SFF Masterworks Blog / Review: The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

I've just posted my first review over at the SFF Masterworks Review. You've probably heard about it from some of my fellow reviewers but if for some reason you only read Stomping on Yeti (it's okay if you do), grab your s'mores because I'm going to retell the legend of How the SFF Masterworks Blog Was Created.

Now, I own a lot of the Science Fiction Masterworks titles. All of them in fact. Shamefully, I've read very few of them. In this case, a few equals 8. Out of 125+

So when I saw a post on Larry's excellent OF Blog of the Fallen about Thing's He Would Like To See Posted Online, one of the bullet points his wishlist read

"A group of people, over the next year or so, to combine to review all of the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks books. I would imagine that 10 reviewers, covering 5-10 books each over the course of a year, could achieve this without emptying their savings."

So I said to myself. I can be that group of people! One quick dictionary check later, I realized that I can't be a group, not by myself anyway and so I reached out to Larry to see if he was willing to back up his blog post and join in a group blog dedicated to tackling these 125+ books. Fortunately, he was and so we set out to assemble a Round Table of the Greatest Bloggers In Existence!^TM (or whoever else was interested in participating that day on Twitter). We are currently at 12 reviewers (see who here) and growing and still have room for more, if you want to join in the fun. And by fun we mean rereading suppossed SF classics that may or may not be horribly dated...

Anyway, my first book was Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. It was definitely one of those books that you think you know a lot about but when you read it, it's nothing like you expected. Everyone knows it's an alternate history in which the German's win World War II, right? But what I didn't expect (and maybe should have) was the thematic depth that Dick created in his work. There's a lot of mind bending philosophy (no surprise with PKD) under a thin layer of post war intrigue and it's really no surprise that the book has ended up on so many classic lists.

You can read the full review here. I'd recommend checking the site regularly. There are a lot of good reviewers (full list) reading a lot of good books (full list SF and F).

My next Masterwork is Greg Bear's Blood Music so if you are interested in reading along, that's the one.