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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Antisemitism
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The world building is so well done, ushering a very believable story with a wide range of well rounded characters. The narratives intertwine but rarely cross. Reading this book build constant excitement, page after page.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Found the characters intriguing and overall enjoyed the book, but was expecting more of an emphasis on the alternative post WII world setting and less of an emphasis on the characters in the book. An interesting world and storyline, but to me the story felt cut short and for me therefore the book did not fully fulfill my expectations.
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the shortest books I've read this year...took me longer to read than most everything else I've read. It was just really slow. A neat premise, just a little boring.
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Remarkable. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. The idea of a work of speculative fiction as the basis for a work of speculative fiction is *chef’s kiss*. I haven’t seen the Amazon series, but from what I gather, it was WWII cosplay *inspired by” the book. There’s very little of menacing men dressed in gleaming military uniforms. The menace is much subtler than that. As with Dick’s other works, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” and “A Scanner Darkly,” there are layers upon layers of human psychology to explore. Who are we? What motivates us? Why do we do what we do? This book doesn’t necessarily answer those questions, but it asks them in interesting ways.
Not connecting with any of the characters or plot.
This is indeed quite a fragmented book without a conspicuous, linear plot-line that naturally unveils the story for the readers. Which is another way to say that this novel barely has a story at all; rather, what the readers get are fragments and short episodes of what lives could've been like if Nazi Germany won WWII. A speculative fiction, people might label this one, but I am not particularly fascinated by the historical bit of the novel. What stands out to me the most is how people resort to collection of antiquity in the absence of religion, or, to think a bit in Althusser's terms, of an ideology that interpellate people.
Especially Mr. Tagomi, at a later scene after his triggering of the Colt .44, what is lost of him sounds to me a human totality that pulls him, or everyone of else, together. He associates his murderous deed with this old revolver manufactured in the already disappeared United States, and he wants to get rid of it - the past, the deed - to restore himself to tranquillity. If you like, to rephrase it in Dick's terms, to attain the Tao, or the Middle Way of things, or equilibrium, just to name a few. In such a faithless time (or secular?) where do people's spirituality lie? The book of change? Consumerism? Mass production of artworks? Anything you can name of but all of them, indeed, highly material.
In the search of authenticity, replicas that inherit the aura of the one authentic object are produced. Mr. Childan, who allegedly seems to be a nostalgia man, falls into the matrix of mass production and marketisation. His store seems to me a vessel for the past, a container of ante-PSA memories, where the long-gone past reifies through the multiplication of aura by means of the monetary system. Just like how racial supremacy should be denounced now, the search for authenticity is shattered when he finds out the Colt .44 that he owns is but a model. The whole discourse of authenticity, once punctured, deflates to its infinitismal.
Especially Mr. Tagomi, at a later scene after his triggering of the Colt .44, what is lost of him sounds to me a human totality that pulls him, or everyone of else, together. He associates his murderous deed with this old revolver manufactured in the already disappeared United States, and he wants to get rid of it - the past, the deed - to restore himself to tranquillity. If you like, to rephrase it in Dick's terms, to attain the Tao, or the Middle Way of things, or equilibrium, just to name a few. In such a faithless time (or secular?) where do people's spirituality lie? The book of change? Consumerism? Mass production of artworks? Anything you can name of but all of them, indeed, highly material.
In the search of authenticity, replicas that inherit the aura of the one authentic object are produced. Mr. Childan, who allegedly seems to be a nostalgia man, falls into the matrix of mass production and marketisation. His store seems to me a vessel for the past, a container of ante-PSA memories, where the long-gone past reifies through the multiplication of aura by means of the monetary system. Just like how racial supremacy should be denounced now, the search for authenticity is shattered when he finds out the Colt .44 that he owns is but a model. The whole discourse of authenticity, once punctured, deflates to its infinitismal.