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Title: A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book) by Walter M. Miller Jr. ISBN: 0-553-37926-7 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 (163 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: As fine a piece of post-apocalyptic scifi I've read in years
Comment: I was given a copy of Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s, "a Canticle for Leibowitz," by a design engineer when I was an electromechanical draftsman at the height of the defense/computer boom in the early 1980's. To say that I was delighted to discover the vocation of the Leibowitz of the title is an understatement. But that was only a very small part of what I found to be wondrous about this book. Nuclear holocaust was still uppermost in people's minds since it was pre- the fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolving of the USSR so the story was modern. There is morality and wit in the sanctifying and lampooning of organized religion throughout the text.
Miller's writing is as finely wrought and scholarly as any illuminated religious script:
"...the abbott's frown, Brother Francis had come to observe, was the causative source of radiant energy which traveled through space with finite velocity and which was as yet not very well understood except in terms of its withering effect upon whatever thing absorbed it, that thing usually being a postulant or novice."
Though dark, this novel carries a message of hope and is, above all, simply a good story carrying you along from start to finish. This book is as fresh and fine a piece of post-apocalyptic work as it must have been 40 years ago when it was first published.
I am rereading this book for a fifth time now and am enjoying it as much now as I did the first time. I hope everyone else will, too!
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic grandiose sweep of future history.
Comment: One of the earlier, and still the best, post-nuclear-holocaust novels around. Walter Miller treated the concept in a broad historical view, breaking the story into three parts at successive intervals of 600 years after the "Flame Deluge" (nuclear war) which presumably occurs in the late 20th or early 21st century. All three focus on the perspective of a new monastic order which emerges in its aftermath, dedicated to the preservation of scientific and technical literature preserved by their founder, an engineer later known as Saint Leibowitz.
To quickly summarize: part 1 is in the depths of a new dark age, begun by the widespread rejection of technology and learning following the holocaust. The monks, isolated in the North American desert, illuminate manuscripts based on ancient circuit diagrams and fearfully unearth a fallout shelter. Part 2 sees a second renaissance beginning amid warring city-states and nomadic raiders, with a gifted would-be scientist struggling to retrieve knowledge from the monastery's memorabilia. In part 3, as far from today as today is from the time of Hadrian, mankind has climbed back to and exceeded the heights of technology from which it fell. But in a supermodern age of robot traffic and interstellar colonization - and reinvented nuclear weapons - nations still vie with each other just as they always have. Is the only lesson of history to be that we never learn anything from history?
The religious framework is the chief continuity between the three periods, and gives a real sense of history - putting the far imagined future into a format with which one can identify is no small achievement for the author. Characters, though seeming somewhat po-faced, do come through and are more than two-dimensional. What is best, though, is the subtle detail of settings and circumstances which makes it thoroughly believable. The shift between different historical mindsets and perspectives is well-acomplished. My only criticism is that some pseudo-Scriptural passages require a Latin dictionary.
Miller can hardly be blamed for not fully realising the severe environmental consequences of a global nuclear exchange, such as the nuclear winter - he was writing before the relevant studies had been made.
Though not the longest novel of its kind around, quality is certainly evident over quantity. Anyone who enjoys intelligent and serious speculation should give this book a chance.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Amazing Work
Comment: A Canticle for Leibowitz is not a novel. Rather, it is 3 linked novellas concerning the Order of Saint Leibowitz. Each of these novellas have different focuses and at first glance, would seem to have little to do with the other novellas. However, when you get down to thinking about it, they are actually pieces of a united work.
The first novella, Fiat Homo, is squarely about the Abbey of Saint Leibowitz and begins with the discovery of the Sacred Shopping List. It is the story of how the brothers seek to have Leibowitz officially recognized as a saint.
The second novella, Fiat Lux, is an espionage thriller dealing with the diabolical plans of the Emperor of Texarkana for continental domination. The third novella, Fiat Voluntas Tua, deals with the Second Nuclear Age as the nations that arose from the ashes of the First Nuclear Age and the nuclear war that ended that age, grapple with both nuclear weapons and the knowledge that a previous civilization died from those weapons.
As you can see, the 3 novellas deal with diverse subjects, but it is the way that Miller weaves his stories that the 3 become one.
A Canticle For Leibowitz is a most intriguing and well executed book and should be required reading in classrooms today.
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Title: Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter M., Jr. Miller ISBN: 0553380796 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 11 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester ISBN: 0679767800 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Left Hand of Darkness (Remembering Tomorrow) by Ursula K. Le Guin ISBN: 0441478123 Publisher: ACE Charter Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester ISBN: 0679767819 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Earth Abides by George R. Stewart ISBN: 0449213013 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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