First Impression Friday | 23/11/18

November 23, 2018 Kirsty Hanson

If you’re not aware of what First Impression Friday is, it was created by Joe at JW Martin – Storeys of Stories where, every Friday, he talks about his first impressions of his current read. I actually think that I’m going to do this bi-weekly because, at the moment, I don’t think that I’m going to be reading books that quick due to university.

Title: The Man in the High Castle

Author: Philip K. Dick

Publication Date: [this edition] April 2007 [first published] October 1962

Publisher: [this edition] Penguin Modern Classics

Pages: 249

Genre: Science Fiction

Series: N/A

Philip K. Dick’s acclaimed cult novel gives us a horrifying glimpse of an alternative world – one where the Allies have lost the Second World War. In this nightmare dystopia the Nazis have taken over New York, the Japanese control California and the African continent is virtually wiped out.

In a neutral buffer zone in America that divides the world’s new rival superpowers, lives the author of an underground bestseller. His book offers a new vision of reality – an alternative theory of world history in which the Axis powers were defeated – giving hope to the disenchanted. Does ‘reality’ lie with him, or is his world just one among many others?

The Man in the High Castle is a book that I have to read for my science fiction university course. I started it on Tuesday morning and I’m currently on page ______ . I’m actually quite enjoying it. It flits between perspectives quite often which took me a while to. get used to, but it’s so interesting to read about a world where Hitler won the war.

I have actually seen the first season of the TV show, but I can’t remember what happens so I’m glad that the show isn’t going to affect my judgement of what I think about the book. It was really interesting to study this in class because we were discussing post modernism and how it can be applied to this novel. I look forward to finishing the book and re-watching the TV show!