A Canticle for Leibowitz

Rating:
Summary: A possible post-apocalyptic scenario--highly recommended
Review: "A Canticle for Leibowitz" chronicles the rebuilding of "civilization" after nuclear holocaust. It has three distinct sections, each separated by hundreds of years, centering around life at a desert monastary named in honor of a very unusual "saint". Since each section tells its own story, and could be read separately, I'm going to rate each one separately.

PART ONE: FIAT HOMO (5 stars) Tipped off by a mysterious old man (could it be Saint Leibowitz himself?), a nervous novice monk discovers an underground chamber that contains some highly significant relics, for which he suffers abuse from a fearful and sadistic abbot. Eventually, he is sent on a dangerous journey to New Rome, under constant threat from primitive nomads. The ending of this section is rather chilling and ironic, much like a Flannery O'Connor short story.

PART TWO: FIAT LUX (3 stars) This is the only section among the three that really is not able to stand alone as a self-contained story with a definitive ending. I suppose this could be considered the "Empire Strikes Back" of the "trilogy". The basis of this part is the mistrust that exists between religion and science, when a scholar visits the monastary to study the ancient Leibowitz documents and finds, to his astonishment, one of the monks has invented (or re-invented) the electric light. The old man reappears (remember, this is hundreds of years after the first story) as a rather significant player in this section, but, ultimately, this story is merely transitional.

PART THREE: FIAT VOLUNTUAS TUA (5 stars) I wanted to give this part 6 or 7 stars, but that would be cheating. This last section is absolutely brilliant. Many hundreds of years later, the inevitable happens, proving that mankind apparently never learns from its mistakes. The very wise abbot (it is interesting how each abbot in these stories is wiser than the last) sees the handwriting on the wall and commissions a group of monastics, accompanied by the relics of Saint Leibowitz, to escape by rocket ship to a distant planet to guarantee the perpetuity of the order and, indeed, of the faith itself. Meanwhile, the abbot and a medical doctor grapple over the appropriateness of euthanasia for suffering victims of the fallout. (Any groups or classes that might be discussing the subject of mercy killing would benefit greatly by reading this section since it lays out the opposing arguments very clearly and forcefully). Although the ultimate disaster takes place, hope is still found in the most unlikely person: a mutant, two-headed woman. And so we begin again.

This book takes a very positive, optimistic view of religion, while it is pessimistic about mankind in general. The stories included here work on many levels, and the book as a whole makes for an enlightening reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome scifi novel. Definitely earns its rank as a classic
Review: I read this book quickly on an overnight flight to Europe. I found the description of the book on the back as well as on the website to be a bit misleading. It's not so much about the discovery of Leibowitz's artifacts as it is about history repeating itself. ...the story is split into 3 parts. Part 1 takes place when society is recovering from a nuclear war & is generally at peace. Part 2 takes place when man is beginning to become bellicose & fight amongst himself again. Part 3 is a repeat of the age when nuclear war was about to break out. The book contained a lot of religious stuff...I particularly thought the 2nd head that grew on the woman at the very end (I won't spoil it by giving the identity) was an amazing climax. I'm not sure if the theme was that despite the best efforts of religion society will still find ways to destroy itself. The theme of history repeating itself is a major part of the book. As a final comment I agree with another reviewer in being amazed that this book was published over 40 years ago. This book is typically listed as a top 100 scifi classic (that's how I found it) and I think it deserves that ranking. If you like scifi then give it a shot.

Rating:
Summary: What you can't give Zero Stars?
Review: There was nothing in this story that I found interesting much less exciting. Each of the three parts was more boring than the previous. None of the characters really stuck out. This could have done just as well as a short story. A very short story. The entire story is told from the sidelines. It does a good job of conveying the boring lives that the monks live though. Reading this book was just like the job Francis did making that golden copy of the drawing by Leibowitz which took him years to finish.

I kept waiting for something interesting but nothing happened. I thought that maybe the schematic that Francis found would be the missing piece needed to create a nuclear weapon again but nothing so deep happened. There was the two headed woman thrown in at the end, but I didn't bother trying to figure out what she was for. The only thing that tied the stories together was the wooden sculpture of the saint that was created in the first part. But that was pretty weak.

Overall, this book was a big bore. Choose sleep over reading this book, it is the better choice.

Rating:
Summary: Dixitque Deus, "Fiat Lux!"
Review: Wow! That's all I can say. Many people say "Fiat Homo" is the best piece of the book--wrong. "Fiat Voluntas Tua" is the real reason to buy the book.

Fiat Homo takes place 600 years after the Flame Deluge, a mass-extinction-causing nuclear war. Note the lack of any advancements at all. Compare this to the period of time directly after the fall of Rome.

Fiat Lux takes place 1200 years after the nuclear war. Its a period of enlightenment, thus, "Let there be light." Compare this to the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.

Fiat Voluntas Tua takes place about 2000-2500 years after the war. It is an advanced society, more advanced so than today. Compare this part to present day, keeping in mind small terrorist countries all have nuclear weaponry at present. The threat of nuclear war is stronger today than in the 1950's, 60's, 70's, or 80's.

Miller does a fabulous job. It's impossible to put the book down at some parts.

Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: The Granddaddy of the post-apocalypse desert epics
Review: Whew boy. Yes this puppy came out in about 1959. Before Zelanzy's Damnation Alley, before a lot of Harlan Ellison's stuff, before the first Dune even, there was Canticle. 1st let me say the edition I read years ago had an introduction by Norman Spinrad which contained many spoilers (gave away parts of the plot) so if the edition you buy has this intro, you may want to skip it.

This is also one of the most cerebral of the genre. The book takes place in the future after Nuclear Holocaust. It deals with an order of future monks in the American Southwest as they try to sort out elements of the ancient past (our era) amidst the backdrop of changing survival politics across several generations.

One of the things I found interesting about it was how it dealt with the archetypical mutants. Unlike most stories, it has a general moral sense of resposibility towards them-- at least the monks do. The church orders mutants to be taken care of until they reach adulthood. The church also shows concern for other survivors throughout the book-- which causes some points of antagonism.

Like other commentators, I note that organized religion is portrayed in this book as a little misguided, but generally well-meaning.

It may be a little dull reading for some, since much of the background has been presented many times in movies, but there is also a lot that is still refreshing today.

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting, but somewhat unsatisfying
Review: As the book description tells us, this is the story of the abbey dedicated to St. Leibowitz (not the story of Leibowitz himself) who tried to save mankind's knowledge after a nuclear war. There are three distincy parts to this story, each separated by several generations, linked by their common history (the abbey's quest for knowledge and preserving Leibowitz's memorabalia). I do not normally enjoy post-apocalyptic stories, but this one seems more plausible than most (although you have to wonder how not a single high school science text survived the war, but only advanced circuit diagrams and such).

This book struck a chord with me for two reasons. I am not a Catholic, but I am a Christian, and was pleasantly surprised by the depiction of the monks and priests. Usually science fiction introduces Christianity (and religion in general) as being mythological, irrelevant, or evil. Here, we have individual Catholics with assorted personalities praying for guidance, discussing theology with athiests, trying to puzzle out thousand year old manuscripts - in short, what you would expect monks and priests to do! Secondly, as a chemist, I am in the science most traditionally maligned as "evil" (although genetics is giving us a run for the money at the moment). The persecution of scientists trying to save information against destruction from the mob struck a chord for me as well. It seems reasonable that post-war society would vow revenge on either religion (Look what God did to us) or science (Look what Science did to us), or both. The characters in the book have the courage to stand up and say "It's not God or Science that did this to you, it was Man," and the book seems to be saying "If nuclear war really does happen, man has no one to blame but himself."

However, I was left at the end of the book feeling strangely unsatisfied. Any given part of the book was interesting and enjoyable to read, sprinkled with wry humour and subtle messages. However ... The fact that the three parts of the story are only loosely tied together, that the second part seems unfinished, and the bleak ending, leave me wondering what the point was. That mankind is evil and doomed to destroy itself? Or was it a warning against nuclear war (and if so, why bother having two)? Finally, I can't help thinking that the story of Leibowitz himself would have been more interesting than the story Miller gave us.

Thus, I recommend this book as an interesting and I think realistic look at a post-apocalyptic world. And I think it's best read as a warning - just because there's little chance of full-scale nuclear war at the moment, it doesn't mean that man's aggressive tendencies have diminished, and we're very capable of destroying ourselves.

Rating:
Summary: can be read on many levels of understanding...
Review: I am not the "smartest" reader all of the time - I often can catch only the most obvious of metaphors and allegories. This book really speaks on many levels, and I think that's the true secret to its lasting power.

On the surface, the book is a well-written tale of an Abbey that has survived through the ages (the book takes place a millennium from now). The book is heavily layered, however, like an onion.How many times you read this book and how quick you are to catch on to various themes will determine how many layers you experience.

I was fortunate enough to consider some of the themes of the book, particularly that religion, although divinely inspired, will always be fallible because it is man-made. Some of the things the Abbey has made sacred (including the canonization of a Jew) really makes you think about how today's religion has been interpreted through the centuries. Another theme worth exploring is the fact that man really doesn't learn from his mistakes. This becomes hauntingly obvious in the last third of the book.

I would recommend this book to nearly anyone, especially those who enjoy a good sci-fi yarn or who like books that can be explored from so many different angles. I doubt this book will stay on my shelf too many years before I decide to give it another go.

Rating:
Summary: Carries a message for YOU!
Review: What more is there to say about this innovative work from the Age of Nuclear Terror? In those times we were assured by our "leaders" that a "balance of power" was the way to keep peace. Those with an IQ greater than room temperature, however, well knew that one finger on one button in one second could obliterate the world. Many writers sought to wake America to the threat they had created. FAIL SAFE, DR STRANGELOVE, the list of works explaining how the nuclear holocaust could occur expanded in this era. Few writers addressed "the Day After". CANTICLE was almost the first to picture the aftermath. Harlan Ellison's incisive analysis A BOY AND HIS DOG, honouring directly Miller's groundbreaking work, essentially closed the genre.

This Miller's tale is a vivid examination of the workings of the American mind. America in the 1950's was a seething cauldron of anti-intellectualism, of distrust of the learned and the innovative. When CANTICLE was published, America was coming to the end of the Eisenhower presidency, the eight years that "showed America could do without a President". Social programs, education, health care had all been pushed aside in favour of intense military buildup and corporate expansion. With a simple-minded ex-general in the White House, the hovering threat of a "flame deluge" was at the forefront of most minds. The McCarthyite inquisition was the blatant expression of American fears. Miller's rising new governments exhibit a similar desire for mind control, with predictable results.

Miller's use of Mother Church as the sole organized survivor of the nuclear exchange was inspired. Catholicism was viewed with suspicion in America. The debate over John Kennedy's presidential candidacy the following year demonstrated the feelings the Church engendered. Yet, Miller got it exactly right. No other institution in America would likely have survived the Flame Deluge. Neither government nor the military commanded the talents nor ability to bring continuity to those who survived. How ironic in the fundamentalist America of CANTICLE that Miller could successfully raise this issue.

An even greater irony is the Beatification of Isaac Edward Leibowitz, descended of Polish Jews, by an American Catholic monastery. Jews were subjected to the same distrust from America's Silent Majority as Roman Catholics. One facet of that suspicion related to the numbers of Jews in universities, technical programs and science. Anti-Semitism and anti- intellectualism resided in the minds of many "Middle Americans." Leibowitz parades through this story as mythical figure with a dual role - the founder of the Bookleggers and representative intellectual, and perhaps, in the symbolic Wandering Jew who reappears time and again over the centuries after the Deluge. Miller's handling of Leibowitz and the desert hermit is without equal in the literature of the time or today. The image of a admonitory Prophet has nearly disappeared in today's writing, making CANTICLE valuable for its timelessness.

More than simply fine writing and innovative thinking, CANTICLE has a message that remains valid today. The rendering of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union has not brought peace nor stability to the world. Wars, especially religious wars, are occurring with increasing, not diminishing frequency and intensity. We have brushed with enlarging one or more of those conflicts more than once. Miller's warning message remains valid and should be read by the new generation. Remember, the source of the Flame Deluge still resides in those Prairie silos and hidden Red Octobers, both Russian and American. Read this book and find out what that might mean.

Rating:
Summary: A Scifi Classic
Review: This book is a true classic. It presents a plot that we've all heard before: What if Nuclear Warfare actually occurred? It seems like a boring idea, but Walter M. Miller, Jr. makes this book extremely intriguing. The ignorance of the characters and their society, is so REAL, that I actually found myself believing this story. The story specifically revolves around a single monastary that is attempting to preserve the boundless knowledge of society's predecessors, but the tribal groups strongly oppose this, being taught that intelligence leads to nothing but destruction. Although I am not Catholic and know nothing of the Catholic faith, I did not have any trouble undertanding this book, which is good. I recommend this riveting and eye-opening novel to anyone wanting to read GREAT science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A book to be re-read many many times
Review: A shame that Walter Miller wrote so few novels, because his writing and characterizations are superb. But perhaps that's the way it should be - at the expense of quantity, the author produced only the finest quality.

This is the second time through Canticle for me, and certainly nowhere near the last. There are enough themes, issues, and ideas in here to hold my interest for years to come. This time around I found the description of the Simplification and the Simpletons to be particularly poignant, especially in the light of the recent election. Miller presents us with a populous fed up with intellectualism, education, science, and generally anything that smacks of intelligence on any level. Their anger stems from fear, the basic fear of that which they do not understand and do not want to understand. Flip forty years forward, and some half of the American population rejected a presidential candidate who was intelligent and well-educated; they not only resented his intelligence but also distrusted the man. They chose instead a man who is very amiable, very non-threatening, and shows no open display of intellect. Somewhat frightening to me, at least, that our society already and still harbors an intense distrust of the intellect.

Next time I read this book there will be a new lesson to find. I hope you find the book equally enlightening.