The Man in the High Castle (book)

Wow, the book is so different from the TV show! Damn. Can’t even compare the two. And because I saw the TV show first (and that’s more fast paced) I kept waiting for the book too to pick up pace. And because of that I don’t think I read the book the way I should. It’s not sci-fi, it’s not a thriller, it’s somewhat political (what if Japan and Germany won), and a lot (a lot lot lot!) philosophical (which was amazing really but I didn’t read it with that mind frame as I was waiting for things to pick up pace). 

Lots of good stuff about life and fate and objects etc. Some real good stuff really. But because I came from the TV show background I found it slow. And I also didn’t relate much to any character – I don’t think that’s due to the show though, I think even otherwise I’d have found the characters very distant and unrelateable to. 

I didn’t enjoy this one as much as “1984”. That was amazing. Some real, deep, blow your brains out stuff! “The Man in the High Castle” was more meandering, well written but not really blow your brains out sort of stuff (at least for me). I’ll remember it for it’s philosophical bits on the I Ching and how objects get value and how it doesn’t matter what the outcome of the war was, etc. But that’s about it – it didn’t hit me on a personal level like say “1984” (or recently “Slaughter House 5”). 

Full disclosure: 🙂 I cheated “1984” a bit as I both read it and listened to the amazing audiobook version by Simon Prebble. That would have made a difference I am sure. I am proud of “The Man in the High Castle” in that I actually read it. Took a while as I don’t do much reading, but I stuck with it and now I can say I actually read a book (as in fully read, no audiobook side by side) after a long time. 

As an aside: I haven’t seen Season 2 of “The Man in the High Castle” (I got bored midway of Season 1 to be honest, especially with Julianna) but the score (music) is amazing. Check it out if you are into that sort of stuff.