Scan barcode
A review by vinayvasan
Estados Unidos de Japón by Peter Tieryas
3.0
Well a 3.5, downgraded to a 3, cos you know Goodreads rating...
United States of Japan (USJ) has been hailed as the spiritual successor to the all time great work of Philip K Dick, The Man in the High Castle and to a great extent, USJ works. It captures the darkness, the complexity, the weirdness of US being captured by Japan post WW II and remodeled on Japan, absorbing Japanese culture, bowing down to the Japanese emperor as compared to the German equivalent in PDK's seminal work
The cynicism, the apathy, the horror and the brutality have been folded neatly with the Japanese culture (esp around the tenets of duty, honor and the Samurai code). This coupled with the rapid technological developments including the development of mechas (giant robots basically), porticals (mobile phones) and advanced poison based torture devices decidedly moves this alternate history SF tale into the realms of the deadly and weird
The lead pair is a mix of opposites (like in most things). Ben is a lazy, slacker and womanizer, a jaded cynic, who following a traumatic event, refuses to stand out and is content to coast by. Always talking the right things, staying out of notice while being a technological genius, a skill he hides. Akiko on the other hand is a dedicated soldier believing in the Emperor, full of zeal and no patience. The pair come together to unravel a conspiracy that is spreading in form of a game that shows how the world would be if USA had actually won the war. And things escalate fairly quickly.
The world building is fantastic and detailed and layered just like the characters. Where the story really stumbles is in the pacing. The pacing is very uneven, and the ending is very rushed, limiting the enjoyment and the satisfaction of the tale. Also, some of the characters that are introduced late in the book have a whiff of a Dues Ex Machina.
Nonetheless, a solid book that fairly races through and keeps you engrossed even if it makes you want to read Man in the High Castle again and also, see the excellent TV series spawned under the same name
United States of Japan (USJ) has been hailed as the spiritual successor to the all time great work of Philip K Dick, The Man in the High Castle and to a great extent, USJ works. It captures the darkness, the complexity, the weirdness of US being captured by Japan post WW II and remodeled on Japan, absorbing Japanese culture, bowing down to the Japanese emperor as compared to the German equivalent in PDK's seminal work
The cynicism, the apathy, the horror and the brutality have been folded neatly with the Japanese culture (esp around the tenets of duty, honor and the Samurai code). This coupled with the rapid technological developments including the development of mechas (giant robots basically), porticals (mobile phones) and advanced poison based torture devices decidedly moves this alternate history SF tale into the realms of the deadly and weird
The lead pair is a mix of opposites (like in most things). Ben is a lazy, slacker and womanizer, a jaded cynic, who following a traumatic event, refuses to stand out and is content to coast by. Always talking the right things, staying out of notice while being a technological genius, a skill he hides. Akiko on the other hand is a dedicated soldier believing in the Emperor, full of zeal and no patience. The pair come together to unravel a conspiracy that is spreading in form of a game that shows how the world would be if USA had actually won the war. And things escalate fairly quickly.
The world building is fantastic and detailed and layered just like the characters. Where the story really stumbles is in the pacing. The pacing is very uneven, and the ending is very rushed, limiting the enjoyment and the satisfaction of the tale. Also, some of the characters that are introduced late in the book have a whiff of a Dues Ex Machina.
Nonetheless, a solid book that fairly races through and keeps you engrossed even if it makes you want to read Man in the High Castle again and also, see the excellent TV series spawned under the same name