Walter M., Jr. Miller Books

Table of Contents:


The Education of Tigress Macardle C. M. Kornbluth
All the Colors of the Rainbow Leigh Brackett
Now Let Us Sleep Avram Davidson
Vengeance for Nikolai Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Seat of Judgment Lester Del Rey
Buy Jupiter! Isaac Asimov
And Then She Found Him . . . Algis Budrys
Before the Talent Dies Henry Slesar
The Comedian's Children Theodore Sturgeon

This book is still incredible and incredibly prophetic 50 years after it was written. Monks try to preserve what is left of a culture after a nuclear war. The three sections of the novel each follow a different era in the history of the monastery. But in style and content-a science fiction story about a group of people trying to preserve knowledge after the fall of civilization told over several generations- is very much comparable to the Foundation series(also excellent). The main difference between these two stories is that the former is very much imbued with a Catholic worldview while the other has a more secular scientific perspective. Miller spend much of his own novel considering that worldview. One of the themes seems to be this:technological progress and moral progress are not synonymous. The same science that gave us all our modern wonders also gave us the capability to destroy it all in a nuclear war. Of course, the same could be said of the church. Perhaps that is Miller's one fault in the book. The church almost seems too perfect in this book. While Catholics believe Christ is perfect, that doesn't mean the church itself is always perfect(thought it is always guided by Christ to perfect itself). The same religion that gave us monks who preserved and revived learning also gave us the inquisition. In science, religion or any field, humans can make mistakes.

If a man were only to write one novel in his lifetime, there are very few that could top this. This is a very disturbing, funny, and angry piece of writing. It takes place somewhere in the Utah high desert in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The abbey in the Utah desert preserves what is left of the "pre-deluge" knowledge of mankind and the technological secrets that led to the apocalypse of a Nuclear War. This is not only great science fiction, it is great modern literature. The storyline is easy to follow in itself but there are symbols and allegories lurking just underneath the surface of the prose and descriptive narratives that bring the reader back again to study this book. There is a lot of Latin and the tradition of the Catholic church as a refuge for knowledge is part of the book's central theme. What lies beneath is a morality play; the medieval mentality that technology and knowledge are some how dangerous secrets reemerges in the aftermath of the apocalypse. "Lucifer" will rise again-"lucifer" being technology-a kind of Frankenstein's monster.

The book moves through time and starts in the darkness of the post-apocalypse. A young initiate to the Utah Abbey is spending a hermitage in the desert and finds, through the help of a wandering pilgrim, an old fallout shelter. Inside the shelter he finds some notes that were written by a Jewish Engineer (the mythical founder of the Abbey) who was part of the military industrial complex. His shopping list from his wife "Pound pastrami, can of kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma," becomes a kind of secret, cryptic document and his engineering scribbles become an ancient, secret tome. There is a kind of dark humor here that shouldn't escape the reader. Censorship and suppression of knowledge by the church is a central theme and it is very important to grasp some of the significance of this when reading this novel for the first time.

As the novel jumps through time, there is theme throughout of the circularity of man's fate in the world. Through his discoveries and technological gains, mankind creates the seeds for his own destruction. This book is a profound meditation on the dark ages and the idea that scientific knowledge can be dangerous is the central theme. It is best for the reader to familiarize his or herself with some Latin phrases and it is good to read this book with a dictionary nearby. Underneath all of the prose are hidden messages and underlying thematic currents that are masterfully conceptualized and presented.

This was the author's only novel during his life time and it is an expansion of some of his short stories that he published in the Sci-Fi Zines' of the 50's. This is definitely a period piece and hearkens back to the cold war and the threat of nuclear war which hovered over that generation. It strikes a chord for me in that when I was living through the end of the cold war, I was convinced that the end of western civilization was an inevitability. I started reading "The Road" and it led me back to this novel which I had read in my college days. This is a book that should be visited again and again. Within its pages lies a wealth of knowledge, incredible symbolism and allegory and it is an angry, profound piece of post-apocalyptic writing. It stands on its own with novels such as the Beach & the Road. I recommend it for all readers who are interested in this literary genre.

The monks of Medieval times spent much of their life copying manuscripts in philosophy and theology that further generations would read, thus maintaining lost knowledge after the decline of Western civilization following the fall of the Roman Empire. Through their efforts and Islamic scholars classical Greek thought was introduced back into Europe and facilitated the reawakening of Europe.

Now a nuclear holocaust has put humanity back into barbarism, and the monks are keeping blueprints of circuit designs and they have no idea what they mean, and a recipe of items that do not exist anymore. As time progresses humanity once again civilizes itself and the new scientists are interested in the data kept by the monks. It doesn't take long for one of the scientists to become at odds with the monks with his speculations.

This is a classic, tragic tale of how the hubris of knowledge without the humility to use for a moral end will always bring disaster. Walter Miller was a disturbed figure, and it shows reading this. It was probably his mental disturbance that lead him to know so well the foibles of human beings and how easy it is to bring about destruction though ego thinly rationalized as good intentions.

7 January 1991
"A Canticle for Leibowitz"

A SF type of book about the end of the world and afterwards. It has many deep impenetrable meanings in its facade of Catholism, manhood, feudal empires, et al. They read and talk Latin, but do not know English from before Armageddon.

The parallels of the events of this book and the events that transpired following the fall of the Roman Empire are obvious, but that doesn't make it stupid. For whatever reason, I've gotten into a "post-apocolypse" reading frenzy. Prior to this book I read "Damnition Alley" which was a fun read, but a light read. Like the forward here says, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is definitley Literature, with a capital "L."

Some people might get frusterated with the bits of Latin that appear throughout the book, especially in the first section. However, you can get the idea from reading around the Latin. My one year of high school Latin certaintly didn't help me much as I read this book.

Aside from the Latin, and even less Hebrew, this book is a deceptivley easy read. Agian, don't let that fool you because there's a lot to pick up in this book. What's more, as I was reading the second part (with Mad Bear and the Thon) I couldn't help but wander if the path mankind takes in this book is not rather... accurate? I'd suggest that there's nothing fantastic about the human situation in the story... though I do think the Benjamin character didn't aid the realness in any way.

Undoubtably, I will read this book again.

As the title suggests, this book collects the best short stories and novellas of Walter Miller, Jr., the '50's science fiction writer best known for the brilliant novel "A Canticle for Leibowitz". Miller isn't overly strong on science, so none of these pieces come off as especially dated by recent discoveries, although it's interesting that so many of the technological innovations Miller foresaw have since been realized, albeit in somewhat different forms. The characterization is about what you'd expect from science fiction stories, and of the novellas, only the hero of "Darfstellar" shows real development. Nor is plotting Miller's great strength - too many of the conclusions seem obvious well before the halfway point. As a group, these stories get their punch from powerful ideas - problems that humankind has never solved, but which are likely to get worse in the future. Although Miller doesn't offer any easy solutions, his stories are intelligent and thought provoking, opening up the kind of dialogue that's necessary if these matters are ever to be settled at all. Also noteworthy are his powerful heroines. The overwhelming force of a mother's love drives the folksy "You Triflin' Skunk" and the darker "Vengeance for Nikolai", while "Anybody Else Like Me?" shows a woman driven to fight for her right to privacy. Another common theme is the question of how we define what it means to be human. Miller attacks this problem biologically in the unusual plague drama of "Dark Benediction" and the more-relevant-than-ever "Conditionally Human", and again in a more technological vein with "I, Dreamer". But while these stories are good enough in their way, Miller is most effective when describing the plight of the common workingman. Whether in conflict with technology that replaces him, or with environments that seem determined to destroy him (or at least impinge upon his freedom of action, as in "Dumb Waiter"), Miller's workingman manages to maintain his essential dignity, continues to care about his fellow man, and holds fast to the basic values that separate him from the machine. The best of these stories is "Crucifixus Etiam", in which earthmen working on the planet Mars must choose between a less miserable present and the chance to return home in the future. Miller makes us feel the hero's pain, his terror, and his longing for home, in a way that makes us wonder whether we would be able to make the harsh choices that he makes. Miller's tales often remind us that the true price of human expansion is the hard labor performed by those who are least likely to be compensated for it, and thus proves that true heroism often consists of just doing an unpleasant task that needs to be done - a lesson we should all try to learn. Miller may not be one of the grandmasters of the genre, but this book should please any fan of mid-twentieth-century science fiction.

I haven't read A Canticle for Liebowitz or Saint Liebowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. Thus this yellow-jacketed reissue was my first brush with the fiction of Walter M Miller. Here we have 14 stories spread over 472 pages, all written between 1952 and 1957. Possibly because of this some of them seem to exhibit more than a passing resemblance to some of Philip K Dick's early short stories. In fact whether or not you like those early Dick tales will probably determine whether or not you like these. Here we have far-future communities who have returned to a Middle Ages existence coming to terms with a giant computer and its robot guardian, post-apocalyptic stories, evil aliens dealing in human cargo, plays where the entire cast is composed of robots, and the story of a world-wide plague which becomes a thinly-disguised meditation on the implications and consequences of intolerance. None of these tales offers anything new or startlingly original, but then they are over 40 years old. They're also well written delightful examples of fifties' SF. And I'll be reading the Liebowitz books when I get a chance.

A Canticle for Leibowitz has been one of my very favorite books since I first read it 20+ years ago--a chilling cautionary fable, and one of the few true classics of the science fiction genre. So, it was with great eagerness that I bought the sequel in hardcover when it first came out. I began reading it immediately, but soon found my attention wandering; the book just couldn't engage me for some reason. After a time, I noticed that the book had been sitting on my nightstand unopened and gathering dust for several weeks, the bookmark stuck at about page 30 or so. It's very rare that I don't finish a book that I started, usually within a matter of days. I figured that I must be missing something, but I couldn't figure out what. I put the book away and resolved to try again at a later date, when I could focus my mind on it.

Since then, I've attempted to read the book at least twice more, with the same result. I finally gave up on it, realizing that it's not me, it's the book. Saint Leibowitz is confusing, poorly written and just plain dull. How utterly disappointing. It saddens me that a talent that once burned so brightly sputtered out so completely at the end.

If you loved Canticle, do yourself a favor--don't contaminate your memories of it by picking up this debacle. RIP, Walter.

A sequel of sorts to A Canticle for Leibowitz, but definitely not in the same class. This book is more concerned with the conflicst within the church of the time, and the conflicts in the greater political arena of what was the USA at one time.

It follows one particular lower order monk who proves influential because of what he knows, and can see.

Perhaps I had been expecting a true sequeal to the original. I was so excited when I saw the book but instead of a taut, touching tale I got a rambling, frequently boring, difficult to follow story that I had to force myself to finish. It seemed more a tale of politics and religious infighting than a science fiction story.

Problems? How about WAY too many characters, many with multiple names. I consider myself intelligent and widely read but the rush of people created such a flux that the plot seemed almost secondary. I liked the hero but for all his potential he did little more than whine, worry and wonder. His boss, the antipope, became the star of the show along with the swordsman.

The story did not "flow" and bogged down several times in minor details. The first section covereding the time in the abbey passed uneventfully but for a few personal crises. Then we journey toward the conclave and are introduced to host of new folks. Finally we arrive in the city and meet yet another cast of characters. The story was as much about Native American culture as anything. The language issues, interesting at first, became tiresome as we switched from various dialects (some almost unpronouncable with special symbols) to Latin (frequently) to English. All in all, not a success.

Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman takes place during the second era described in A Canticle for Leibowitz. The world and its institutions are recovering from the horrific imapct of global nuclear war. Much as was seen as civilization came out of the Dark Ages, secular matters are now moving to the forefront. Whereas the first era saw an Americanized version of the Roman Catholic Church rule with benevolent autocracy from its Seat near what was St. Louis, Missouri, the rise of nation-states - in general and one in particular - in the second era has created a classic thesis/antithesis situation. The resolution of this conflict, the synthesis, is of course already known to readers of Cantcile. The third era finds nation states back doing what they do best; nanmely fight among themselves and - in doing so - reaping yet another whirlwind from what they have sown. But, knowing this does not spoil the thrust and inherent charm of this story, however.

While the primary thrust of the story is the telling of the battle between the secular and the parochical, it is told on two separate and distinct levels. The first is the battle between the Church, shown in the manifestation of the Papacy and the nation-state of Hannigan and its rulers who seek to treat the aforementioned Papacy much as the Medicis did in the Renaiassance.

The second is in the trials and ultimate redemption of Brother Blacktooth St. George, a native American monk. Miller chooses native Americans - both Catholic and pagan - to populate his parochial world. With a native American Cardinal seeking to wrest the Papacy away from its thrall to the Hannegan, this adds yet another layer to the conflict that ultimately leads to - as it has in our world - the demise of the plains culture. Amidst thos realpolitk, Blacktooth St. George is on a quest for his own spirituality purity and center. Like the world aroun him, the path is fraught with temptation and peril in more=or-less equal measures. The end for St. George is peaceful after he elects for mental and spirtual sanity to reject the secular trappings of both church and state in favor of a simple, austere and satisfying conclusion.

Yes, this ghost-edited sequel/digression is a bit of a mess. Not completed, so much as assembled, by a ghost writer, the narrative is repetitive in parts, but is fascinating as an insight into the writing process. Consider the circumstance of having spent years sporadically writing a story that you never had the drive to complete. As you came back to work on it, you probably would not spend much time reviewing what you had alreay produced. This would likely result in your tending to repeat yourself from time to time. And, you probabaly wonder much care about it as the writing process moved along; after all that is what editing resolves.

But, imagine that the this sporadic writing is further complicated by the fact you are 1) suffering from some mental instability that leads to suicide, 2) you have become disaffected and disenchanted by that which you held as the center of your secular and parochial universes and 3) the world in general is a nastier place than you had hoped it would be some four or five decades after your generation gave its all to rdi the planet of ultra nationalism and autocracy.

When Miller wrote A Canticle for Leibowitz, the image of the Catholic Church was personified by deeply faithful priests represented in movies by actor like Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald. Miller, who experienced World War II and the Cold War and saw them as a sure sign of the corruption of man, wrote a story showing that religion was and should be the cynosure of how to live.

By the 1980s and 1990s however, Miller saw a Catholic Church that was far less avuncular; one that was consuming itself in a miasma of self-protective politics aimed in part at supressing scandals. In this book, Miller presents that Church in the same harsh and objective light that he flashed on the nation-state in his first book.

So, those who loved Canticle, be ready for a soemwhat difficult read and a shock. You are going to read Miller's thoughts and beliefs and convictions in a less organized, but far more authentic form. Don't be deterred by its lack of dulce et decorum. Instead rejoice in the opportunity to share in the joy of watching a human being's progress in understanding man and God!

This book's predecessor, A Canticle For Leibowitz, is among my all-time favorite novels, and so I was naturally thrilled to find out that a sequel had been published. This novel, set roughly a generation after Book Two in "Canticle" tells the story of the politics of war and theology amid a very violent age in the future of humankind.

For those who do not know, Mr. Miller's twin novels take place many centuries from now in a world greatly altered as a consequence of nuclear warfare. The United States, like the Roman Empire before it, has fractured into a number of regional powers (Denver, Laredo, Texarkana, etc.) most of whom are actively in conflict with one another. Amid this new dark age the Roman Catholic Church strives to keep the light of knowledge burning, and in this era its monastic libraries are filled with books on such mystical and un-grasped subjects as the internal combustion engine, aeronautics, and advanced medicine. The hope is that one day humans will again reach the level of progress they had before the "Flame Deluge" and comprehend and use this stored wisdom.

Set in the militant kingdom of Texarkana, and concerning itself with violent conquest and the political intrigues behind the scenes in the election of a controversial Pope, the main character here, a monk in the Order of Leibowitz, takes us into this tale that covers but a few years of happenings, as opposed to the civilization-wide scale of the original Leibowitz work. Here one will find a good story and uncover further details of the nature of life in the post-fallout age, but there is sadly an emptiness to the prose that the first novel lacked. Where A Canticle For Leibowitz was rich and imaginative, this book is dry and hollow and its shallowness greatly impeded my acceptance of it.

There is also the nature of...authorship. The story goes that Miller completed this book shortly before his death (suicide?) in the 1990's, but rumor has it this was in fact ghost written by someone else, rather like the V. C. Andrews novels that are still appearing long after her demise.

Whoever authored this book, I am glad it is out there in the market and I wish more works were set in Miller's landscape, but there's no getting around the fact that this is an inferior sequel that does not measure up to the all-time classic from which it descends.