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

4.0

Read this as a bit of stop gap. Definitely a diversion from the theme(s) I’ve been pursuing lately. But I had it in hand and it was a quick read. The premise is that Germany, Italy and Japan have won WWII and this is what the world is like several decades later. Germany controls Europe, much of Western Asia, and the Eastern half of the US. Japan controls the Pacific States. The Rocky Mountain States remain a semi-autonomous region….oh, and Africa has been bombed into a lifeless wasteland for no apparent reason other than to reinforce how out of their heads the Nazis are. The Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching) figures large, as almost all the characters seek some use of it. I think at the heart of this are questions about what constructs meaning for oneself in life? Characters consult the oracle to feel safely tethered to a future outcome. Other characters question how historic objects carry greater value than others due to their proximity to events or famous figures in time. And the titular character writes a speculative novel that toys with idea that the outcome of WWII is, well, what it really was. So a bit meta and a bit of speculation within speculation. There is no resistance to the victorious Japanese or Germans. The characters seem to be very much accepting of their common realities in that sense. But, overall, very disjointed and never really ties together the loose, but clearly intentional, strands between the characters. Very impressed how Amazon managed to take what little to go on here and flesh it out into an entertaining series. So check that out!