A Canticle for Leibowitz

No cover — Walter M. Miller Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz (AudiobookFormat, 2011, Blackstone Audio, Inc.)

mp3 cd

Published Dec. 1, 2011 by Blackstone Audio, Inc..

ISBN:: 978-1-4551-2024-6

(1 review)

Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved in a monastery, as "sacred books". The monks preserve for centuries what little science there is, and have saved the science texts and blueprints from destruction many times, also making beautifully illuminated copies. As the story opens to a world run on a basically fuedal lines, science is again becoming fashionable, as a hobby of rich men, at perhaps 18th or early 19th century level of comprehesion. A local lord, interested in science, comes to the monastery. What happens after that is an exquisitely told tale, stunning and extremely moving, totally different from any other After the Holocaust story

20 editions

Jayp reviewed A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (Sf Masterworks)

Lucifer is Fallen

5 stars

A beautiful yet disturbing book. I did not expect to find new-to-me horrors in a nuclear apocalypse story, especially one written so early in the Cold War. It is an incredibly thought provoking book, one that will stick with me for a long time.

Contrary to another reviewer, I believe the lessons in this book are as timely and important today as they were more than 60 years ago. The threat of nuclear annihilation is still with us and will never go away as long as humanity tolerates their existence. Canticle highlights this danger more than any other book I have read.

Since finishing, I have read a number of reviews and analyses of Canticle and am a bit confused by the repeated critique of its lack of female characters. The story takes place almost exclusively in the context of a Catholic monastery where women aren't even allowed. So the …

A beautiful yet disturbing book. I did not expect to find new-to-me horrors in a nuclear apocalypse story, especially one written so early in the Cold War. It is an incredibly thought provoking book, one that will stick with me for a long time.

Contrary to another reviewer, I believe the lessons in this book are as timely and important today as they were more than 60 years ago. The threat of nuclear annihilation is still with us and will never go away as long as humanity tolerates their existence. Canticle highlights this danger more than any other book I have read.

Since finishing, I have read a number of reviews and analyses of Canticle and am a bit confused by the repeated critique of its lack of female characters. The story takes place almost exclusively in the context of a Catholic monastery where women aren't even allowed. So the absence of female characters for much of the book was not something that felt problematic. Even then, two of the most important characters in the final act are women. One of whom drives home how myopic the well meaning monks were from the everyday world and the other half of humanity.