he Hugo Award winning A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) was the only novel Walter M. Miller Jr. published in his lifetime. When he died in 1995, he left behind the nearly completed manuscript of a sequel. Terry Bisson, himself a Hugo laureate, took up the weighty task of completing Miller's long-awaited second and, sadly, final novel.
Where Canticle spanned centuries, chronicling the gradual return of civilization and technology after a nuclear holocaust, Saint Leibowitz covers only a few years in the life of a single protagonist, a reluctant monk named Blacktooth St. George.
More than a thousand years have passed since the "Flame Deluge" destroyed civilization. What was once the United States is now a patchwork of tribes, tiny nations and nomadic hordes. The Abbey of St. Leibowitz, founded shortly after the war by a Jewish physicist turned priest, is dedicated to preserving scientific and technical knowledge of the past. Blacktooth and his fellow monks transcribe, memorize and recite everything from electromagnetic field equations to the venerated Grocery List of St. Leibowitz.
Blacktooth is torn between his devotion to St. Leibowitz and to the nomadic goddess, the Wild Horse Woman, who represents to Blacktooth the freedom and spiritual traditions of his forebears. Bored and restless with life at the monastery, he becomes secretary and translator to the ambitious Cardinal Brownpony. But Blacktooth soon discovers that Brownpony is smuggling guns to an outcast enclave and secretly planning a Crusade against the Texark empire, whose power threatens the Church.
Eventually Blacktooth is beset by disillusionment, dysentery and his doomed love for a woman named Aedra, who he believes is either dead or who has become a nun--bad news in either case. Then things get really bad when Brownpony becomes pope and Blacktooth is drafted as a soldier in the ill-conceived Crusade.
As it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be....
Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman is an altogether different book than its predecessor. A Canticle for Leibowitz was more plot-driven, had an epic scope, and spoke to the Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation. The sequel is a picaresque journey of self-discovery against a timeless backdrop of perpetual low-intensity warfare, corrupt institutions, rampant disease, and incurable bigotry. Miller's 33rd century harkens to Bosnia and AIDS, the Hundred Years War and the Black Plague, and countless other dire epochs in human history.
Miller's eloquence, wit, and matchless ability to blend irony and tragedy remain intact, but the novel is often plodding and occasionally confusing (readers might wish for a map and glossary). The final chapters, based on Miller's notes but written by Bisson, are a bit cleaner and tighter than much of the Miller-written portion.
Miller was a practicing Catholic when he wrote Canticle in the 1950s. In Saint Leibowitz, Miller's Catholicism takes a back seat to his interest in other forms of spiritual belief and practice, from the savage pagan rites of the Nomads to the Zen-influenced mystical Christianity of the eccentric hermit Amen Specklebird, who ascends briefly to the papal throne after delivering a non-stop 72-hour oration.
Saint Leibowitz will confound the expectations that many readers bring to science fiction, because readers often expect heroes to perform great deeds or make earthshaking discoveries. But Blacktooth is helpless to prevent unfolding tragedy and only finds inner peace and purpose in life through a quiet, simple existence, performing modest acts of kindness and charity.
In the end Saint Leibowitz is a heavily flawed work compared to Canticle, but still a powerful, moving and deeply personal exploration of the human condition.
he Arbitrary Placement of Walls is a collection of 17 short stories reflecting the best of Martha Soukup's writing from 1986 through 1996. Included are stories for which Soukup has received several award nominations, such as the Hugo, John W. Campbell, and Nebula Awards. The story, "A Defense of the Social Contracts," was also a 1994 Nebula Award winner.
Beginning with her first published work, "Dress Rehearsal," these
stories take readers along a treacherous emotional trail composed of abrupt
turns, sheer drop-offs, and impossible peaks. Using touches of magic and
science, Soukup examines the many facets of personal relationships with
stories containing elements reminiscent of fairy tales, parables,
fables, and even an old-fashioned murder mystery.
The writing is clean with a somewhat minimalist style that encourages
readers to fill in narrative gaps. Short stories must draw the reader in
quickly, and Soukup's skill in this area is admirable. Powerful
characterization allows readers to willingly accept far-ranging points
of view, whether it be that of Herb the dog in "Dog's Life," a secondary
character in a novel who struggles with the way her life is dictated by the
author in "The Story So Far," or an unwed mother who must, according to
future welfare laws, work and live with her young children in the cab of an
automated long haul truck in "Over the Long Haul."
With friends like these...
Many of these stories focus on the darker side of human emotion. Hate, jealousy, sorrow, rejection and loneliness are brought into sharp focus with characters who often go over the edge while traversing life's
emotional landscape. For example, there's Nikkie, who escapes society's
jungle to live the life of a hermit in "Living in the Jungle." And then there's Paula. Her problem is Keith. She's infatuated with the guy, but he's in love with her best friend. "Having
Keith" takes another look at the fatal attraction syndrome and gives it a
very bizarre twist. Any reader who has endured a rodent infestation can empathize with the main character in "To Destroy Rats." Drastic measures are called for, but this homeowner, who may be Edgar Allen Poe reincarnated, goes just a little too far. A few stories fall flat, but the majority are excellent and demonstrate that when it comes to emotions, everyone lives on different planets.
For the most part, these stories are neither funny nor happy, yet Soukup reveals a keen sense of humor that is also apparent in her activities as co-host of Head Space, Hotwired's science fiction chat group. Humor is also evident in the book's introduction, which includes a Martha Soukup self-promotional send-up poem by Neil Gaiman that is either cutesy or hilarious, depending on the reader's mood. Due to the overall
macabre feel of this book, the morbid look at an unknown side of Lassie in "Good Girl, Bad Dog" becomes one of the most entertaining pieces in the collection.
