June 2014 -- Alternate apocalypses -- A Canticle for Leibowitz - spoilers allowed

[Mary]

for free discussion of the book

[Kihe]

It's been a few years... but the Canticle has always held an important niche in my book-loving brain for itself, ever since the first reading.

Has anyone ever been completely satisfied with identifying the locations used in the story?

[Keith]

I first read Canticle in a High School English class in 1976. I was a voracious reader of Science Fiction, having read anything I could find by Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke or any of many others who I could identify as science fiction or fantasy. And here was a book (a Hugo winner no less) by an author unfamiliar to me. I managed to hold off starting the book until we started it in class, but basically finished it in two sittings across two days. It really
kind of floored me. Here was something very different
from what I knew as Sci-Fi but yet clearly in that lineage.

Its a truly literary piece of work (in the best fashion) with subtle references and complex techniques (thus its ending up in an English Lit class). But yet it is first and foremost a compelling set of stories. I have over time found a few other stories by Walter Miller and can not think of a bad one. He just seems to have had a natural talent for expressing himself. Sadly he had lifetime issues with depression and became a recluse only publishing one more major work (set in the world of Canticle at a time between the 2nd and third sections). I have always wondered what else he might have produced had things been a little different.