A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller Jr.

A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Book Summary Information

Author: Walter M. Miller Jr.
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-05-01
ISBN: 0060892994
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Eos

Book Reviews of A Canticle for Leibowitz

Book Review: A Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars

This is a book that everyone over the age of 18 should read. Is humankind doomed to destroy itself? Rather than try to eliminate the weapons (or other things) that can destroy our species, should we spend our resources trying to populate other solar systems? Or would human colonies also eventually destroy themselves?

Despite the seriousness of the subject of this book, it is at times very humorous.

You'll need to either brush up on your Latin or print one of the translations that are available on the Web.

Any person that has a "library" worthy of the name must have this book.

Summary of A Canticle for Leibowitz

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.


Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959's A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history. Divided into three sections--Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man), Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light), and Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will Be Done)--Canticle is steeped in Catholicism and Latin, exploring the fascinating, seemingly capricious process of how and why a person is canonized. --Paul Hughes

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