Not a thriller, but an emotional pressure cooker. This story takes place in the interim between the beginning and end of "A Canticle for Leibowitz"; it seems to describe the difficulties of recovering the lost civilization. While there's a lot of pessimism in this book, Miller does give us a relatively believable structure for the various attempts at a new civilization. Sadly, he doesn't give us much hope for any quick revival. What made the story tolerable for me, and kept me reading, was the in-depth exploration of the mental and emotional states of most of the characters--most of it pretty dark, but sadly realistic. ( )

Esos nómadas son los nativos americanos, con una cultura parecida a la de los pieles rojas y cuya religiosidad se compara al catolicismo restaurado. San Leibowitz se enfrenta (o tal vez colabora) con la mujer Caballo Salvaje en las visiones del protagonista, el hermano Dientenegro, obligado a viajar por un continente dividido por la naturaleza, la política, la guerra y la religión. Dientenegro participa casi involuntariamente en las intrigas y conspiraciones del cardenal Ponymarrón, para ser testigo de rebeliones, asesinatos y sacrificios humanos y, también, para conocer el pecado, que hasta ese momento la vida monacal ha mantenido a raya.

It's set in the Leibowitz world, but otherwise it would be best to consider this a separate story. This almost exclusively focuses on Church/Nomad politics and less on the whole Leibowitz role, so it isn't really comparable to the 1st book. ( )

As a sequel to "A canticle For Liebowitz", this is disappointing. But "A Canticle" was brilliant, so a let-down is foretold. The Monk of the order does interact with his post-apocalyptic environment, and perhaps get things moving towards a recovery. ( )

My reaction to reading this book in 1998. Spoilers follow.

I had a tough time reading this sequel to Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz. Part of the reason was that this book, which covers the life of one monk about 70 years after the end of the first part of A Canticle for Leibowitz, deals heavily with nomad cultures in what is now the lower Midwest of America and nomads have never much interested me in fact or fiction. (It took me a while to guess some of the corrupted place names like “Bay Ghost River” for “Pecos River”.), The second is this book has mysticism – Christian, nomad, and Buddhist – as a major theme.

There is wit here—particularly the indignities protagonist Blacktooth suffers while a Cardinal. And I enjoyed the ecclesiastical intrigue. The book is not the re-telling of the Dark Ages, Renaissance, and Apocalypse as in the predecessor. It seems to be playing a bit with mixing two historical themes – the medieval struggles between Church and State with Brownpony and Filpeo Hannegan representing the respective sides and the barbarian invasions (repelled here) of the latter Roman Empire. The mood was despairing – given that all the struggles come to naught given the end of A Canticle for Leibowitz (but, in the long run, we’re all dead and none of us can be sure how enduring or significant our efforts will be) and the “love” between Aedrea and Blacktooth is inadequately consummated sexually, and they end their days as hermits who live in neighboring valleys.

Miller constructs this story as a conflict between peace and war (symbolized in Blacktooth) and the barbarian and citizen (symbolized by Brownpony and, to a certain extent, Blacktooth). I think the story’s main problem is the character of Blacktooth (some might see this flaw as subtlety). It’s never quite clear why he has such a problem with the disciplined life of a Leibowitzian monk. The end of the novel seems to imply that his calling is to contemplation but solitary contemplation found in the hermitage. (The Wandering Jew shows up here.). Still, it’s not clear why Blacktooth so resents his assigned duties of translating Boedullies into nomadic tongues. As for the mysticism, I’m not sure if the 40 years between the novels made Miller more ecumenical in his mysticism. (He did commit suicide – not something a conventionally devout Catholic would do.). The Leibowitz monks are based on partly the Benedictine Order (whose rules form each chapter’s epigraph). Miller personally participated in the bombing, in WWII, of the Order’s Monte Cassino monastery – the oldest monastery in the Western world. Miller must have felt some resonance with the soldiers plundering New Rome and Church property. ( )