The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick science fiction book reviewsThe Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsThis is a strange and sinister book, even for Philip K. Dick. It’s a carefully-crafted alternate history about a world in which the Axis powers won WWII and now dominate the globe (other notable books in this vein include Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore and Pavane by Keith Roberts), but being PKD that is just the beginning. It prominently features the I Ching (Book of Changes), an ancient Chinese classic that serves as a sort of oracle or fortune telling device for several of the characters. The Pacific States of America are dominated by the Japanese, while the former Unites States of America on the East Coast are ruled by the Germans, with the more independent Rocky Mountain States in between.

fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsThis world of 1962 is a grim one living under the fascist and totalitarian rule of the Japanese and Germans (who themselves are locked in various intrigues that seethe throughout the book). Surprisingly, at least to me, the Nazis are depicted as far more capricious, cruel, zealous and maniacal than the Japanese, who are instead more logical, calculated, and strict but fair. Most of the novel’s characters live under Japanese rule, and despite their feelings that the Japanese are cold and inscrutable, they manage in varying degrees to live their lives. Ideas about racial superiority/inferiority abound amongst the Americans, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, and blacks: this world is profoundly divided along racial lines, but the Nazis reserve the top position on for blond, blue-eyed Aryans, so even their erstwhile Italian allies get short shrift. Regarding the Jews and blacks, they take a ruthless exterminationist approach, whereas the Japanese prefer to treat more moderately the peoples they rule. But in either case they look down upon their subjects.

PKD depicts the political, cultural, and racial relationships between rulers and subjects with a very deft touch, and his vision is terrifying for anyone who has speculated about this “what-if” scenario. I think this scored him high points and helped The Man in the High Castle win the Hugo Award in 1963 (though many fans of Golden Age old-school SF writers like Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov must have been horrified).

However, the book’s other major story arc features a story-within-a-story, in fact an alternate-history novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, in which Japan and Germany lose the war to the Americans, British, Russians, and Italians (who switch sides). Okay, are we talking about our world? No, this reality is slightly different as well (the Pearl Harbor attack didn’t destroy the US naval fleet, etc.).

Now we’re talking. PKD is never content to tell a standard narrative without some twist on reality (realities?), and this book plays a major role in the ending of The Man in the High Castle.

That ending is very ambiguous and open-ended, and the I Ching plays a pivotal role in this. I won’t reveal more than that, but clearly PKD took a unique approach to writing this book, and throws a couple of reality-shaking curveballs at the end (you know something must be coming or it wouldn’t be a PDK novel). Whether that works as a compelling story or not is up to the individual reader. For me, though I really appreciate the intricate world-building and plot, I wasn’t fully satisfied with the ending, although the individual characters’ stories were fascinating.

The biggest drawback of the story was that so many characters rely on the I Ching to help in their daily decision-making, along with the conceit that this ancient Chinese classic serves as an oracle and has been introduced by the Japanese occupiers. I’ve lived in Japan for over 15 years, and not once in my entire time here has any Japanese person I know ever mentioned this book. So I think PDK just completely shoe-horned it into his story because he wanted to, not because it is an important part of Japanese culture. Buddhism (various sects) and Shintoism (essentially animism) are alive and well in Japan, but I’ve never seen anyone here throwing yarrow stalks to decide whether they should cross the street or not, eat ramen or gyoza, enter Tokyo University or Keio, or any other decision. So this just totally struck me as off, and his depiction of inscrutable, poker-faced Japanese was a bit too stereotyped for my taste.

So did I enjoy the book or not? Definitely. After not having read any of his work my first 40 years, I read ten PDK books last year, but I’d say my favorites were Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, UBIK, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and VALIS. Still, The Man in the High Castle remains unique and memorable. And our version of reality is much less grim than the one he depicts, but we don’t need the I Ching to tell us that.

~Stuart Starosta


The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick science fiction book reviewsAnother weird one by PKD. The audiobook version by Tom Weiner is a good way to experience this impactful award-winning novel.

~Kat Hooper

Published in 1962. In this Hugo Award–winning alternative history classic—the basis for the Amazon Original series—the United States lost World War II and was subsequently divided between the Germans in the East and the Japanese in the West. It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In this world, we meet characters like Frank Frink, a dealer of counterfeit Americana who is himself hiding his Jewish ancestry; Nobusuke Tagomi, the Japanese trade minister in San Francisco, unsure of his standing within the bureaucracy and Japan’s with Germany; and Juliana Frink, Frank’s ex-wife, who may be more important than she realizes. These seemingly disparate characters gradually realize their connections to each other just as they realize that something is not quite right about their world. And it seems as though the answers might lie with Hawthorne Abendsen, a mysterious and reclusive author, whose best-selling novel describes a world in which the US won the War… The Man in the High Castle is Dick at his best, giving readers a harrowing vision of the world that almost was.

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