Just wondering if anyone else has read the follow-up to Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jnr?
I was profoundly effected by Canticle when I read it as a teenager and wondered what others thought of Horse Woman.
(This topic is transferred from the General Writing forum.)
Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :
Canticle was also very special to me. I haven't even bothered to look at the sequel. How could it compare?
[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited September 25, 2005).]
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
It could compare the same way that being stomped hard on the toe compares to, well, not getting stomped hard on the toe.
I'd agree about Leibowitz. Wild Horse Woman, oh, Lord, I hated it.
Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :
I remember starting to read it. I remember stopping, but I can't remember why. I think I was just bored.
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
It did feel more cynical than the first. Like the author was trying to make it a bit seedier for the sake of appealing to a modern audience.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I didn't take to the original, the way I did to a few other classic SF novels. I remember the end somewhat well, probably because it was described at fair length in "Billion Year Spree."
I think I found its fame and success somewhat offputting. I remember avoiding reading some works because it seemed they were everywhere, all over the racks and in my face. I avoided buying and reading any Tolkien until my high school held a book fair, "The Hobbit" was the only book offered that was remotely SF or fantasy, and I felt I just had to buy something. I didn't read it until the following summer (and then I simply had to seek out and move on to "The Lord of the Rings")
I think, one by one, I caught up with everything I avoided in this way. I caught up with "Leibowitz" a few years after that. (Come to think of it, I bought it used.)
(I do like a lot of Miller's shorter works very much, though. He was good. Don't pass up "Dumb Waiter," "The Darfstellar," or "Vengeance for Nikolai," if you can find copies.)
As for the sequel, well...I wonder how good a book it could be, given that Miller couldn't or wouldn't finish it, but definitely didn't finish it.