re: new Amazon series "The Man in the High Castle"

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Can we make this a spoiler thread? I want to talk about the pilot.

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Go for it.

So the overarching plot is the fact that Hitler is ill and there will be a power vacuum to fill for the German side. The two most likely replacements, Himmler and Goebbels, both favor moving into the neutral zone then taking the Japanese portion of the former US.

There is some back room dealing going on by the Japanese to make this not happen due to the fact that they obviously don't have the military and industrial power that Germany has since they control presumably all of Europe and maybe even parts of Eastern Russia(along wtih God knows what: Norther Africa, Canada, the Carribbean, etc.) so they would lose almost assuredly plus add in the A-Bomb and it would be a blood bath.

The subplot is Joe and Juliana trying to get copies of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy to the neutral zone to be used as propoganda to reunite the former American people into a last resistance.

First off, the Germans invading Virginia Beach seems nearly impossible to me with all the weaponry that the Americans had at least in the pipeline and then all the civilian weapons at hand. But it's fun to talk about.

I didn't really like how Joe and Jules just happened to meet right away. Didn't seem very organic to me, but they both were strangers in a small place so I suppose it's possible.

The overarching plot is interesting for sure.

Overall, I liked it. Not sure if I want to read the book first or not.

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First off, the Germans invading Virginia Beach seems nearly impossible to me with all the weaponry that the Americans had at least in the pipeline and then all the civilian weapons at hand. But it's fun to talk about. 

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Didn't the pilot imply that a nuke was dropped on DC?

That would make it easier to invade, I'd think?

Gotcha, makes sense.

So I read the book over the weekend and was pretty disappointed. Seemed to end about 150 pages short. There was at least one story line that had zero point. Most of the story lines were only there for symbolism that didn't realize itself until the very end, even then there was only about a page of pay off. Only one story line that was worth telling and i didn't care for the conclusion. That said, I think I'm going to enjoy the TV show way more than the book.

ETA: My wife and I read it together and this is what I told her:

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On one hand i think “ok, that’s cool. pretty mind bending” On the other i think “what a way to take a great premise and completely flush it down the toilet.”

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and spoilers:

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at least get them to completely break out of the fiction by either A. ending their reality in an armageddon or B. jump from their fiction into reality (at least the reality laid out in TGLH) by unlocking some deeper truth. but that’s just me.

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