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A Canticle for Leibowitz Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1984

by Walter M. Miller Jr. (Author)

580 customer reviews

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In the depths of the Utah desert, long after the Flame Deluge has scoured the earth clean, a monk of the Order of Saint Leibowitz has made a miraculous discovery: holy relics from the life of the great saint himself, including the blessed blueprint, the sacred shopping list, and the hallowed shrine of the Fallout Shelter.

In a terrifying age of darkness and decay, these artifacts could be the keys to mankind's salvation. But as the mystery at the core of this groundbreaking novel unfolds, it is the search itself—for meaning, for truth, for love—that offers hope for humanity's rebirth from the ashes.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Extraordinary ... chillingly effective.”— Time

“Angry, eloquent ... a terrific story.”— The New York Times

“An extraordinary novel ... Prodigiously imaginative, richly comic, terrifyingly grim, profound both intellectually and morally, and, above all ... simply such a memorable story as to stay with the reader for years.”— Chicago Tribune

“An exciting and imaginative story ... Unconditionally recommended.”— Library Journal

From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Down the long centuries after the Flame Deluge scoured the earth clean, the monks of the order of St. Leibovitz the Engineer kept alive the ancient knowledge. In their monastery in the Utah desert, they preserved the precious relics of their founder: the blessed blueprint, the sacred shopping list and the holy shrine of fallout shelter.

Watched over by an immortal wanderer, they witnessed humanity's rebirth from ashes, and saw reenacted the eternal drama of the struggle between light and darkness, life and death.

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Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Bantam Spectra; . edition (June 1, 1984)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553273817
ISBN-13: 978-0553273816
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 580 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy
- #11 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction
- #129 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Short Stories & Anthologies > Short Stories

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Gerri Bauer

Eerily prescient; but don't expect fast pace

November 8, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An amazing novel. Anyone who starts questioning why they're reading it, during the first few chapters (as I did), my advice is to stick with it. There's too much here that needs to be heard. Miller combines futurism, history, faith, science, cynicism, sarcasm, allegory ... to warn us, from his vantage point of a half-century ago, about a future some now see on the distant horizon. And then it will be repeated all over again. The book is downright scary in that respect.

Keep in mind that Miller was writing in the 1940s and 1950s. Among other things, he has characters argue or mull over intelligent design, euthanasia, "removable" conscience, politicians placating their country's "patriotic opinionated rabble," the line between church and state, and the destruction and rise of civilizations over millennia. Two examples of some phrases that jumped out at me:
- When scholar Thon Taddeo questions how a great civilization could destroy itself, the answer from the monsignor is "Perhaps ... by being materially great and materially wise, and nothing else."
- Brother Joshua, about to colonize space in order to save shreds of civilization as his current world implodes, thinks that, "the closer men come to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they seemed to become with it, and with themselves as well." Joshua thinks that a dark world can yearn and hope, but a world "bright with reason and riches" begins to "sense the narrowness of the needle's eye," and the realization rankles.

My one complaint is that Miller uses way too many Latin phrases that I didn't take time to look up the first time through. (And I'm Catholic and even studied Latin in high school.) I will re-read this book with a dictionary at hand in order to mine even more from its depths.

36 people found this helpful

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A Bleak Exploration Of Humanity

August 22, 2017

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

Out in the desert, a young would-be monk labors. He is on a mission for his monastery, a week of fasting and privation that all initiates must go through. As he works to create a shelter for the coming night, he sees a traveler approaching. No one travels the desert so he is filled with fear. The man approaches. He is a skinny old man, barely dressed and ready to fight anyone who he sees. He threatens the young man, then after a while, helps him by marking a stone to finish his shelter. After he leaves, the initiate removes the stone he has marked and finishes his shelter. Removing the stone creates a landslide and steps are revealed.

What has been buried is the entrance to a bomb shelter, for this is the age after the world has gone through nuclear annihilation. Few people remain and those that do mistrust each other. Roaming tribes kill everything in their path and intellectuals are disdained as they were the ones who created the bombs that ruined civilization. As the initiate explores, he finds a box with fragments of writing. Even more amazing, the fragments carry the name of Leibowitz, who is the man for whom the monastery exists. For these monks are charged with preserving what little writing and knowledge exists. They bury barrels of writing material in remote places and copy the words of existing manuscripts, even when they have no idea what the words mean.

What follows is a bleak exhibit of humanity. The reader sees the world through the eyes of time. Over the centuries, men start to value knowledge again. They rediscover the natural principles that underlie all progress, and painstakingly, over centuries, civilization rebuilds to the point that sophisticated machines and computers once again exist. Yet, every time progress is made, it is accompanied by the human nature that cannot help but tear it down again.

This novel is considered a classic of science fiction. It demonstrates a fear of learning and an underlying negativity about human nature. Yet, along with the bleakness, there is always a tendril of hope, someone who risks all in order to learn and spread knowledge. This book is recommended for science fiction readers.

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Steven M. AnthonyTop Contributor: Fantasy Books

Very Good Piece of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

February 27, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a very highly regarded work of post-apocalyptic fiction. The story is presented in three “acts”, each roughly 600 years apart. The first act is set about 600 years post nuclear holocaust. Society has devolved into a virtual hunter/gatherer society. The scene is set at a southwestern United States monastery. The monks were tasked with collecting and safeguarding books and written material dated prior to the fall of civilization. In this part of the novel, we are given some insight into the nuclear disaster, the fallout and the collapse of society which ensued. We are also introduced to the monastery’s patron (in line for sainthood) Leibowitz, apparently a nuclear engineer who founded the order and tasked it with the preservation of textbooks and technological information.

Fast forward roughly 600 years and society has advanced to a feudal level of warring principalities. Certain budding philosophers and “scientists” have discovered the trove of data maintained by the monks. Rapacious and immoral princes and warlords are beginning to use technology to acquire increased power and territory.

Another 600 passes and society has not only reached, but far exceeded the technological advancements attained prior to the Armageddon of the 20th century. Superpower rivalry has again reached the point of nuclear confrontation in an age of interstellar travel and colonization. What roles do the monks of St. Liebowitz have in this new age? With the nuclear holocaust of the 20th century well known, how could anyone allow such a condition to develop again?

I found the book to be quite interesting and thought provoking. Having read quite a bit of post-apocalyptic literature, it touches many of the same bases, but has a broader scope, both in time frame and cultural landscape than most others I’ve read. Not the best, but well worth the time required.

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Most recent customer reviews

Amazon Customer

Forget this book

A very poor quality story and bad writing.

Published 14 days ago

Red State

If you like books with whole chapters of character dialogue and little ...

Slow. If you like books with whole chapters of character dialogue and little action, then this book's for you. Its not for me.

Published 1 month ago

Denis

I loved the way how author written it

I loved the way how author written it, at a times his style was more tasty than a story itself for some reason.Read more

Published 1 month ago

Richard

A Sense of Dystopic Truth

This is an excellent dystopian novel whose imagination reaches into post-apocalyptic possibilities. The earth is destroyed with only small numbers of humans remaining.Read more

Published 1 month ago

Amazon Customer

Fantastic

Fantastic. Just fantastic. A well written allegory about the fall of man and the cyclical nature of history. One of the best novels I've ever read, period.

Published 2 months ago

Janis Butkevisc

This is an exceptionally great book. While I am usually not a fan ...

This is an exceptionally great book. While I am usually not a fan of religious undertones, this book weaves them in perfectly.Read more

Published 2 months ago

The Good and The Bad in/of Humanity

This is a book about hope and faith in the midst of endless greed, war, etc. It juxtaposes the worst of humans and the best of them.Read more

Published 2 months ago

Mel R. Scurbica

The Print in This Book is Tiny

I get it, this space is for reviews of the book. But I have to warn people that the Bantam mass market paperback edition features really tiny print.Read more

Published 3 months ago

bill t. kidd

Nothing Ever Changes

I bought this in the early sixties in paper back,for 75 cents. It made quite an impression on me. I saw it as a mixture of satire,comedy and sci-fi. And a real,scary future.Read more

Published 3 months ago

Oh My Gosh!Top Contributor: Fantasy Books

A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) was a great read. It’s a cautionary tale about a possible ...

A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) was a great read. It’s a cautionary tale about a possible future after a nuclear world war.Read more

Published 3 months ago

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