Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (Paperback)

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].

The swirling roles of church and state and the Church and the individual formed the basis of Canticle. They are expanded and enhanced in this book, with the convulsions that shook the Roman Catholic Church after the 1960s beautifully integrated into the story. Bisson has done Miller's original draft proud in completing a compelling story of the pressures on faith. Throughout the 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 tangled.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The book has a much more confused narrative than it's predecessor and this not helped by the multiplicity of names many of the characters have been given. A list of dramatis personnae would have cleared much of this confusion. Miller also seems to have put much more of himself into the main character, the lapsed monk Brother Blacktooth St George, than was in evidence in the first book. The prose style is much more explicit, especially in it's sexual content than 'A Canticle For Leibowitz', clearly reflecting the changing standards in the 30 plus years that have lapsed between the two books - a change which I also noticed in James Jones's 'From Here To Eternity', and his later book 'Whistle'. Another similarity between the two author's is that both these latter books were completed by their literary executors - with somewhat greater success for 'Whistle', as the ending of Miller's book is rather rushed, and the additional writing does not blend seamlessly with the rest of the novel.

Despite these difficulties 'St Leibowitz' is a worthwhile read for those who read Miller's first novel, though I doubt whether other readers would enjoy it without impetus that the first novel engenders. I would rate it at 3 stars.