Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman 
asked by advisor on November 25, 2006 5:05 PM
This is the 30-years-in-coming sequel to Walter M. Miller's seminal work, A Canticle for Leibowitz. It chronicles the odyssey of Brother Blacktooth St. George, a fallen monk of the Leibowitz order who becomes secretary to the politically ambitious Cardinal Brownpony. Brownpony is involved in a complex scheme to break the rule of the Hannegan Empire, which dominates the 35th-century's post-apocalypse world. Even though Brownpony's plans will ultimately restore both the world and the declining Papacy to some form of order, he is not a religious man, although he is drawn to those who are. He sees something profoundly religious in Blacktooth, who on the surface seems to be a disgraced monk foundering in confusion because of his love for a woman, his semi-pagan visions of the Virgin Mary, and his nomadic heritage. Ultimately it seems that Brownpony's--and indeed humanity's--salvation may lie with Blacktooth, who will never quite realize how great is the gift he's been given.
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Yes, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman 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. Imagine that you spent years writing a story. Of course, you'd tend to repeat yourself from time to time. And, that is what editing resolves.
But, imagine that you are 1) suffering from some mental instability that leads to suicide, and 2) you have become disaffected and disenchanted by that which you held as the center of your secular and perochial universes.
Under those circumstance, you might, like Walter Miller might just try to exorcize the demons with writing such as this book.
When Miller wrote A Canticle for Leibowitz, the imagine 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!
But, imagine that you are 1) suffering from some mental instability that leads to suicide, and 2) you have become disaffected and disenchanted by that which you held as the center of your secular and perochial universes.
Under those circumstance, you might, like Walter Miller might just try to exorcize the demons with writing such as this book.
When Miller wrote A Canticle for Leibowitz, the imagine 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!
reviewed by shirley49 on November 27, 2006 1:39 AM
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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.
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.
reviewed by goonball on November 27, 2006 7:02 AM