Product Description

Walter M. Miller Jr is best remembered as the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz, universally recognized as one of the greatest novels of modern SF. But as well as writing that deeply felt and eloquent book, he produced many shorter works of fiction of stunning originality and power. His profound interest in religion and his innate literary gifts combined perfectly in the production of such works as 'The Darfstellar', for which he won a Hugo in 1955, 'Conditionally Human', 'I, Dreamer' and 'The Big Hunger', all of which are included in this brilliant and essential collection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #180813 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 478 pages

About the Author
Walter M. Miller Jr (1923-1996) grew up in the American south. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps a month after Pearl Harbor and spent most of the Second World War as a radio operator and gunner, participating in fifty-five combat sorties over Italy and the Balkans, including the assault on Monte Cassino. After the war, he studied engineering, before turning to writing. He won a Hugo Award for A Canticle for Leibowitz. His only other novel, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horsewoman, was published posthumously.

Customer Reviews

Well Written SF Stories
I haven't read A Canticle for Liebowitz or Saint Liebowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. Thus this yellow-jacketed reissue was my first brush with the fiction of Walter M Miller. Here we have 14 stories spread over 472 pages, all written between 1952 and 1957. Possibly because of this some of them seem to exhibit more than a passing resemblance to some of the stories to be found in the first couple of volumes of Millennium's reissued collected stories of Philip K Dick. In fact whether or not you like those early Dick volumes will probably determine whether or not you like these stories. Here we have far-future communities who have returned to a Middle Ages existence coming to terms with a giant computer and its robot guardian, post-apocalyptic stories, evil aliens dealing in human cargo, plays where the entire cast is composed of robots, and the story of a world-wide plague which becomes a thinly-disguised meditation on the implications and consequences of intolerance. None of these tales offers anything new or startlingly original, but then they are over 40 years old. They're also well written delightful examples of fifties' SF. And I'll be reading the Liebowitz books when I get a chance.