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A Canticle for Leibowitz

Walter M. Miller Jr.

Eos

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Awful book

Don't know why this is a "classic." I read this in a science fiction class. EVERY student in the class hated it as compared to liking everything else we read.

Charming, Sad, Horrifying, Funny

This is an examination of the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust and the struggle between religion and rational thought. Others have reviewed this in detail, so I'll just say that it's charming, sad, horrifying, and quite funny. I and most others I know who have read this consider the first part the best, but the other two acts have their charm as well.

Other reviews here cover the book in detail, but from discussing this with other people who have read it, there are three major points to keep in mind:

- This is dry humor, with no laugh track. It's counting on you to keep up. Do so and it will reward you. The funniest bits are the most understated. It will also help to be able to parse some basic Latin as there are a few untranslated jokes, but it's not required. You will also find many, many correspondences and references from act to act if you're paying attention.

- The religious angle is very strong, but if you have a kneejerk reaction towards or against Catholicism, don't be blinded. The author himself was very conflicted and there is no 'winner' here. You will find much here to love and hate about both blind faith and progress at all costs, especially in the final act - and that's how it should be.

- The Cold War mentality here is a bit alien now, but keep in mind this was written in the early 1960s when everyone was convinced imminent nuclear war with the Soviet Union was inevitable (in fact as far as I know this is the first major post-nuclear holocaust book, but I wouldn't swear to that). This is probably the most dated aspect of the book, but the other aspects are universal.

This is well worth the read if you're old enough to comprehend it.

Don't waste your time!

I was really shocked at how unintelligible most of this book was to me. I am obviously not a big fan of stream of consciousness narration. I prefer a story that goes somewhere and not a probing search into philosophies. That was my real complaint. I felt that the book was just a jumble of ideas and not a tangible story. I did enjoy the last "book" more than the other two. I guess I liked it because it had the least narration, latin and covered a smaller chunk of time. It actually contained more dialogue than the other two books as well. Sorry I didn't get it, but I guess that's mumbly-peg!

The First Apocalypse: What went wrong.

I doubt this is THE first post-apocalyptic novel, but it's up there. I bet it was a great read in 1959. Lot's of new ideas, philosophically. The book is divided into three separate stories: (a) post apocalypse, (b) rebuilding society, and (c) pre-apocalypse #2.

After the first story, I was ready to declare this book the Lord of the Rings of the post-apocalypse genre. I really enjoyed it. The best of the three books, it described a world, where man new nothing of technology, even when staring it in the face.

The second story sucked. I thought it was a waste. It talks of war between nations, but you never get to know the warring nations. There are no emotional ties to the new characters and countries to help you understand who is who. They might as well be called team a, team b, and team c. Those cold descriptions would mean more and help me better identify who the hell he was talking about.

Another side point. I thought the use of latin throughout the novel was way overdone. I speak French fairly well, so I muddled through it fairly easily, but for those who don't it might prove frustrating. However, don't let it bother you, because what was said in latin was unimportant. So, really this is just a critique for any of you who might write in the future. Just leave stuff like that out of the book. We don't care if you have command of some ancient language. We're not impressed.

Finally, story three is the crux of the message which is basically this: "Mankind is retarded" and "Mankind is repetitive" We are stupid and we will always repeat the same mistakes over and over again. I liked the message and generally agree with the philosophical overtones in the book.

If I had read this in one of my literature classes in school, I would give this book an "A". It would have been one of the more interesting novels that we studies. AND, it would have lent itself well to some very interesting classroom discussions. But, I didn't read it for school, I read it for fun. And, therefore, I just give it a "C" or something along those lines.

If you're looking for post-apocalyptic books, I much preferred "The Road". If you want "old" sci-fi, try Asimov first.

Cheers.

One of the All time classics

One of the best SF books i have ever read, well it won N Hugo
the title does not come close to the story, i read a few years
back.
kind of resonates with the current state of affairs
our mythology, how much is mythology?