A Canticle for Leibowitz
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4.2 • 176 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature—a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.
In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.
Customer Reviews
good book
far above my reading level but i enjoyed it regardless. you will not regret reading it.
Boring
I expected a rattling good yarn, this is after all the greatest science fiction ever written, but I got instead a meandering tale recreating medieval monastic ponderings in a post apocalyptic future. The story is told in three excruciatingly long parts each filled with pseudo philosophic conversation mixed with indecipherable political commentary about a new United States carved into unexplained regional principalities. If that doesn’t sound unlikely you may enjoy this novel. I found it tedious, the worst crime a writer can commit.
Flawed masterpiece
What a vision of the world ending. I read this novel a long time ago and just finished re-reading it. A lot of it is dated, a lot of the style is too mannered, and the whole ending appears to be a piece of anti-euthanasia propaganda. There’s A LOT of Latin. But this novel is always enthralling, and the scope is vast.