It Takes a Thief - Jr. Walter Miller

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Résumé :
A sharp-edged tale of ingenuity and moral ambiguity from one of the defining voices of mid-century science fiction. In It Takes a Thief, Walter M. Miller Jr. explores a future shaped by suspicion, scarcity, and technological leverage. When institutions fail and trust erodes, survival depends not on brute force but on cunning-the ability to outthink systems built to constrain. Miller's narrative combines tension with intellectual precision, revealing how theft, in certain circumstances, becomes less a crime than a form of adaptation. Written during the formative decades of American science fiction, the story reflects Miller's distinctive blend of irony, theological undercurrent, and social critique. Best known for A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller consistently examined the fragile boundary between civilization and collapse. Here, as elsewhere, the drama unfolds through moral complexity rather than spectacle, securing the tale's place within the Golden Age tradition of idea-driven speculative fiction. Explore other exciting Positronic Books devoted to classic science fiction, fantasy, and mystery....

Biographie:
Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923-1996) was an American science fiction writer whose work combined theological reflection with post-war anxieties about technology and human fallibility. A World War II veteran, Miller brought a sober moral intensity to his fiction. His novel A Canticle for Leibowitz remains one of the most enduring works of twentieth-century speculative literature, and his shorter fiction contributed significantly to the development of serious, idea-centered science fiction....

Sommaire:
Strange gods were worshiped on Mars. But were they so clever? They'd lost their own world. The ancient gods, our Fathers, rode down from the heavens in the Firebirds of the Sun. Coming into the world, they found no air for the breath of their souls. How shall we breathe? they asked of the Sun. And Sun gave them of His fire and beneath the earth they kindled the Blaze of the Great Wind. Good air roared from the womb of Mars our Mother, the ice burned with a great thunder, and there was air for the breath of Man....