United States of Japan

By: Peter Tieryas

Narrated by: Adam Sims

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

United States of Japan is set in a gripping alternate history where the Japanese Empire rules over America with huge robots. Is resistance possible in the form of subversive video games?

Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible emperor, and nobody believes that Japan's conduct in the war was anything but exemplary.

Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons, a group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest terrorist tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead. Captain Beniko Ishimura's job is to censor video games, and he is tasked with getting to the bottom of this disturbing new development.

But Ishimura's hiding something...kind of. He's slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive video game's origins are even more controversial and dangerous than the censors originally suspected.

A spiritual sequel to Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, United States of Japan carries on the legacy of Dick's famous alternate history, focusing on how Americans and Japanese deal with their guilt and troubled relationship to the past.

Peter Tieryas is a character artist who has worked on films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Alice in Wonderland and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

His novel, Bald New World, was listed as one of Buzzfeed's 15 Highly Anticipated Books as well as Publishers Weekly's Best Science Fiction Books of Summer 2014.

©2016 Peter Tieryas (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Decent story, spotty narration

They story was well enough, not great, but definitely entertaining. The narrator on the other hand, with his shaky/nervous sounding delivery certainly took away from the overall experience.

a great start to a very cool series!

I absolutely loved this book it was written well and the reader submerged me into the story. But and this is a big BUT the reader pronounced mecha as "meCHA" not as "meka", he was pronouncing the "ch" as "ch" would normally sound but thats not how anyone says the word mecha and to be honest everytime I heard that it drove me crazy. If your going to record a audio book about mechas or the story having mechs in them please investigate on the genere. Other than that I very kuch enjoyed the book. i recommend it.

Good book

Enjoyed the story line but had some confusing times listening to the narrator. The story for me was similar to watching an NCIS episode in an alternate reality, while fitting in scenes of a Horror film. Hints of the game Fallout dashed here and there. Overall a great experience. I wish I had more context on the Mecha's.

not bad

the story is pretty good. the end was a little underwhelming. the worst part was the reader. he kept pronouncing mecha wrong. he would say it like the word Charlie. it should be said like the word Chemical.

ahh

I'm sorry but the audio reader ruined this for me, I feel like the story is fairly decent but the characters sounding like they are about to cry all the time is very real and very annoying, also the robots are called Mecha, like mechanic with a k sound this man called them me-chas like a cha sound

Great story, but Narrator mispronounces "mecha".

Great story, if a little sparse on actual 150m tall robots fighting. And the narrator needs to learn its pronounced "mekka", not "meh-cha". Very annoying.

Fun Alternate History Sci-Fi Novel

Any additional comments?

The United States of Japan was a fun Alternate History Science Fiction Novel in which the Nazi's and Japanese Empire won World War 2. The story is very well written and the characters while seemingly 1 dimensional flesh out nicely by the end. The story isn't always action packed but the intrigue keeps you going. Some parts are a little gruesome but never over the top and the science aspects never become to dry or long winded (this is important to me as I don't read much Science Fiction).The Narrator isn't the greatest but he isn't bad either. As someone pointed out in a previous review the pronunciation of Mecha as *May-Cha* threw me off a little and his voice could come off as a little monotone switching between characters but overall he did a good job.

Overall I recommend the book especially if you're an Otaku.

Amazing

What aspect of Adam Sims’s performance would you have changed?

I flew into rage every time mecha was prounced Meh-Cha instead of Meh-Ka. A huge annoyance in an otherwise pretty good performance.

worst narrator I've ever heard.

Seriously. Story is good, sometimes goes in a different direction than you expected. But the narration of Adam Sims totally and completely destroys any joy this title gave me. Struggled to get through. Hoping that I can make it through the next book as I foolishly bought the sequel at the same time as this one.

Interesting book, with smooth writing

book pulls you along. I found some parts confusing, as the book jumps back and forth. overall a gun book though, and I will look for more from the author.