Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not "everyone" needs their sci fi fed to them from a bottle., January 14, 2000
By A Customer
I am giving this book five stars to try to somewhat offset the plethora of "1 star" reviews. As I don't plan to "stuff the ballot box", it is more a token gesture. Walter M. Miller Jr. was one of the most gifted writers ever to write science fiction. A Canticle for Leibowitz, yes, but also his short fiction shows a command of the language that few of his contemporaries could match. I won't even begin to talk about current day writers, as the majority of their output compares favorably with the old "Dick and Jane" learn-to-read books.I read A Canticle for Leibowitz in 1971, believe it or not, it was assigned reading in an English class. When I chanced upon Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman last year, I was thrilled to find it. What did I find? No, it's not up to A Canticle for Leibowitz in grace or content, but it is still an absorbing read. For those readers who can't take a little off-the-middle-of-the-road sexuality, and characterizations, relationships and plotting that makes them use the parts of their brains that TV and movies never awaken, I don't recommend it. For those who like to be enriched and challenged by what they read, try it. By all means, please read A Canticle for Leibowitz first, and then approach Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman not so much as a sequel but as a new story set in the same world, a possible future world that should chill you to the bone.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A church tapestry of politics and traditions, December 22, 2003
One author sets murders in a medieval Roman Catholic monastery and it becomes an object of popular acclaim. Another author sets Papal politics in a post-nuclear holocaust society and it's dubbed "Sci-fi", and tossed in the remainders bin. Neither book deserved the fate it received. Miller's second look at post-nuclear North American society reveals a church divided within and still struggling with Caesar after three millennia. Popes tend to church politics with one hand and civil society with another. Somewhere in the middle are the lesser religious tending their adherents or hiding from the conflicts.One such "lesser religious" is a monk, Blacktooth St George. A resident at the monastery long dedicated to the memory of Isaac Leibowitz, nuclear scientist and martyr, Blacktooth harbours doubts about his calling. His roots are from the Plains people and their pagan heritage conflicts with the Roman Catholic Church's ideal of monotheism and self-sacrifice. Attempting to shed the burdensome vows, Blacktooth is conscripted to the service of a lawyer cardinal. Elia Brownpony, too, is a former Plainsman, but has risen quickly in the Church hierarchy due to diplomatic talents. Diplomacy usually involves conspiracy, and Brownpony must be adept at both for he is struggling to reunite the broken church. Theology isn't the basis of the schism, however. The expanding empire of Texark has challenged the Pope's power. Brownpony, wheeling and dealing, uses Blacktooth as a major instrument. Politics are a lesser challenge to Blacktooth than the condition of his own spirit. Beset by visions and his glands alike, this mid-thirties adult is known as Nimmy, an appellation applied to young boys. He encounters a genetic mutant, a heritage of the holocaust, whose only flaws are an uncanny insight and a rampant libido. She seduces Nimmy, who doesn't quite break his vows, and supposedly produces two children. Her image haunts him as he goes about his role of personal assistant. He's also haunted by the multi-figured image of a pope of African descent. All these conflicting visions keep Blacktooth on edge and in peril. His reconciliation of all these disparate forces are the theme of Miller's "midquel" of Canticle for Leibowitz [this story commences at the middle of Canticle, not the end]. Swirling roles of church and state and the Church and the individual formed the basis of "Canticle". Expanded and enhanced in this book, they are nicely integrated with convulsions that shook the Roman Catholic Church after the 1960s. Bisson has done Miller's original draft proud in completing a compelling story of the pressures on faith. Through a complex plot, the characters are kept realistic, if somewhat bizarre. Religious institutions, particularly under stress, are never simple, and the complexities are well handled and you never lose the threads, no matter how tightly they seem tangled. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was truly immersed, November 6, 2000
I don't really understand the overwhelming negative reaction to this work. I can see how someone who has loved and reread Canticle many times may have had their hopes of a true sequel left unfulfilled. Personally, I was amazed at the maturing of Miller's style and content, and his credible and immersive attempt at world building. I thought the tone, although more modern, was sufficiently similar to Canticle that I felt the connection necessary for "sequel nostalgia". I felt connected to the main characters, though, their thoughts and actions were sometimes mysterious, foreign, and often displeasing. But these were the things that affected me most about the story. The characters' world IS mysterious, foreign, and displeasing, as well as dangerous and primitive. From the gut-wrenching descriptions of death and illnesses, to the touching, if strange, relationship between the fallen monk Blacktooth and "genny" AEdrea, I found this novel to be an emotional and mind opening rollercoaster.
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