Rating: 
Summary: words cant describe
Review: This is possibly one of the best science fiction books I have ever read. Once I picked it up it was amazingly hard to put back down. The constraints of work and school seemed like secondary concerns compared to finishing and understanding this work. Yes, It may have been written during the cold war (with nuclear destruction its main premise for the story) although it still is able to explore some very serious and pressing questions about the race of man.
Taken from the point of view of "the Monks of St. Leibowitz" the book goes into the fall of man after a nuclear war (an amazingly real threat at the time of its publication) and the rise of our race thereafter. What appealed to me most was not the actual story (take your pick of post-apocalyptic fictions) but the way in which it was told. The story is conveyed in such a way that even the less educated among book readers (if there are any these days) is forced to think very hard about the questions that arise from the book. This is what makes it a great book, not the story, but the contemplation one must embark upon after reading it. If I could give it above 5 stars I would.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Work
Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz is not a novel. Rather, it is 3 linked novellas concerning the Order of Saint Leibowitz. Each of these novellas have different focuses and at first glance, would seem to have little to do with the other novellas. However, when you get down to thinking about it, they are actually pieces of a united work.The first novella, Fiat Homo, is squarely about the Abbey of Saint Leibowitz and begins with the discovery of the Sacred Shopping List. It is the story of how the brothers seek to have Leibowitz officially recognized as a saint. The second novella, Fiat Lux, is an espionage thriller dealing with the diabolical plans of the Emperor of Texarkana for continental domination. The third novella, Fiat Voluntas Tua, deals with the Second Nuclear Age as the nations that arose from the ashes of the First Nuclear Age and the nuclear war that ended that age, grapple with both nuclear weapons and the knowledge that a previous civilization died from those weapons. As you can see, the 3 novellas deal with diverse subjects, but it is the way that Miller weaves his stories that the 3 become one. A Canticle For Leibowitz is a most intriguing and well executed book and should be required reading in classrooms today.
Rating:
Summary: Repetition Does Not Make Perfect
Review: Canticle is one of the best post-holocaust stories ever written. Told in three separate sections that were originally published as separate stories, it details a post-nuclear war society where (once more) the Catholic church has become the repository for what little learning there still is, complete with monk scribes happily copying by hand the few remaining books. But at least for the first section of the book, the scribes don't understand what they're copying. When they uncover some ancient relics of Saint Leibowitz (a twentieth century engineer who tried to stop the book burnings and other atrocities) they end up enshrining one of his grocery lists and venerate a common blue-print as rare and sacred. Later portions of the book detail the resurgence of science, fueled by the church's repositories of knowledge, but as becomes increasingly obvious as you go further in the book, there is still no change in mankind's basic human nature, and war enters the picture again (and again) - covering almost a two-thousand year span. There is a large amount of ironical humor suffused throughout this book, which makes its prime message that man is doomed to continuously repeat his mistakes, leavened only by the love of a distant God, much easier to take. In many ways this book is a hard look at both the ultimate value of religion and at basic human nature, couched alongside some heavy symbolism (the Wandering Jew makes multiple appearances) and some very sharp satire. The story itself is told with such emotional power that I found myself both plumbing the depths of despair and laughing uproariously, while the moral and ethical questions raised kept poking sharp daggers into my under-brain, just waiting for the chance to come to the fore of my consciousness and force me to re-live this book again and again. Within each section of the book, characterization is excellent, from the young initiate Francis in the first section to the Caesar-like Hannegan and Brother Taddeo of the middle section to Abbot Zerchi of the final section. But the very fact that it is told as three separate stories leads to a little disjointedness, as the characters you have come to know and love in one section disappear in the next and a whole new set make their appearance. The unifying force between these sections is obviously the church, the one constant across all the years, and this provides the foundation for not only the story, but a framework for all the philosophical questions to reverberate against. Questions of is man inherently evil, what role God should play in an individual's life and his surrounding society, when does pride become hubris, what constitutes sin and can an earthly representative of God truly provide forgiveness, why do good deeds so often seem to lead to bad consequences, and many more. Miller does not really provide any answers to these questions - nor should he, as these questions are really only answerable at the individual level, but his story provides some powerful illumination of these questions, and his ending does leave some room for possibly the most enduring of human emotions, hope. This book is what science fiction should be, a book that enlightens what the human condition is within a context of an all-too believable future world, literate and profound without hammering the reader on the head. Winner of the 1961 Hugo award, it clearly out-classed all the other contenders for that year, and ranks as one of the best the field has to offer. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating:
Summary: This is not for leasurly reading.
Review: Don't get me wrong, this does have its exciting moments that rival that of any thriller but the bulk is philosophical and political ponderings. Be prepared for religious intrigue and questions of character motives. If that is the type of book that you like then this is for you and you will not find it done any better.
Rating:
Summary: One of my top 5 favorite books
Review: I just again finished reading "A Canticle", having read it a number of times over the last couple of decades. It's truely a magnificent book: entertaining, well written, concise, inspiring, and extremely though provoking. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: I've read hundreds of SciFi novels, and rarely give a book five stars - but here is one that deserves it. Written about a post-apocalyptic world, it is basically three books in one, with each taking place about 500 years apart, and starting about 500 years after the near-destruction of mankind.
Without giving anything away, the early Fallout Shelter encounter is fantastic, and a great start-off to this wonderful, quick-reading, and decent-sized book. There are lots of interesting characters, and while not action-packed, there is always something interesting going on to keep you turning the pages to see what will happen next.
Very impressed that the advanced spaceflight predicted by Miller in 1959 avoided the use of the dead planets Venus and Mars (many writers made the mistake, as late as the 60's, that there was life on these planets, or that they could be easily colonized).
This book will not appeal to those not interested in reading some occasional passages in Latin (and even a few Hebrew phrases), or to those having an aversion to a book with a strong religious theme... Indeed, I think it exactly because of these two factors that the book has not become a popular classic. Having said that, I wouldn't let the "religious content" bother open-minded individuals - I'm pretty much an agnostic (albiet right-leaning), and I find the introspections into the monks' Second Dark Age lives more than interesting in the context of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Intellectual Post-Apocalypse Story
Review: Miller's A Canticle For Leibowitz is broken down into three separate but mildly interrelated stories. The first story takes place some centuries after the nuclear annihilation of our civilization, the second story some centuries after the first, and the third some centuries after that. All three of the stories are connected via a common thread...The Abbey of the Order of Leibowitz...whose task it is to collect and store the remaining knowledge of a more advanced civilization (ours') and preserve it for the day when humanity will be able to use it again.
Miller's story is an interesting, if dated one. Written in the 1950's Miller's view of the world clearly isn't the modern one. But there are certainly similarities. Miller's story reflects possible nuclear annihilation of both the US and the Soviet Union. Today, the threat of terrorism, is at a minimum, hovering on the back-burners of all our minds. Throughout the entire book there is the constant theme of cyclicality. That everything in the human world (including our spirituality) goes through cycles. From just the smallest tradition (in terms of the overall story) of the yearly Lentin fast, to the underlying mantra of the book that, like Santayana said, if we don't learn from our past mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.
This story is heavy on the symbolism. In this way, A Canticle For Leibowitz would make a great reading assignment for high school or college English classes. Unfortunately, this reader is only intelligent enough to pick up only the most blatant of metaphor and not intelligent enough to catch the more subtle.
The two major downsides of this book are that it can be awfully slow and drag at times, making it difficult to get through. Also, there is quite a bit of Latin liberally dispersed throughout the story. Seeing that most of the book is set in and around an abbey, it makes sense that the Latin is in there...it just would have been nice if Miller had given us more translations of his Latin verses.
Overall, this book is worth reading if you're interested in the way religion effects our lives (and may in the future); are interested in a well-written (if dated) piece of post-apocalypse scifi; or are just plain interested in reading an intelligently drawn story.
Rating: 
Summary: As a good read, this classic loses steam
Review: The three sections of the book project into the post-nuclear world of the 27th century, the 32nd century, and the 37th century. Each section follows the activities of a religious order of monks who were the sole recipient of knowledge during a centuries-long dark age. As the centuries pass, a civilization slowly emerges, and is ready to make use of the documents from our age which hint tantalizingly at the secrets of "electrical essence" and the rest of the scientific discoveries that man made in the days leading up to the nuclear era. The first book is undoubtedly the best of the three, having the advantages of unveiling the futuristic world that Miller has dreamed up, and also the best character in Francis, an aspiring monk with a heart of gold that may have been the magnet for a miracle. By the end of the third book, a new nuclear war is threatening to break out, and the monks are considering taking to the stars to keep the flame of humanity burning bright. The book draws on religious themes, with lots of theological and moral arguments being made by the various characters.
The Good and the Bad:
I loved the first half of the book or so, and couldn't get enough of learning about the post-apocalyptic world and the characters who populated it. The story had a very faint quality of artificiality, especially when it came to politics, but generally, the strengths of the plot and characters overcame this. The character of Francis was very engaging for his sweetness and almost gump-like simplicity, and his murder at the hands of cannibalistic mutants was a shock that required rereading. The longer the book goes, however, the more the characters began to feel like vessels for theological and moral arguments, and the final few chapters are so steeped in religion that it was difficult for me to finish. The fascinating story, involving a basic conflict between an abbot and a doctor on the morality of encouraging radiation victims to commit suicide, takes a back seat to dreams and symbols that are less compelling. Overall, the book has those ingredients that make a classic; an inspired background, intriguing human interactions, and philosophical statements all coexist on the same pages. The warnings against nuclear war must have seemed especially relevant when the book was first published in 1959.
What I learned:
This book gave me an appreciation for the intricate inner workings of the Catholic Church. I grew to appreciate the seriousness of sanctity, as it is built on an unbroken chain of tradition that has been passed on for thousands of years.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book That Won't Let You Put it Down
Review: This book is one of my favorites. It's a tale of hardship, loyalty, danger, and humor. It's also a tale of monks of the order of Leibowitz.
This book is one of the best made and won't let you down.
Rating:
Summary: What an amazing book.
Review: This book really did catch me off guard when I read it. I picked it up at the recommendation of an employee at my local bookstore, and while I have read several good books via a strangers recommendation, I have never read one as good as this.
This book is basically one story split into three sections titled "Fiat Homo", "Fiat Lux" and "Fiat Voluntas Tua". They all take place after the 'Flame Deluge', which is when mankinds ignorance and evil have culmanated into a nuclear holocaust. The story is about an abby named after a man of science who learned the errors of his ways late in life and sought to preserve our knowledge, while ignorance roamed the land in the dark times after the flame deluge. The plot is a straight forward one and I while I was able to speed read some parts of the book, I had to slow down and sometimes reread sections that dealt with some serious philisophical matters that, even now I find myself thinking about. This book is truly thought-provoking and I thought, for once, the jacket aptly described it when it says this book is a book that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World. I even think in some ways it is better than those two. It's very seldom when reading a book of the sci-fi genre (my favorite along with fantasy) that one reads a book that let's one reflect on themselves and human nature in general and provides such valuable insights into life.
I give this the highest rating I can. I advise you get it as soon as possible. I am glad I did, I had never heard of it and it is almost fifty years old too.
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