The Man In The High Castle

by Philip K. Dick

It is 1962 and the Second World War has been over for seventeen years: people have now had a chance to adjust to the new order. But it's not been easy. The Mediterranean has been drained to make farmland, the population of Africa has virtually been wiped out and America has been divided between the Nazis and the Japanese. In the neutral buffer zone that divides the two superpowers lives the man in the high castle, the author of an underground bestseller, a work of fiction that offers an alternative theory of world history in which the Axis powers didn't win the war. The novel is a rallying cry for all those who dream of overthrowing the occupiers. But could it be more than that?

Subtle, complex and beautifully characterized, The Man in the High Castle remains the finest alternative world novel ever written, and a work of profundity and significance.

• ISBN10: 0575082054
• ISBN13: 9780575082052
• Publish Date: 17 September 2009 (first published 1 January 1962)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 26 November 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[bearley]

Wonderful (and scary) concept. The ending was definitely a twist I didn’t see coming, although reading back there was definitely foreshadowing. The use of multiple narratives really made this book flow so well and allowed for a complex read.

It would’ve been interesting to have seen some glimpses of the direct aftermath of the war and how everything came into place. The reader gets a few peaks but just not enough.

[Jeff Sexton]

I Finished It. Going into this book, I was thinking it would be something dramatically different based on what I had heard of the Amazon show. Instead, I got a fairly bleak look at a world where Nazi Germany won WWII, with the Big Reveal literally in the last few pages of the book. Knowing Dick is one of the legends of science fiction, I expected some actual science fiction here and all I got was alternate history. It was a good book for what it was, just wasn't what I was expecting.

[rohshey]

Alternative history stories telling about the Nazis taking over the world are not uncommon, the possibilities are obviously horrifying and Dick did not shy away from this motif. So what then can an alternate history first published more than a half-century ago tell us about our present circumstances?

Of course, when considered literally Dick’s fictitious tale has nothing to do with our present situation, but there is a threatening truth to his parable because we must remember that the German populous in the last free elections in the early 1930s chose the Nazi Party to guide their destiny. Many thought that their new leader could not be taken at his word when he castigated particular ethnic, religious, and political groups and the collapse of the great German nation. He promised to make Germany great again. Dick speaks about how people become subservient when faced with tyranny.

But with all its virtuous and piercing significance to present day politics, I got the sense that it could have been better written and that the ideas being expressed didn't really make for a coherent whole. it left me with the curious feeling that Dick had simply stopped writing the book half way through, with much of the story still to be told.

[Vicki]

DNF at 32% on 6/25/2016.

[readingwithwrin]

“Can anyone alter fate? All of us combined... or one great figure... or someone strategically placed, who happens to be in the right spot. Chance. Accident. And our lives, our world, hanging on it.”

See reviews first on my blog

I’ve spent the past few days trying to find a way to write a non-spoiler review and I haven’t been able to. If you haven’t read this book or don’t want to be spoiled for it then please don’t read this review.

CONTAINS SPOILERS

I only found out about this book after watching the amazon show. Going into this book, I knew there would be differences between the two and I was okay with that. What I didn’t expect was how the book focused more on I Ching and how it will help predict your fate, which I found to be a little confusing. (I don’t know much about Japanese culture or anything like that.)
This is a very convincing book about what might have happened if Germany and Japan had won WWII and what would have happened after. Everything was very thought out and understandable. We knew how things were split between the two, who lived where, and how things were different between the two cultures. We still see Germany as a huge powerhouse compared to Japan who at times looks like it’s struggling to stay with Germany. Germany has not only conquered most of the world now but is also going into space in multiple different directions to find new life forms.
This book does follow several different people you never really feel connected to any of them or have any emotional attachment to them.
The only mention of a different world (the one we live in) is through a book called “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” (this book was banned in the German parts of the world.) and then at the end when a Japanese official briefly sees a different world. There is no mention of tapes or them trying to get them to the Man In The High Castle.

Things I learned that I was confused by while watching the show.
Antique store owner – He didn’t know he was selling fake things until much later on, and as for why he was in the Japanese couples home was because they were asking him to help decorate it.
Who the German spy was – he was a Swedish national who was going to work with Japan for them to catch up with Germany.
Frank knowing how to make the gun – he was in the military before we lost the war, and he had clearance from the shop owner to be making these things and was a part of a bigger scheme of fake goods. He later made his own jewelry with Ed which is also how they ended up dealing with the antique store owner.
Julianna and Judo – She wasn’t just taking the classes she was a teacher, and that is how she knew so much about it and was comfortable with it and didn’t care what anyone else thought about her doing it.


While I did enjoy the first 75% of this book the last 25% and the ending with Julianna ended up ruining it for me in a way. Personally, after having read this book, I do like the Amazon show more. I like how we got attached to the characters and see more how it affected everyone after America was split. I will continue to watch the show and hope that Julianna doesn’t end up doing what she did in the book.

What a weird beautiful little book. I don't think I understood all of it but maybe that's part of the point. The recursive aspects were truly inspired. I didn't love it as much as Androids but I'm looking forward to the TV series and more of his short stories.

[RoXXie]

Review coming soon

[Rinn]

First PKD book I haven't really enjoyed. :(

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

For those who haven’t read this month’s Book club book, the alternate reality classic The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, I will try not to give away too much of the story. Most of you are aware of the basic plot outline, but I will just give you a quick overview before talking about the interesting concepts I found within the book. Set in 1962, 14 years after a longer World War II, life is under totalitarian Fascist imperialism as the war was won by Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Having divided the world the Axis Powers are now conducting intrigues against each other in North America.

Alternate Reality
With Japan and Germany being in power, the world is a much different place; more of a dystopian society, where everyone is considered racially superior to the Americans. The last remaining Jews are in hiding and continually being hunted down. The book actually deals with justice and injustice; gender and power; the shame of cultural inferiority and identity; and the effects of fascism and racism upon culture.

Metafiction
The Man in the High Castle focuses the story around a popular and banned novel written by Hawthorne Abendsen (The Man in the High Castle). The book entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy portrays an alternate reality where Japan and Germany lost the war and America and England become the victors. Changing racialist-cultural tensions and creating a liberal, democratic, capitalist society.

I Ching
In this novel the I Ching (Book of Changes) is often consulted by the characters as an oracle. I Ching is an ancient Chinese book of divination and was used by Philip K Dick to determine the plot particulars. In two separate interviews Philip K Dick has said;

“I started with nothing but the name, Mister Tagomi, written on a scrap of paper, no other notes. I had been reading a lot of Oriental philosophy, reading a lot of Zen Buddhism, reading the I Ching. That was the Marin County zeitgeist, at that point; Zen Buddhism and the I Ching. I just started right out and kept on trucking.”

“In the event, he blamed the I Ching for plot incidents he disliked: "When it came to close down the novel, the I Ching had no more to say. So, there's no real ending on it. I like to regard it as an open ending.”

Philip K Dick’s classic science fiction novel has a lot of interesting aspects to it. I think it could easily be one of those books you could spend hours discussing all the little characteristics to it. Another book that challenges your views on society by showing what life could be like if the war turned out differently. Reflected above were just the major aspects to this book.