Up until [the publication of A Canticle for Leibowitz] Miller had been regarded, in Sam Moskowitz's words, as "the perennially promising author." An engineer-turned-writer, he had published some forty-odd stories in the major science fiction magazines in the Fifties; several were chosen for anthologies, sometimes of the best stories in the field, but many of his tales are rather conventional and far from distinguished. "The Darfsteller," a story about a human actor struggling quixotically to compete in an age of automated stage plays, won for him a "Hugo" in 1955 for the previous year's best novelette, but he was not able to publish a collection of stories until after the success of his novel. The first collection, Conditionally Human (1962), combines "The Darfsteller" with two other novelettes, demonstrates his proficiency with fiction of medium length dealing with serious intellectual and emotional themes, and shows a generally prosaic and sometimes plodding style. The second collection, The View from the Stars (1964), consisting of nine stories from the period 1951–1954, exhibits a considerable range of subject matter, various degrees of control over style, and a talent for compression, and makes it clear that the ability to construct effective scenes and dramatic contrasts was present early in Miller's abbreviated career. Ironically, by the time these books were published, their author was no longer writing science fiction…. Nevertheless "the perennially promising author" had fulfilled his promise; his last work was one of the best novels ever to emerge from the pulp science fiction field.
A novel of about 100,000 words, A Canticle for Leibowitz is composed of three parts, roughly equal in length, sharing the same basic setting in space but separated in time by gaps of approximately 600 years. Each part is a coherent novelette, an original variation on a conventional science fiction theme, carefully plotted and constructed for its own particular effects. Each individual story, dealing with individuals' personal struggles, brings to life the issues and ideas of the whole which, because of the interplay between the novelettes, is thus something greater than its parts. Making good use of science fictional conventions, methods, and philosophy, Miller has gone beyond them to produce a dissertation on the ambiguity of advance and the relativity of knowledge, against a background of history as an aesthetic pattern, a seamless fabric into which individuals and institutions, actual events and folklore are inextricably interwoven. Yet for all the complexity, solemnity, and high seriousness that such a description (aptly) suggests, the book is first of all an entertainment, full of fun and occasional thrills, presenting sympathetic characters in a narrative of curious and interesting situations and events. (pp. 226-29)
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