Philip Dick's Man in the High Castle coming to Syfy

[RAMA]

http://io9.com/man-in-the-high-castle/

Wow...I cant believe it in the first place and I cant believe it's on Syfy...I mean this is a science fiction novel!!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

http://io9.com/man-in-the-high-castle/

Wow...I cant believe it in the first place and I cant believe it's on Syfy...I mean this is a science fiction novel!!

This sounds like the project he had in development with the BBC a few years ago. I'm not clear if the BBC pulled out of the project and he had to find new backers or if it's still the BBC project but now with cofunding agreements in place.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

This is the kind of story that can be done well for television with a reasonable budget, if the writing is good.

BBC would be about perfect, in fact.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Exciting news!

NY Times.

Deadline.

Looks like the BBC is out, SyFy is in, which doesn't automatically curse the project or ensure giant tarantula-octupus hybrids will be introduced into the story.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

They should have The Asylum do the Saturday night version High Castle Man.

 

[Klaus]

I'm simultaneously thrilled and horrified... I can't believe that Siffy won't frak it up.

I'd love to see a good version, but it's sad to say that there is absolutely no reason to believe they can carry it off.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Well, I'm going to watch it.

 

[Klaus]

Oh I will too, unless they do to it what they did to Riverworld...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I consider it a good sign at this point that the Halmis don't appear involved with this one.

 

[Owain Taggart]

This looks right up my alley. I haven't read the novel, but I'm putting it on my "to read" list.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I would have thought that much of MITHC would be pretty difficult to translate to screen. If one ditched the fine details of PKD's philosophical musings, the I Ching, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy book-within-a-book, Japanese aesthetics, and so on it would leave merely an alternate history fantasy as a stunted revenant. Yes, I also recall how Riverworld was butchered in its adaptation, as was Earthsea.

 

[Mistral]

This looks right up my alley. I haven't read the novel, but I'm putting it on my "to read" list.

Its considered a classic. That said, and as an alt-hist reader, I found it "meh" at best. There are better stories out there. The Coming of the Quantum Cats springs to mind, as does Alternities and the work of Paul McAuley.

As for Skiffy doing a mini-series from MITHC, well, its Skiffy

 

[Temis the Vorta]

They should have The Asylum do the Saturday night version High Castle Man.

I'd like to see what The Asylum would do to that material. Could be interesting.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

This looks right up my alley. I haven't read the novel, but I'm putting it on my "to read" list.

It's considered a classic. That said, and as an alt-hist reader, I found it "meh" at best. There are better stories out there.

If you read The Man in the High Castle as an alternate history, you're going to be disappointed because, as an alt-history, it's horrible. PKD wasn't an historian, he doesn't try to justify how his world got this way. It simply is.

What I get out of the book is character and mood. If you drop a group of people into the worst "present" you can imagine, what would they do? I think the book makes more sense as one of Dick's mainstream works, albeit one that's set in a North America that's divided between the Germans and the Japanese.

What I don't get out of the book is a satisfying plot. There are plots in the book, but most of them are not particularly exciting, and the titular plot (Juliana's trip to meet the "man in the high castle") has a dull conclusion. It's the plot that concerns me with a television adaptation.

And yet, I really do like the book and I've read it several times. It's not my favorite PKD, but it's in my top five.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

It's a very melancholic novel, I really can't imagine how this adaptation could turn out to be good. The Man in the High Castle needs a director with a vision.

 

[Owain Taggart]

This looks right up my alley. I haven't read the novel, but I'm putting it on my "to read" list.

Its considered a classic. That said, and as an alt-hist reader, I found it "meh" at best. There are better stories out there. The Coming of the Quantum Cats springs to mind, as does Alternities and the work of Paul McAuley.

As for Skiffy doing a mini-series from MITHC, well, its Skiffy

Thanks for the advice. I love reading historical fiction, and figured this could be my gateway to alternate history fiction. I'll still read it, but I'll keep that in mind. There was a really cool movie based on a book that looked at Germany having won and the world that it ended up being. It was Fatherland.

 

[Bisz]

I'll watch this... But I think The Man In The High Castle was the biggest literary let down for me. I was really looking forward to the book... And ended up not liking it at all.

 

[Mistral]

This looks right up my alley. I haven't read the novel, but I'm putting it on my "to read" list.

Its considered a classic. That said, and as an alt-hist reader, I found it "meh" at best. There are better stories out there. The Coming of the Quantum Cats springs to mind, as does Alternities and the work of Paul McAuley.

As for Skiffy doing a mini-series from MITHC, well, its Skiffy

Thanks for the advice. I love reading historical fiction, and figured this could be my gateway to alternate history fiction. I'll still read it, but I'll keep that in mind. There was a really cool movie based on a book that looked at Germany having won and the world that it ended up being. It was Fatherland.

Fatherland was good. However, too often in alt hist the author takes a trite Common History point to work from. Hitler wins WW2, the Confederates won the Civil War, etc.
I've found that using a less expected jump off point makes for good reading.

Ruled Britannia - Harry Turtledove, in which Shakespeare foments rebellion against the Spanish conquerors of England

1901- Robert Conroy, in which the Kaiser invades New England

Down In the Bottom Lands-Turtledove again, in a world where the Med drained of all water (novella) centuries ago

The "Alternative" collections -(ed.) Mike Resnick, Alternative Warriors, Alternative Kennedys, Alternative Presidents, Alternative Outlaws, which are great and some times even goofy short stories about (mostly) famous people in other roles in life

The Peshawar Lancers- S. M. Stirling, in which a giant asteroid plunges Victorian England into nuclear winter

Then again, some of the most fun in alternate Universe writing doesn't focus so much on history as the possibilities of the multiverse and traveling therein.

Cowboy Angels-Paul McAuley, where the CIA works to remake the altAmericas they find into mirror copies of our own

The Coming of the Quantum Cats- Frederick Pohl, where a number of alternate Earths end up at war with each other

Alternities- Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell , in which one Earth secretly preys upon others for resources and wealth

All These Earths- F. M. Busby, in which an interstellar pioneer returns home to find his star drive skips him to alternate universes-and he just wants to go home

Replay- Ken Grimwood, in which a dying 43 yr old finds himself back in his own body in 1962-with all of his memories intact. So he decides to change things...

The Guns of the South-Turtledove again. In which General Lee is given AK-47s to win the Civil War. Considered a classic by Turtledove, btw.

Enjoy!

Anyway, those are just a few suggestions.

 

[stj]

Other alternate history titles:
Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee...it may be the South Wins, but Winston Churchill and Mackinlay Kantor look sick compared to this...but put it up against Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain, where we all win the right kind of Civil War, thanks to John Brown!

Mona Clee's Branch Point, about an alternate ending to the Cuban Missile Crisis vs. Brendan DuBois's Remembrance Day.

L. Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Fall, much like Turtledove's Guns of the South, except the help from the future goes to the Goths fighting Justinian.

Melissa Scott, A Choice of Destinies, Alexander the Great vs. Rome, then Carthage.

Turtledove is a truly godawful writer who cranks'em out like sausages. But I think his genuine best is Agent of Byzantium, because his field really was Byzantine history, and I think it shows.

 

[milo bloom]

I'll watch this... But I think The Man In The High Castle was the biggest literary let down for me. I was really looking forward to the book... And ended up not liking it at all.

Took the words right out of my mouth. So many different bits and bobs that just meandered here and there.