A Canticle for Leibowitz

Paperback, 368 pages

English language

Published April 28, 1959 by Bantam Dell.

ISBN:
978-0-553-27381-6
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4 stars (24 reviews)

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

35 editions

Interesting, important, problematic

3 stars

This is a book whose premise is its most interesting contribution. In 1959, it was, as the reverse blurb says, "an extraordinary novel", but no longer. Anyone who is interested in the lineage of post-apocalyptic fiction should consider reading it, but it is both heavy and heavily outdated, both in social sensitivity and in technology. The latter is understandable, as the silicon integrated circuit was invented in the same year as the novel's publication; the former less so, and I caution anyone who is not willing to read extensively on such topics as the religious justifications for denying people euthanasia against reading much of the third act. By the time you get there, it is fairly clear what will happen.

The core argument of this novel is that the Catholic Church is the vehicle of humankind's material salvation in the face of Armageddon, which is certainly an uncomfortable notion. That …

Three interesting post-apocalyptic stories

5 stars

I originally read this just before Anathem was released as Neal Stephenson's book was going to have a similar idea. Which is sort of true, and sort of not. It's set in three eras after a nuclear war in the 1960s, the first in a barely-subsistence age, secondly in a medieval time, and thirdly with a tech level greater than our own..but still with nuclear weapons and tension.

The focus point of all three is the abbey, and none of the stories are cheerful. Re-reading it, the third one was a particularly hard read. The monks are Catholic and the third story deals a lot with the ethics of euthanasia. Speaking of Catholicism, there's more Latin in the book than you might originally expect.

The moral of the book is as unsurprising as it is heavy.

Canticle for Leibowitz

4 stars

Content warning spoilers for the third act

Review of 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

You'll rarely hear me say I can't put a book down (mostly because work), but with a four-day weekend, I plowed through A Canticle for Leibowitz.

This is a cautionary tale about the centuries after World War III (written less than two decades after entering the nuclear age) when a second Dark Ages has fallen on the world and a monastery has taken as its mission to preserve what it can of history and knowledge. What's poignant about that is the monks don't understand what they're preserving. They just know they must preserve it for the future. Even though it was written more than 60 years ago, its reads like a contemporary best seller. Amazing how timeless the writing is!

The book is full of Latin references from Catholicism and The Bible that relate to the story, which forces you to slow down if you reference everything. Do it. It's …

Review of 'Un cantique pour Leibowitz' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

J'ai donc terminé ce bouquin, qui nous raconte l'histoire de l'ordre de St-Leibowitz, de sa fondation à sa fin.
Il s'agit clairement là de SF classique, par son thème et son
traitement. Par son thème tout d'abord, car il est avant tout question dans ce roman des conséquences de l'usage de l'arme atomique. Dans son traitement ensuite, car il me semble avoir déja vu bien des histoires traitant de ce thème.
Pour être honnête, je trouve ce roman plutôt bon, mais seulement pour son époque. Ce que je veux dire par là, c'est qu'il est pétri de qualités aussi bien littéraires qu'humaines, mais que tous ces arguments, toute cette poésie, tous ces questionnements(1) n'ont plus tant de force pour moi.
C'est malheureux, car il y a certains très beaux passages (en particulier le camp d'irradiés), mais il ne me touchent pas, car me
semblant trop "années 50".

Cr reste malgré …

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Subjects

  • Christian hymnals
  • Christianity
  • Fiction - Science Fiction
  • Science Fiction - General
  • Fiction / Science Fiction / General
  • Science Fiction

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