The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I've been putting off writing this because I can't think of anything to say except that I read it. It's alternative history, the Japanese and Germans won WWII and now occupy the US. It's totally up my alley, but it didn't sit well with me. Not the concept, that was fine, but the story itself sort of meandered over multiple characters. I kept waiting for it to all come together but it never quite did. It sort of resolved into two parallel stories neither of which had a satisfying outcome. The language of the book wasn't as dated as I'd expected although the dialogue was written in this weirdly stilted way. I got all the metaphor in it. I got the clever use of deterministic philosophy. I got how it's supposed to mirror our own world. I just don't care. Not about the story or the characters. I wonder if all the praise this book seems to get is from people who read it when they were young and still forming concepts of reality and their own philosophies of the world. I'm sure the book seemed ground breaking when it was written, but the concept has since been done to much better effect elsewhere. And TMitHC is all concept and sadly lacking in story. Huh, I guess I had something to say about it after all.
AJAX BELL 