A review by jonahmcdonald
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

2.75

There are two features to a disappointing shag. It’s over far too soon and the whole time the other person was focused on entirely the wrong thing. This is what reading The Man In The High Castle was like. It is FAR too short, feeling like the first half of a bigger, better book - you can see why they made a TV series out of it if only from a desperation to finish the story. At the same time, P. K. Dick hints at this unique world of Nazi-Japanese world domination and control of the U.S. This could be a thoroughly interesting alternative-history read, but instead of giving us the good stuff, spends the whole time yakking on about historicity and the “I Ching”. If I wanted to read about that, I wouldn’t have picked up a damn book about the Nazis conquering America would I??? Disappointing though it was, it’s still got some redeeming qualities - whilst Dick is clearly more interested in the conversations the characters have than the world they live in, some of those conversations are fairly engrossing, especially between Juliana and Joe. Some, however, particularly the spiritual ones, are utterly interminable. And then it’s over.