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A review by nerdyreferencelibrarian89
Estados Unidos de Japón by Peter Tieryas
3.0
United States of Japan was a book I checked out on a whim, based purely on its interesting looking cover. As the description says, it draws heavy inspiration from Man in the High Castle; however, this book actually has a plot!
United States of Japan's strengths lie in the interesting ways it imagines the future, if ruled over by a Japanese Empire. The juxtapositions of not only world events and cultures, but also the main character's thoughts, emotions, and habits, was extremely compelling. The book does not fall into the trap of Japan makes everything terrible, or Americans remaining are strictly good; instead, it creates a bit more of an emotionally bleak world, where most people seem to be trying to do what they think best, but that is warped and weighed down but the unfeeling bureaucracy of Japan.
I really enjoyed a book that stuck to the Japanese perspective, rather then falling into the much more frequent trap of focusing on future Nazis.
The biggest weakness of the big is the plot, at times it is riveting with epic video game show downs, kernels and hints of things to come, at other times it gets bogged down in details and twists that seem to lead no where and make no sense. If you can push thru the few slower and less relevant parts, the main story itself was quite enjoyable.
A personal disappointment was that despite a Mech prominently displayed on the cover, they have very little impact in the story, mentioned a couple of time, but only had 1 minor real appearance and one major, both were very cool, and very well done, but part of me felt that with a mech on the cover I would have liked just a bit more.
Overall fun and enjoyable, but probably not something I will be revisiting anytime soon.
United States of Japan's strengths lie in the interesting ways it imagines the future, if ruled over by a Japanese Empire. The juxtapositions of not only world events and cultures, but also the main character's thoughts, emotions, and habits, was extremely compelling. The book does not fall into the trap of Japan makes everything terrible, or Americans remaining are strictly good; instead, it creates a bit more of an emotionally bleak world, where most people seem to be trying to do what they think best, but that is warped and weighed down but the unfeeling bureaucracy of Japan.
I really enjoyed a book that stuck to the Japanese perspective, rather then falling into the much more frequent trap of focusing on future Nazis.
The biggest weakness of the big is the plot, at times it is riveting with epic video game show downs, kernels and hints of things to come, at other times it gets bogged down in details and twists that seem to lead no where and make no sense. If you can push thru the few slower and less relevant parts, the main story itself was quite enjoyable.
A personal disappointment was that despite a Mech prominently displayed on the cover, they have very little impact in the story, mentioned a couple of time, but only had 1 minor real appearance and one major, both were very cool, and very well done, but part of me felt that with a mech on the cover I would have liked just a bit more.
Overall fun and enjoyable, but probably not something I will be revisiting anytime soon.