Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

9 reviews

alexalily's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Classism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Antisemitism, Gun violence, Violence, and Gore

Minor: Drug use, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Genocide, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Sexual content

jstilts's review

dark hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

For a "what if Hitler won" sci-fi novel this completely confounded all my expectations of what the book would be about, where it would be set, who it would feature and what their attitudes would be. More a reflection on the nature of the ancient Chinese divination text the "I Ching" the World War 2, more an exploration of Japanese Inner Culture and Class than Fascism, more a road trip to the nature of reality than an struggle against oppression - this book spends serious time on jewellery and antiques and the search for honour and integrity.

Once you have read this book, I highly recommend you seek out an interview with the author "Vertex Interview with Philip K. Dick" which will give you further insights into the nature of this books relationship to the I Ching. Also, look up "Atlantropa" on Wikipedia, it's in relation to a minor and what seemed to be a somewhat fantastical note in the book, but was actually something genuinely planned by the Nazis.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Antisemitism, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Colonisation

Minor: Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

blackberryjambaby's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Ableism, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Sexism, Body shaming, Racial slurs, War, Slavery, Police brutality, and Gun violence

Minor: Homophobia

jaygabler's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

First of all, it's nothing short of miraculous that a book written by a white guy about an alternate reality in which whites become a subservient and fetishized race holds up so well 60 years later.

With his customarily incisive vision, Dick saw the essential paranoia and futility underlying a society built on militarized bureaucracy and racial divisions — and dropped into broad strokes at the end of this book to make very plain that he was critiquing the existing postwar society, not a hypothetical alternate one.

One of the great virtuoso works of alternate history in all of science fiction, but still a challenging read (and listen, with the problematic Japanese-accented English rendered even queasier in audiobook form). "Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find."

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence and Racism

backyardjake's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Worth reading for the shock value of the alt-history alone.
Each character's perspective is a rather interesting take on the world they live in. They way's they've adapated, their thought processes marred or unchanged based off the the society they live in. One character in particular goes on for a page and a half trying to understand the apathy and destructive nature of evil men which was quite interesting to ready. Well written ambigous characters. Still a little confused as to the what is being said by the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, and War

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexism

lilacwhisker's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I don’t know if it’s just the writing style or what. This book had a few good parts but mostly was boring.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Antisemitism, Colonisation, and Genocide

Minor: Gun violence

michaelcoleallen's review

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This was my introduction to PKD and it certainly has me hooked. The multiple narrators/split narrative allowed an experience of a high-power individual down to someone barely making it by with an alias to flesh out the world. Although, I felt that the cast of main characters might have benefited from paring down (I'm voting Reiss off, personally). And while worldbuilding was no doubt the strength of the novel, don't expect too many specifics on how the Axis powers won the war. What details there are about the government somewhat hinder the pacing of the plot. Also, keep a search engine handy for the references to Nazi figures and the occasional Japanese term.

The Man in the High Castle is more about how the realities of others come to influence and convince the individual of their own. That may be through history, government, media, social interactions, or even horoscopes. The scenes that explore this are doubtlessly where the novel has the most to say. This one is worth your time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Slavery, Racial slurs, and Racism

asgard_and_cake's review

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Genocide, War, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Colonisation, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Gun violence

illiterateliz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence