't want to spoil any of the surprises. This is, of course, typical Dick in many ways - a complete mind-**** - but you won't mind as long as you let the story carry you away. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1219867...

This is very far from being a typical PKD novel, yet it was the only one to win a Hugo award, in 1963. The other nominees were The Sword of Aldones, by Marion Zimmer Bradley; A Fall of Moondust, by Arthur C. Clarke; Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper; and Sylva, by Jean Bruller. The only one of these I have read is the Clarke, which is good solid stuff from one of the greats, but I think the Hugo voters got it right. (Have any translated novels other than Sylva ever been shortlisted for the Hugo?)

Alternate history as a sub-genre often gets a bit consumed with its own cleverness, but The Man in the High Castle takes quite a different approach. The plot, as far as it matters, is about two German plots, one to attack Japan, the other to assassinate the author of a novel where Germany and Japan lost the war, and the attempts of Japanese and Americans (and one dissident German) to thwart them. Dick almost instructs us in how to read his alternate history, by having his characters read and talk about their alternate history, and with other incidents probing the links between reality and authenticity. There are a couple of 'normal' Dickian moments, when one character somehow finds himself in our world, and when others discover that their world is also fictional; but the flaws in reality are much more subtly done here than in many of Dick's books, and for that reason more effective.

It is a peculiarly subdued novel. Dick's writing is often manic: this isn't, except perhaps just a little towards the end of Juliana's journey. She and Frank never get back together. Mr Tagomi triumphs morally but is damaged physically. The man in the high castle actually lives in a fairly normal house and isn't really very nice. But it lingers in the memory. ( )