(SEMI-PLOT SPOILER ALERT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)
I have long been a sucker for novel-within-the-novel books because of a fascination with alternate realities. In this respect, Philip K. Dick's sci-fi classic The Man in the High Castle is superlative. And Amazon Prime's eponymous miniseries is even better.
Set in 1962, some 15 years after an alternative ending to world War II, the novel and miniseries on which it is based center on intrigues between the victorious Axis powers, who have divvied up the U.S., with Japan ruling the West and Nazi Germany the East, with a neutral zone in between, as well as the grinding routine of daily life under the resulting totalitarian regimes.
The novel within the novel is an alternate history within an alternate history in which the Allies defeat the Axis, although in a manner different from the narrative drummed into us. The novel in the book is just that, while it is a series of newsreels in the Amazon series.
I would heartily recommend both the book, which while flawed still is a terrific read, and Amazon miniseries, which is superbly cast and photographed. A second season of the miniseries has just debuted, and events of recent weeks have added a certain unwelcome pungency to it. Wonder why that is?
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