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Posted By : C.Cevasco - 6/10/2008 7:13 PM
Filling in one of those long-standing gaps in my SF reading... Last week I finally read A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Really powerful stuff--it's one of those stories that lingers in your mind after you finish it. Funny, haunting, beautiful and terrifying all at once. Highly recommended.

Chris


Christopher M. Cevasco, Editor/Publisher
Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction
http://www.paradoxmag.com


Posted By : Bill Ward - 6/10/2008 9:04 PM
Love this book myself. I plan on rereading it soon and offering a review at my site -- the best thing about doing reviews is it gives me an excuse to go back and read old favorites.


billwardwriter.com


Posted By : James Enge - 6/11/2008 10:32 AM
Leibowitz ia great! Somehow totally pessimistic but not unhopeful. A very Cold War book, too, it seems to me.



James Enge
http://jamesenge.com/

"A Covenant with Death" in Flashing Swords
"The Lawless Hours" in Black Gate 11
"The Gordian Stone" in Every Day Fiction
"The Red Worm's Way" forthcoming in Return of the Sword
"Payment in Full" forthcoming in Black Gate


Posted By : J Erwine - 6/11/2008 11:36 AM

That was a great book, but don't bother with the sequel...

 

 
 

Posted By : Bill Ward - 6/11/2008 5:32 PM
I never knew there was a sequel.


billwardwriter.com


Posted By : Jason T - 6/12/2008 9:43 AM
I think the sequel came much after the fact, and to a pretty luke-warm reception (note: none of this is fact checked so I could be completely off base). While it has been 20 years since I read it, I remember it being a very thought provoking book, especially concerning the conflict between religion and science and how it played out over the course of the book's three sections. I also enjoyed the way the expanse of time covered in the novel allowed you to see the evolution of the memory and interpretation of Leibowitz.


Jason Thummel
 
"A Stand in the Eye of the Needle" Flashing Swords, May 2008
"Mortismagus" in Magic and Mechanica, Ricasso Press Forthcoming 2008
"The Gift of the Unspoken God," in The Infinity Swords, Carnivah House > >, Forthcoming 2008
"The Homecoming of Brother Antonitus" Flashing Swords May 2009

The Gunnerman” Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature, forthcoming TBA >>

"Thorvold's Tale" in The Age of Blood and SnowMorrigan Books, forthcoming Dec 2008

 

 


Posted By : peadarog - 6/12/2008 12:23 PM
I thought the sequel was written by somebody else with permission of the Miller family. I could be wrong of course.


Peadar O Guilin

Available now:
"The Mourning Trees" in Black Gate #5
"Fairy Fort" in A Walk on the Darkside
"Hair" in www.feralfiction.com
"Hurdy-Gurdy" in Dark Arts
"The Drain" in Weird Tales
"Where Beauty Lies in Wait" in Black Gate.
Coming Soon:
"The Evil-Eater" in Black Gate.
"The Dowry" in Black Gate

The Inferior from David Fickling Books. Eat or be eaten.
Available in the US and Canada June 2008. Preorder now for the read of your life!


Posted By : Jason T - 6/12/2008 1:25 PM
I just did a Wiki and it appears a little of both. The bulk had already been written, but was finished by another and published posthumously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Leibowitz_and_the_Wild_Horse_Woman


Jason Thummel
 
"A Stand in the Eye of the Needle" Flashing Swords, May 2008
"Mortismagus" in Magic and Mechanica, Ricasso Press Forthcoming 2008
"The Gift of the Unspoken God," in The Infinity Swords, Carnivah House > >, Forthcoming 2008
"The Homecoming of Brother Antonitus" Flashing Swords May 2009

The Gunnerman” Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature, forthcoming TBA >>

"Thorvold's Tale" in The Age of Blood and SnowMorrigan Books, forthcoming Dec 2008

 

 


Posted By : Bookworm - 6/12/2008 2:24 PM
I read something about this years ago. "Liebowitz," was Miller's first novel. Everyone loved it. It was a best seller. And Miller swore he'd never write another book, which he did. Never wrote another novel. I have no idea why.

Enjoy.

Lee

Posted By : MrsCogan - 11/20/2008 2:31 PM
I'll have to look Miller up. Canticle for Leibowitz is one of the best sci-fi books ever written. I can't imagine writing something that wonderful and then never touching finger to keyboard again.




get the details and a free pdf preview here:
www.coganbooks.net


Posted By : James Enge - 11/20/2008 4:11 PM
There was an old "Best of Walter M. Miller" which collects much of his short fiction, including the Hugo-winning "Darfstellar" and others; it's not still in print but Amazon shows a few used copies. It's well worth a read or two.

Miller had emotional problems that ended in suicide--especially shocking given the beliefs he held, or had held.



James Enge
http://jamesenge.com/

"A Covenant with Death" in Flashing Swords
"The Lawless Hours" in Black Gate 11
"The Gordian Stone" in Every Day Fiction
"The Red Worm's Way" in Return of the Sword
"Payment in Full" in Black Gate 12
Blood of Ambrose due out Spring 2009 from Pyr.


Posted By : Lyn - 11/21/2008 10:46 AM
Harper Lee never wrote another novel. Neither did J. D. Salinger - or he might have written one more many years after Catcher. Didn't mean they never wrote - just not books.


Lyn from ResAliens
Reviewing Zines at The Fix
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Posted By : Nathan Jerpe - 11/28/2008 11:05 PM
Haven't read this one yet, though a trustworthy friend of mine could not stop lauding it several years ago.
Bookworm said...
I read something about this years ago. "Liebowitz," was Miller's first novel. Everyone loved it. It was a best seller. And Miller swore he'd never write another book, which he did. Never wrote another novel. I have no idea why.
Hmm, well imagine you are a novelist and you write one that just seems to fire on all cylinders. Good for you.
 
But in the ensuing years you struggle to do it a second time, and find that you cannot.
 
It seems plausible that in your final days you could have several, perhaps many, unpublished manuscripts lying around in varying states of dessication.
 
At least that's how I like to imagine it. :)


http://roguelikefiction.com


Posted By : ScrewMoonshine - 11/30/2008 12:34 PM
Yeah, like in Ray Bradbury's "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone". You'll reap a greater claim to immortality by leaving readers pining for your next novel than by disillusioning them with the actual product.

Robert Orme


Out now:
"More Than One Way to Protect" in Lords of Justice (www.cyberwizardproductions.com/altered/loj.html)
"On the Tree Top" in Ultraverse vol.3 #5 (www.ultraverse.us)
"Replacing Someone" in Aoife's Kiss #26, September 2008 (http://samsdotpublishing.com/aoife/main.htm)

Avatar artwork courtesy of Crystalwizard


Posted By : SJHigbee - 11/30/2008 8:11 PM
Perhaps one of the hardest things we as writers have to judge - is how many books are inside us. I'll bet we can all think of authors we'd rather had stopped producing novels before they actually did...


www.sjhigbee.com