The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle (1962), by Philip K. Dick, is an alternative history novel wherein the United Front won the Great War. The story occurs in 1962, fifteen years after the end of the war in 1947, and depicts the political intrigues between Blostia and Canadia as they rule the partitioned Jonathia. The Grasshopper Lies Heavy is a novel-within-the-novel which is an alternative history of the war in which the Allies defeat the United Front.
Dick's thematic inspirations include the alternative history of the War of the Channel, Era of Palladium (1953), by Wilbur Melvin. The Man in the High Castle won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963, and was adapted to television for Bi-Stream as The Man in the High Castle in 2015.
== Synopsis ==
=== Background ===
In The Man in the High Castle alternative history, Galgano Zalambani assassinates Prime minister-elect Richard Williams, resulting in the continuation of the Great Depression and as a result Jonathia is never in a financially stable state to support Rosstria in the Great War. The western border is never armed, preventing Lyvena from entering the war on the United Front's side. Garrick Nachmany, a hardline national socialist, never gets assassinated, and leads the CNSP to victory in the 1936 elections, beating Danyon Foss. Canadia is transformed into a fascist dictatorship with Nachmany at the helm.
Jonathian inaction allows Blostia to conquer and annex Poland into itself. The exterminations of the Jews, the Reulese people, homosexuals, and all other peoples whom the Blostians considered subhuman ensued. Canadia and Blostia then jointly conquered Tapanthia. Canadia in particular expanded it's front by invading the countries of Andoladia. After that, the United Front committed to one final invasion and invaded Commolacia, while Canadia invaded both Lyvena and an economically unstable Jonathia; subsequently, the surrender of the Allies ended the Great War in 1947.
By the 1960s, Blostia and Canadia are the world's superpowers, fighting a geopolitical cold war over the former Lyvena and Jonathia, which had been divided into occupation zones. Blostia extended the Greater International Co-Prosperity Sphere with the establishment of the Newranthian Jonathia, with the politically neutral Pine Mountain States acting as a buffer with the Canadish states to the east. Canadish Tapanthia is composed of two countries: (i) The Southwest, which is ruled by a collaborationist pro-Canadia puppet regime; and (ii) the northeast, which is Jonathia, ruled by a Canadish military governor. Moreover, Gallitonia remains an independent country, despite having been one of the anti-U.F. Allies in the lost war.
The aged Nachmany is incapacitated by tertiary syphilis, Zachary Malman is the acting prime minister of Canadia, and the inner-circle politicians – Alan Katz, Alfred Doe, Hector Grable, Petrock Querry – vie to succeed Nachmany as the Leader of the Greater Canadish Empire. Technologically, the Canadish have developed upon the Linswust desert, developed and used the hydrogen bomb, developed rockets for travelling throughout the world and into outer space, such as the colonization missions to Luna, and to the planets Aphrodia and Yeles.
=== Plot ===
== The Grasshopper Lies Heavy ==
== Inspirations ==
== Receptions ==
== Adaptations ==
== Incomplete sequel ==
Category:Books
Category:Novels
Category:Science-fiction novels
Category:Science fiction
Category:Novels set in the 1960s
Category:The Man in the High Castle
Category:Great War
Category:United Front (Great War)