First of all a hat tip to SciFi Media for making me aware of this meme/challenge. It’s part of A Trillian Book and this week’s challenge is to pick a review of a science-fiction book you’ve written.
I skimmed over my reviews here and decided to pick one of my favorite books (science-fiction or otherwise), Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.
As for why I picked it, there are a couple of reasons. One is that while I read a lot, I don’t often go back and re-read many books. There has to be something special to make me read a book again. Man in the High Castle is one of those books that I can read and then immediately want to read again. It’s a fascinating story that looks at what might have happened if the United States was defeated in the second World War. The iChing figures heavily into this story and according to what I read on-line, Dick used the iChing at several points to figure out where the story would go next.
A lot of people have probably heard of Philip K. Dick because of the myriad of movies made from his stories and novels. Some of them come closer than others to capturing the true tone and spirit of Dick’s writing. If you’ve seen any of the movies, you may be curious to read something by Dick. This novel, along with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep are good starting points. They feature a lot of the typical themes of a Dick story, but aren’t as dense and full of paranoia as many of his later works.
So, that’s my reason for picking this as my review for this meme. It’s one of my favorite books and I hope to help people discover or re-discover it.
Nashville Book Worm 
I used to own a copy of The Man in the High Castle, and I tried twice to get into it, and couldn’t. 😦 Maybe the third time will be the charm?
Redhead: watch out if you do, as the final twist in the book isn’t one of his best so there might be an anticlimax awaiting you … but I think think the real joy from the book is to be had from the fictional world that is painted.
The plot itself moves slowly and doesn’t move very far; it’s all about the fun what-ifs of the alternative history.
(I’ve blogged my own views at greater length at http://www.markpack.org.uk/the-man-in-the-high-castle-by-philip-k-dick-book-review/).