Brilliant

Would you try another book written by Philip K. Dick or narrated by Jeff Cummings?

Another great story from PKD. The narrator is excellent too.

Would you be willing to try another book from Philip K. Dick? Why or why not?

Yes

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Hard to choose.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes

Any additional comments?

I would recommend

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2 people found this helpful

actually not a good book! well performed though

Generally well performed although the voice of Juliana is a little amusing. The book itself is actually not good. The Prime TV show is far superior.

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It failed to live up to my expectations.

This book seems to get praise from many critics. I agree the concept is intriguing and there are some credible characters that I was interested to follow through the story. I'm left wondering if the issue is with me rather than the book? Have I missed something perhaps? There are multiple story threads with lesser or greater levels of interdependency. My conclusion is these are disjointed tangents to a main story that lacks plot, twists and a satisfactory finale. I get that the sub-plots help develop the reader's understanding of what life is like in this very different world. Unfortunately many fail to pass the 'so what' test. Disappointed!

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Easily surpassed by the TV series

I found the TV series excellent but unfortunately the credit for that goes to all involved in that production, very few elements are explored within this book.
Perhaps the pervasive casual racism here is deliberate, I didn't think it helped the story.
It was a limp story with lots of threads left un-pulled and avenues unexplored.

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Mixed feelings about this book and presentation

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Overall it's a great story, definitely worth the read.The idea of an alternative history world, in which characters view the "real" course of events as historical fiction is great, I loved every second of it.
I've got quite disappointed towards the end, when protagonist's actions became less and less believable. In the end logic was sacrificed for a rather ham-handed moralizing and almost undisguised explaining what this book means. Really annoyed by it.
Sections where protagonists experience spiritual trips are quite common with Mr. Dick, and again I'm not a fan of them.
However all of this is absolved by the narrative and a great detailed look on the way the world could've been, had Germany won. Lots of people in that world keep saying that it just was meant to be and couldn't have been otherwise is a nice touch that reminded me - you never know how things can turn out, until they are revealed to you.

What aspect of Jeff Cummings’s performance might you have changed?

I'm really not a fan imitating the accents. 70% of lines of dialogue were delivered in a hoarse voice and strongly garbled, meant to imitate Japanese and German accent, but resulting in me struggling to make out what was actually said. In fact, accents were borderline a mocking imitation of the way actual German and Japanese speak english. There was a couple of moments where it was beneficial, but overall it just made listening harder than it should've been.
A grown man trying to imitate a husky feminine contralto is weird at least. Again, would've prefer narration with good expression.
Everything else was good and professional, with good expression, tone and speed.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This is a long read, and lots of political talk suggests reading it in sections and thinking about them before proceeding. Gulping it down in one go wouldn't do here.

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Brilliant - mystical - thoughtful

What a treat - PKD can sometimes write sloppily - not here, every sentence is in character - it all fits - it's all 'Wu'

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Not a great ending.

I loved the book and the reading but the sharp end disappointed me a bit.

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Great!

Awesome story, but slow to get going.. And if you can ignore the casual racism and the weird alternative history, your in for a treat!

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3 people found this helpful

Better read than a listen

I read this when I was a kid and loved it. It's harder to follow when listening, but still very enjoyable. The reader was eloquent but unconvincing with accents and I found he really struggled with female voicing (for Juliana). Still, I would recommend this to anyone. Just don't be doing anything else while you're listening or you'll lose the thread and have to go back.

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1 person found this helpful

Disappointing after the tv

I thought this would be gripping but , compared to the TV programme of the same name, its limited.

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