TV Review: Childhood's End

There have been multiple attempts to adapt Arthur C.Clarke's classic novel Childhood's End to the silver screen and the small screen.  The most well-known attempt was by famed director Stanley Kubrick.  Unfortunately, at the time someone else had the movie rights, so Kubrick and Clarke collaborated to adapt Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" into what eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey.  There were other attempts over the years, but for one reason or another the plans always fell apart.  That is, until 2015 when Syfy, former known as The Sci-Fi Channel, adapted Childhood's End intoa three-part miniseries.  Adapting such a beloved novel is no easy task, so how does it hold up?  Let's take a look.

I should preface this by saying that spoilers ahoy will be occurring from this point forward.  Turn back now if you don't like that sort of thing.  

Okay, so first of all let's discuss the setting.  The novel was published in 1953 and is set, at least initially, in what was then the relatively near future.  The miniseries, by contrast, is set in the present day.  In the book the United States and the Soviet Union are involved in a Space Race and teetering on the edge of nuclear war.  This gives the Overlords' intervention a seems of urgency, though they probably still would have intervened anyway.  In the miniseries, the Overlords still justify their intervention on the grounds that humanity is destroying itself.  Don't get me wrong, they have a point, but pollution and climate change just don't have the same sense of urgency that nuclear war do.  To be fair, Clarke himself admitted that assuming the Soviet Union would still be around was, in hindsight, a mistake on his part.  

All things considered I think they made the right call with the settings update.  What about the characters?  Before we get to that I think I should also address the time span of the series.  The book spans of multiple decades of history, but the miniseries greatly condenses the time span.  This was most likely so that they could use the same actors throughout the whole production.  It might upset purists, but I understand why the change had to be made, and it didn't really bother me that much.  Now then, let's talk characters.

First, we have Ricky Stormgren.  In the book, he worked for the United Nations, but in the miniseries he's a farmer from Missouri.  He's noted for his ability to broker peace during times of crisis and tension.  He's about to marry a beautiful woman named Ellie, but he's still haunted by the memory of deceased wife Annabelle.  Now, in the book, Ricky's love life didn't really factor into things.  Some might say that this was pandering to the lowest common denominator, but I disagree.  I thought it added depth to Ricky's character.  He's been asked to shoulder an enormous burden for an alien race who, initially, won't even show him their faces.  He certainly more than rises to the challenge, but at the end of the day he's still just a man.  He has hopes, fears and dreams just like the rest of us.  There are times he isn't perfect, but he tires his best to do right by those he cares about.  

I actually think making Ricky an average Joe was a smart move.  Everyone would expect the Overlords to pull the "take me to your leader" cliché.  Plus, let's be honest, the United Nations is hardly the most objective organization in the world.  They bully Israel, but never condemn atrocities of the Islamic world.  They condemn American slavery, 160 years after the fact, but not the slavery going on the Islamic world here and now.  They give equal speaking time to nations that deny freedom of speech to their own citizens.  They even...well, you get the point.  Again, this is another example of time working against the book's original setting.  Moreover, I think Karellen does a good job justifying why he picked Ricky to be his representative.  

Something else of note is that Ricky's actor, Mike Vogel, is pretty much the sole American actor among a cast of Australians, Brits and the odd Irishman or two.  This is in large part because the miniseries was primarily filmed in Australia.  Now, most of the actors involved with the miniseries have appeared on America TV shows and, in some cases, American movies.  So it not like they're a cast of nobodies hired to cut down cost.  On the whole, they do a good job of faking American accents.  That having been said, it does make for a jarring experience to hear them speak in their natural voices during interviews.

In other notable characters, we have Milo Rodericks.  In the book his name was Jan Rodericks and was half-white and half-black.  In the miniseries, besides the new name, he appears to be fully black.  I don't know why they felt compelled to change his name; it certainly seems to be something of a trend for Syfy to change at least one name with each of their adaptations.  Leaving their mark on the production perhaps?  Anyway, what drives Milo more than anything else is his quest for knowledge.  He wants to know everything about the universe, but interest in science start to decline as the Overlords make the world into a utopia.  

Like Ricky, Milo's relationship with his girlfriend gets a lot more focus in the miniseries.  Again, I think this was a smart move on the producer's part.  In the book, when Milo's decides to stow away on a ship bound for the Overlord's homeworld, he leaps at the opportunity without hesitation.  In the miniseries, his decision carries more weight because now he stands to lose something.  There's a certain poetic element in how he ultimately becomes the last of the old humans and dies in Africa.  Humans originated in Africa, so it makes a sort of poetic sense that the last human would be of African heritage.  

So that brings us to the Overlords themselves, specifically Karellen.  First of all, let's talk about their appearance.  Yes, it is a bit on the nose to have them look like stereotypical red devils, but I think it kind of works out.  In the years since Childhood's End was first published, science fiction writers have dream up all sort of weird and wonderful winged aliens.  The Overlords had to look more obviously demonic so that would look like they inspired the Medieval image of demons.  Otherwise people would be more likely to compare them to science fiction aliens.  

I think pretty much everyone was expecting that Karellen was going to be a CGI character, but nope, not the case.  Charles Dance appears in full make-up and prosthetics to portray Karellen.  Though a few shots are obviously manipulated to make him appear taller and more imposing, since Charles Dance isn't quite as tall as Karellen is supposed to be.  I gotta admit that is impressive; especially considering the hell is must have been to have all of that make-up and prosthetics put on every day of filming.  The scene where Karellen finally reveals himself to humanity is one of my favorite bits.  I knew what was going to happen, but it was just shot so well I had goosebumps the whole time.  

The plot of the miniseries actually follows the plot of the books fairly closely.  I'm certainly impressed that Syfy was able to pull it off.  Don't get me wrong, Childhood's End is a great book, but it never struck me as particularly filmable. I always figured that was one of the reason it took so long to get a solid production going.  Each episode, each of which clocks in at a little less than a hour and twenty minutes, adapts a third of the book.  The first episode is excellent.  Pacing is good, acting is also good, it's an all-around good time.  I do find it a bit funny that the leader of the anti-Overlords faction vaguely looks and sounds like Alex Jones.  Granted, it was probably unintentional on the producer's part, but I thought it was humorous. 

Of the three, episode two is definitely the weakest.  I feel like some of the stuff in episode three should maybe have been in episode two.  It would have helped things out with pacing of episode three, but we'll get to that in just a minute.  Now, the middle part of the book is primarily just characters talking and that would have been a bit difficult to translate to a visual medium.  It also kind of feels like the original script wasn't quite long enough and the producers were struggling to fill the extra time.  They also kind of half-assed it when it came to addressing the quasi-supernatural elements.  It's like they wanted to keep it true to the book, but they got cold feet half way through production.   

The biggest flaw, however, came towards the end of the episode.  Karellen pays Ricky a visit...in the middle of broad daylight, while there's a large crowd of people around Ricky's house.  One of the subplots of the episode has followed this woman named Peretta.  She used to work as a missionary with her mother, but religion more or less died out after the Overlords showed up, and she thinks they're demons.  She decides to see Ricky and Ellie for...some reason, and hang out with the other people hanging around their house.  So, Karellen shows up and she sneaks past the rope, which is guarded by police.  She does this by saying that she's a friend of Ellie.  Uh, what?  You seriously expect me to be live that nobody else pulled that sort of stunt?  I mean, how dumb were those police?!  

Oh, but there's more.  Ricky has been shooting tin cans to blow off steam and brings his gun with him to meet Karellen.  Karellen is there to explain why Ricky and Ellie are having trouble conceiving...despite that fact that it's implied he already did that earlier in the episode.  Then Peretta bursts in and start blabbering about Ricky being a false prophet, and Karellen being a servant of Satan.  Despite the fact that there is a crazy woman in his barn, Ricky doesn't do anything to prevent his gun from getting grabbed.  And wouldn't you know it, Peretta grabs the gun and shoots Karellen.  Thankfully, Karellen has given a panacea earlier, and Ricky selflessly uses it to save Karellen.  Peretta is completely crestfallen, leaves in defeat and commits suicide by jumping off of a building.

What irked me the most about this scene was that it required pretty much everyone involved to act like idiots.  I get what the producers were trying to do with Peretta.  They want to show that, even in this world of plenty, there are still those who are dissatisfied.  Problem is that they already have that opportunity with the island of New Athens.  As I was watching this episode I was wondering if they were gonna drop the New Athens subplot, but it appears in episode three.  We'll get back to that in just a minute.  There's also a bit of a plot hole when Karellen gets shot.  In the first episode, Milo got shot, but the Overlords transferred his injury to the person who shot him.  Why couldn't they do the same with Karellen?  Granted you could argue that humans and Overlords are different species, so it might not work, but it irks me still.  

For that matter, why didn't Karellen just send a hologram instead of showing up in person?  Again, I see the intention.  They want to show that Ricky is selfless and willing to put other's needs ahead of his own.  I can see the intention, but it wreaks of bad writing.  I also don't like that it's implied that the children awaken their psychic abilities because of stuff the Overlords did, rather than a natural evolutionary process.  I know it gave it a hard time, but there were some good moments in episode two, mostly set up for the final episode.  Okay, enough about episode two, let's move onto the final episode.

Overall, I'd say episode three did a pretty good job.  Like I said, we get a proper view of New Athens in this episode.  Everything about it checks out fairly well in relation to the book.  We also see the children awaken their powers and their leader comes to embrace her destiny.  What is the name of the leader of these children?  Her name is...Jennifer.  Granted, there was a character by that name in the book, though not nearly as important.  It just struck me as...I don't know, anti-climactic?  The scene where the children all chant her name just wound up look more silly than creepy, in my opinion.  

In other developments, Ricky finally succumbs to his illness because he used his panacea on Karellen.  In the process of his dying he finally makes his peace with Annabelle's death. There's some really touching scene of Ricky spending his last moments gazing at the stars with Ellie.  We also get a brief montage of their happy times together.  Okay, it wasn't actually a montage, and I do think it would have been better to have lingered just a little longer.  I mean, a major character whom we have become emotionally invested in has just died.  I'd say that merits a bit more lingering.  

So, Milo embarks on his journey to the Overlords' homeworld, gets to meet the Overmind and then immediately demands to be taken back to Earth.  Yeah, I get the feeling that the production team were pressed for time by this point.  They probably could have avoided that, if they hadn't dawdled around with episode two.  This is one of the big reveals the series has been working towards, and they kind of just drop it within a few minutes.  I would have liked to have seen more of the Overlords' homeworld, and their museums, but I understand that might have been outside the budget of the miniseries.  Plus, more Overlords means more people sitting through hours of makeup and prosthetics, and that's bound to drive up cost.  

Milo returns to Earth, and since it was a eighty year round trip, he's now a the last human on Earth.  His girlfriend Rachael, and presumably her and Milo's fellow scientists, appear to have died in a cryonics accident.  It's time for the kids to join the Overmind, and Earth must be destroyed for that to happen.  This is an instance where being true to the book actually works against the miniseries. When the book was written, environmentalism hadn't really taken off, so it glossed over the fact that all life on Earth is being destroyed.  They kind of address this with all of the animals the Overlords were taking to be part of their zoos, but it's seems kind of flimsy to me.  Why not use one of the many lifeless planets in the solar system for the energy and spare Earth?

Anyway, let's talk about the ending.  Karellen offers to let Milo explore the universe with the Overlords, but Milo rejects the offer.  Instead, he chooses to report and record the last moments of Earth from the surface.  We're back to where the miniseries started.  He's scared, but he has Karellen's kind words to comfort him.  As the world crumbles around him Milo begs Karellen to save something to serve as the enduring memory of the human race.  Karellen complies and plays a recording of the orchestral song "The Lark Ascending".  Everything about that scene is just so perfect.  The music is perfect, Milo and Karellen's expression are perfect, the pacing is perfect.  

And so the Earth is destroyed, humanity joins the Overmind, and the Overlords move on.  Karellen leaves the music for whomever passes by to hear.  It was such a beautiful ending, and I can't think of any way it could have possibly been better. 

Alright, that's all well and good, but what's the verdict on this one?  I'm giving it a thumbs-up and a happy recommendation.  I know I kind of dwell on stuff that could have been improved, but that's always a bit easier than talking about what I liked.  When I consider Childhood's End as a whole, I really think that it got far more right than it got wrong.  Even if it wasn't always perfect, they followed the method of adaptions that I prefer the best.  They stayed true to the source material, but made change where necessary to better fit the new medium and time.  It's clear that the producers had a great amount of respect for the book.  Some people have been waiting their entire lives for this miniseries, and I promise you, it is well worth the wait.  

I think that it's really great that Syfy is getting back to its roots and adapting great works of speculative fiction, both classic and modern.  So there you have it.  Childhood's End is a worthy adaptation that should appeal to fans of the book and the general population.  With that I wish you all the best, and I will see you guys next time.

Book Review: Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

You’ll get a lot of answers when you ask when speculative fiction was born. Some will tell you that it began with Hugo Gernsback and the pulps. Others will say that it goes as far back as mythology and folklore. Personally, I go with those who say that it began with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, though I don’t discount earlier works such as Gulliver’s Travels or The Tempest. I say all of this because I’m taking us back to the 19th Century for today’s review. We’re going to review the classic novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott.

Imagine, if you will, a sheet of paper that is infinitely large and stretching to all sides. Now imagine that on this sheet of paper there are a series of geometric shapes, but instead of staying in place these shapes move about and have complex social lives. Welcome to Flatland, a world of only two dimensions. There is width and length, but there is no height or depth.

The book follows A. Square who is…well, he’s literally a two-dimensional square. He acts as our guide to the realm of Flatland and relates to use the ways of his countrymen and their doings. There are two main events that serve to completely change A. Square’s world view. The first is his contact with Lineland, a world of only one dimension, and the second is meeting a figure known as Lord Sphere. Lord Sphere claims to come from a strange world of three dimensions called Spaceland.

All right, that sounds lovely but is this actually a science fiction novel? I would argue that yes, it most certainly is. Science fiction has always been about asking the age old question “what if?” and so it is with Flatland. In this case the question asked is what would it be like if there were a world of only two dimensions. I can’t say when exactly I found out about Flatland, though I think it may have been while I was reading Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku. Regardless of where I first heard of it, I’ve always found the concept of Flatland is be utterly  fascinating, and I’m glad to have finally gotten around to reading it.

I loved getting to know all of the ways that life works in Flatland. For example, it is customary to meet someone by feeling them in order to determine their shape. It’s also considered polite to give directions to the way north when meeting a traveler on the road. Societal rank and job are determined by the number of sides that one has, with circles being at the top of things. Each successive generation gains an additional side, except for the low ranking isosceles triangles, though there are exceptions. Women, being incredibly sharp and pointy lines, have restrictions placed on them so that they can avoid constantly killing people by accident. We also learn much of the history of Flatland, such as why colors have been banned by the upper classes. There is some pretty great world building in this novel.

That having been said the fact the citizens of Flatland are all living geometric shapes does limit the amount of exploration that can go into their biology and physics. A. Square does hint at future explanations, but he decides that it will take up too much time and bore the reader. Or to put it another way, if you wonder how they eat and breathe and other science facts…well, I’m sure you all know the words to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 theme song. You’ll also notice that Flatland society bares more than a passing resemblance to the society of Victorian Britain. This is intentional, as Abbott intended for Flatland to be just as much a satire as a compelling story. Some readers may take issue with the way the female characters are depicted, but again, this has to do with the novel being a satire. Abbott was actually making fun of the sexism of his day rather than condoning it. 

The class system of Flatland really doesn’t make much sense upon closer scrutiny. It seems really kind of arbitrary and more trouble than it is worth. But then, Abbott is making a point about how the class system of Victorian Britain was ultimately arbitrary and pointless as well. 

The biggest theme, however, is the theorizing of higher dimensions. Think of Flatland as an allegory for our own existence. The Flatlanders cannot directly perceive of a third dimension, but they can see its effects. For example, where Flatland gets its light is considered a great mystery, but then A. Square learns that it is provided by the Sun. Similarly, we cannot directly observe the fourth dimension, but we can see its effects upon us. What is this fourth dimension you ask? The answer is simple: time. We cannot see time in and of itself, but we can see the effect its passage has on our world. It’s certainly food for thought.

Since it was written in 1884 Flatland has long since fallen into the Public Domain. As such, many other writer have tried their hand at tackling the subject matter Flatland is built upon. Usually they will focus on one particular aspect while ignoring the others. Admittedly I haven’t read any of these books, but of the ones I’ve heard of thanks to TV Tropes I’d say Planiverse sounds the most promising. It attempts to look at how biology, chemistry, physics and culture would function in a realistic 2-D world.

Flatland being in the Public Domain also means that there have been quite a few audiobook adaptions over the years. My favorite would probably have to the one narrated by Patrick Frederic. There is a slight hiss to the audio, but it’s not that noticeable, and Patrick’s narration is very much worth it. Like I’ve said, there’s also plenty of great narration out there so go with whoever you feel like does the best job.

There have been two movie adaptions, both of which came out in 2007. They are Flatland: The Movie and Flatland: The Film, usually just referred to as Flatland. Of the two Flatland: The Movie is better. The animation is better, the voice acting is better, and it’s much closer to the plot of the original novel while still updating the satire for modern times. It also has an all-star cast including Martin Sheen, Kristen Bell, Tony Hale and Michael York. It clocks in at thirty-four minutes, compared to the other film’s ninety minute run time. It’s very much worth checking out if you get the chance. It even managed to net a few awards at various film festivals. Here’s the trailer for those curious.

In other adaptations, there’s the Flatland Tabletop RPG. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m not entirely sure what compelled the game designers to make such a thing. Flatland doesn’t exactly lend itself very well to RPGs, but if you’ve ever want to pretend to be a 2-D geometric shape going on 2-D adventures…well, here you go.

In conclusion, Flatland is a classic, and somewhat under-appreciated, novel that is well worth your time. And since its Public Domain you can even read it for free from places such as Project Gutenberg. It’ll give you something to think about even if the characters are kind of flat, though some would say two-dimensional…hey, I love puns. Seriously, check out Flatland, you won’t regret it.

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Book Review: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

What book comes to mind when you think of Arthur C. Clarke's great novel?  Some would say 2001: A Space Odyssey and others might suggest Rendezvous with Rama.  For many people, myself included, the answer is Childhood's End.  As you maybe have guess that's what we're going to be reviewing today. 

The book is told over the span of 100 years and is divided into three parts.  The first part begins when humanity is about to take its first steps into outer space.  This is stopped by the arrival of an alien race, soon dubbed The Overlords.  The Overlords come in peace and have come to save humanity of nuclear annihilation.  They are lead by a supervisor named Karellen, and they keep their true forms hidden.  Fifty years later the Overlords are reveled to be demonic looking aliens from a distant planet.  Despite their outward appearance the Overlords prove to be as good as they claim and usher in a golden age for humanity.  But why are they doing so, and just what are their true motives?

Okay, yeah, it's next to impossible to talk about Childhood's End without spoiling most of the plot.  Not that I was ever stop by spoilers before, but there you go.  But before we get into all of that I'm sure there's a few other things that we can talk about.

Childhood's End was published in 1953 and is based upon Clarke's 1950 short story "Guardian Angel".  In fact, the first third of the novel is basically a rehashing of "Guardian Angel".  It's sorts of like how 2001: A Space Odyssey is an expansion of Clarke's short story "The Sentinel".  Also, while we're on the subject, Clarke was knighted shortly before is death in 2008, so it's Sir Arthur C. Clarke to all of you.  

I listened to this book shortly after having finished Rendezvous with Rama.  I found it interesting that they're almost mirror images of each other.  Rendezvous with Rama emphasized the wonder and grandeur of its science fiction world, but was a bit lacking with regards to the human element.  It was also quite heavy on the science, but a bit light with regards to what exactly Rama was and what purpose it served.  By contrast, Childhood's End did a good job of balancing the human element with the spectacular and grandeur.  You'd better believe we get some answers to why the Overlords have come to Earth, and we'll get to the soon enough. 

I really liked the point of view the novel portrayed.  We see the benevolent alien invasion from the perspectives ranging from a world leaders to average people.  It goes back to what I said about Clarke doing a good job of balancing the human element with the fantastical.  We even get to see certain parts from the Overlords' point of view.  

Now we get into the really spoilery stuff.  So turn away if you don't like that sort of thing.  Okay, so why did the Overlords come to Earth?  They are servants of an entity known as The Overmind.  I can best describe the Overmind as the collective consciousness of several sentient beings.  Apparently, after a species advances to a certain point they transcend their physical bodies and become one with the Overmind.  The Overlords' job is to help usher in that next step in evolution.  The Overlords do this because they are an evolutionary dead-end and can never be one with the Overmind.  

When I first read this book I assumed that humanity joined the Overmind because of something the Overlords did.  Then, a few days later, I finally got it.  Humanity evolving to join the Overmind was a naturally occurring process.  Had the Overlords not intervened when they did their would have been a nuclear war and the Last Generation would have been killed before they were even born.  The Overlords merely kept things peaceful so that evolution could take its natural course.  

The Overmind itself has kind of a supernatural vibe to it.  In fact, there's even a scene where character play with a ouija board.  Though they acknowledge that they might just be seeing what they want to see.  Karellen and his fellow Overlords reaserch quite a bit into psychics and the occult.  They call it humanity's attempt to understand the Overmind, though remark that it's tangled up in quite a bit of mysticism and other such nonsense.  Clarke, being an atheist, didn't intend for the Overlords to have an religious undertones.  In fact, the Overlords pretty much disprove all religions save for Buddhism.  Clarke did, however, write Childhood's End back when he still believed in the supernatural.  In later years Clarke would grow a bit embarrassed because of this.  

Oh, and why do the Overlords look so demonic?  Well it's not that they look like demons, but that demons look like them.  Humanity had vision of them that came from the future.  They were associated with the end of times, because that's what they helped usher in.  The end of humanity's existence as a separate entity from the Overmind.  As a side note, they only kind of vaguely look like demons.  Remember, they're the product of a different evolutionary history than that of life on Earth.  Also, their home planet has lower gravity than Earth so they use their wings to fly everywhere. 

Being the classic it is, Childhood's End has proved extremely influential among other works of science fiction.  Works which reference or homage Childhood's End include, but are not limited to: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Independence Day, Stargate SG-1, Xenogears, the Genesis song "Watchers of the Skies" and Pink Floyd actually wrote a titled "Childhood's End".   

For those of you who prefer audiobooks there is an audio version narrated by Eric Michael Summerer.  It also includes and introduction by award winning author Robert J. Sawyer.  Robert is one of my favorite science fiction writers, and it's always a joy to hear from him.  When talking about how great Childhood's End is he made a really interesting point.  He said that perhaps humanity's childhood will end when we stop hoping for men from the sky to save us and instead work to save ourselves.  It's a powerful statement and certain make great food for thought.

As you probably know SYFY, formerly known as The Sci-Fi Channel, created a miniseries adaptation of Childhood's End.  I haven't seen it yet, but I plan.  So expect a review of that sometime soon.  The miniseries is part of the reason I finally got around to listening to the book.  As I ranted in my World War Z review, I simply cannot stand tie-in covers.  I know this may seem petty, but with physically books if you don't like the cover you can just buy a copy with a cover more to your liking.  You don't have that option with audiobooks.  You get one cover, take it or leave it, and if it changes to the movie tie-in you're out of luck.  

Thankfully, Childhood's End has avoided this fate.  Plus it's not like Audible always switches to the movie tie-in.  I'm forever thankful The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters dodged that bullet.  Still, it's always something you have to worry about in these situations.  Better safe than sorry is all I'm saying.

Still, even without all of that I still probably would have listened to the book around this time.  It was on my to-read list for a while.  It's a classic science fiction novel, and I think it's Clarke's personal best.  As a bonus tidbit, it won the 2004 Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel.  It's well respect for a reason, so check it out for yourself.  

Well that about does it for me from now.  I will see you guys next time. 

Book Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Unless you've been living under a rock you've no doubt heard about Amazon's adaption of Philip K. Dick's seminal alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle.  It is a widely considered a classic in the alternate history community, and with good reason.  I quite enjoyed the first season of The Man in the High Castle, and I intended to review it at some point.  Before I can do that, however, I thought it would be best to review the book that the series is based upon.  That is precisely what we're going to do in today's post. 

The Man in the High Castle takes place in the year 1962 in a world in which the Axis Powers won World War II.  The United States has been devised between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.  This is due to FDR getting assassinated in the 1930s and America going isolationist.  Everything east of the Rockies is under German control, everything west of the Rockies is under Japanese control and the Rockies themselves are a neutral zone between the two territories.  The book is told from the points of view of a wide variety of characters who are all average citizens going about their lives in an alternate America. 

What can you say that hasn't been said about a classic?  Well I'm going to give it my best shot anyway.  I'll start by saying that I'm going to avoid comparing the book to its adaptation; I'll save that for my review of the series. Anyway, let's get on with the review.

The writing style in this book had an almost meditative quality to it.  I suppose it's rather fitting, give that Dick intended it to be a meditation on the nature of reality.  Fun fact, Phillip K. Dick actually consulted the I Ching while writing this book, much like the character who wrote The Grasshopper Lies Heavy.  What is The Grasshopper Lies Heavy?  It's a book within a book that depicts a world in which the Axis Powers lost World War II.  However, it depicts the Cold War as being fought between the United States and British Empire, with the British coming out on top due to their ethnic purity.  Dick almost seems to be commenting on the process of creating alternate histories, and the personal biases that are often included there in, with his use of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy.  

This commentary is especially interesting when you consider that the alternate history genre was in its infancy at the time.  There had been previous examples, such as Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee, but The Man in the High Castle was the first alternate history novel not to use time travel or supernatural means as its point of divergence.  Well, if you want to get technical that sort of alternate history has been around since Livy in the Roman Empire, but typically alternate history as a genre is agreed to have begun in the mid-20th century.  It also notable that he portrays his characters with all of the biases and social mores that you'd expect from such a world rather than having them be defiant and adhere to modern standards of morality.   

I liked the fact that the book was told from the perspectives of average people.  They're quite a diverse group, you get everyone from an antiques dealer in San Francisco, to a member of the Japanese occupation government, to a woman on a quest for the truth and plenty more such characters.  Some of my favorite scenes to read about in alternate history, and speculative fiction in general, are those that involve average people going about their lives.  You really get a sense of the worlds these stories are set in that way.  It what I loved so much about Paulo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl.  Both books involve characters from across the social spectrum of their worlds going about their lives, and whose individual stories eventually combine to form an overarching plot. 

And speaking of plot, let's talk about that.  There really isn't a plot per se.  Like I said, it starts off as a series of individual vignettes that eventually come together to form something of an overarching plot.  It moves at an easy pace and really gives you time to get to know these characters and the world that they live in.  Though there are some plots threads early on, such as the growing potential for a war between Germany and Japan, as well as Julianna Frink's journey to find Hawthorne Anderson, the titular Man in the High Castle.  As stated above, the novel really questions the nature of reality.  Throughout the book many characters get hints that their world might not be all that really, and one character even travels to our world briefly dude to intense mediation. There's even hints that our own world might not be the true reality.  

So yeah, you come for the fascist dystopia but you stay for the Taoism.  So how does the alternate history itself rate in terms of plausibility?  By modern standards it's pretty shaky and implausible, but you have to understand where Dick was coming from.  In 1962 a lot of the information about World War II that we take for granted was still heavily classified, so there was only so much that Dick could work with.  I think of it kind of like those old science fiction novels that depict Mars and Venus as habitable worlds, because at the time they were written that was the prevailing scientific thought.  Also, The Man in the High Castle is one of those novel, but again it was 1962.  That's also the reason the book is set in 1962, because that was the present day when Dick wrote the book.  

It is somewhat odd that Dick included elements from Chinese culture, such as the I Ching and Taoism, given his loves of Japanese culture.  Admittedly, sometimes conquering cultures adapt elements from the nation's they conquer, such as how Britain gained a few Hindi words and a love affair with curry after they conquered India.  Plus we do see that, slowly but surely, Japan's American possessions are starting to develop a Japanese-American hybrid culture.  The scene that feature Japanese character fawning over artifacts from America's past are especially humorous if you happen to be an anime fan.  Japanese-Occupied-America is depicted as better than Nazi-occupied-America, but that really isn't saying much because...well, Nazis.  It's kind of like asking if you would rather be executed by firing squad or lethal injection.  Consider also that American culture began to loosen up and liberalize during the 1960s, so perhaps this alternate Japanese youth culture has followed suit. Mind you, Dick has always had a strong anti-fascism theme to his novels, so I don't think he was trying to whitewash Japan's war crimes. 

I don't want to give too much away about the ending, but I will say that it certainly gives you something to think about.  The characters don't get any solid answers, but that kind of works given the nature of the book.  Dick deliberately left things open-ended because he was planning to write a sequel set in the Nazi occupied half of America, but he found the research into Nazi Germany to be too draining and soul crushing for that.  Among other things, the sequel would have featured the Nazis discovering a portal into our world and it would have delved deeper into the Japanese-American hybrid culture emerging on the West Coast.  A couple of Dick's other novels started out as sequels to The Man in the High Castle, but they later became their own thing. 

I don't usually talk about covers, but I think it's relevant here.  I had a hard time picking the cover image for this post simply because most cover for The Man in the High Castle typically don't accurately portray North America as described in the book.  They'll either leave out the Neutral Zone or else overinflate the Japanese territory.  The other problem is that they'll typically only feature Nazi imagery even though the over welcoming majority of the book takes place Japan's American territory.  Germany's American territory, and the Reich as a whole, is only mentioned in passing, though what is mentioned is certainly chilling.  So I went with a simple flags and black background cover, but why don't I show you those other covers?

Don't get me wrong, they're all swell covers, but I feel the accurately portray the book.  For comparison's sake here's a map form the Amazon adaption. 

As you can see it fits the description the book provides much better.  Speaking of adaptations, let's talk about the audiobook.  There's actually been three versions over the years.  I listened to the second version, narrated by Tom Weiner.  The previous version was narrated by George Guidall, and the new version is narrated by Jeff Cummings.  Of all three versions I liked Tom's narration the best.  I'm usually opposed to tie-in covers, but in the case of the Jeff Cummings edition it actually kind of works.  It does a much better job of showing what the book is about than the previous audiobook covers.  Plus, even though based on the adaptation, they actually put effort into the cover instead of slapping on a poster for the Amazon adaptation and calling it a day.  And here is that cover.  

The Man in the High Castle was the first Philip K. Dick novel I ever read, and I can see why he's so highly thought of as a writer.  It's also one of my favorite alternate history novels.  I don't like playing the favorites game, but it's definitely at the top of the list.  It's considered classic for a reason.  Typically speaking, if you ask an average to name an alternate history novel, assuming they know what you're talking about, The Man in the High Castle will be the only one they will know.  This novel was also the first alternate history novel to win the Hugo Award.  It's a classic for a reason, and I can certainly see why.

Well hopefully this review has wetted your appetite, and now that I've reviewed the book I can review the Amazon adaptation.  Though I've got some other things planned, so that might not be for a bit.  If you guys want I can review some more classic speculative fiction in the future.  In fact, I think I will.  I think that's enough from me for now.  I will see you guys next time.