A Canticle for Leibowitz

Rating:
Summary: Those who don't learn from the past....
Review: 600 years after the nuclear apocalypse, Brother Francis of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz (AOL) is performing his Lenten fast in the desert of Utah. During his fast, he sees a man wandering through the desert. This man leads Brother Francis to a hidden cave that contains warnings about the Fallout (a creature he would never like to encounter) and also some documents from the Blessed Leibowitz. He brings them to the attention of his abbot, who contacts New Rome withthe hopes that this may finally bring about the canonization of Leibowitz.

Jump ahead another 600 years. Leibowtiz has become a saint, and thanks to the efforts of the AOL, many of his documents have been faithfully copied and recopied. Brother Kornhoer decides to take one of the documents, a "blueprint" as it is called, and creates an arc lamp for the first time. Meanwhile, Thon Thaddeo, a scholar, needs to visit the abbey to peruse the Memorabilia of Leibowitz and the time before the Deluge and the Simplification. The abbot is unnerved when he discovers that the thon's companions are sketching the abbey as a possible military stronghold.

1800 years have passed since the Saint Leibowitz perished after the Deluge. Humankind is almost back to where it was with computers, cars that drive themselves and even space travel and colonization of other planets. the new abbot of the AOL, fearing the latest news of global discord and a possible nuclear war, assembles a small team to take the Memorabilia and other documents of the Deluge and the Simplification to Centarus, out in space.

This is a fascinating novel following the monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz, who are the safeguards of knowledge concerning the first nuclear war. It spans 1800 years and during that time, mankind goes from almost complete disappearance to a renaissance. But have they learned from the mistakes of the past?

The novel is filled with very rich descriptions of the new world in each of the three book sections: going from the post-apocalyptic to the desert-like conditions of the far distant future. Also, enough locations have similar names to giv ehe reader a certain familiarity. For example, much of the story takes place in the states of Utah and Texarkana. Already, the reader knows that they are in the former United States and in which area. Another intriguing feature of this book is te positive light in which religion is portrayed. The monks maintain the history and try to learn from it, to pass along that information. It's the world around them that maligns and misuses it.

This is an entertaining and intellectual novel that deserves it place as one of the classics of science fiction.

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Summary: Outstanding post-apocalpytic literature
Review: This one's really thought provoking, as any good science fiction novel should be. Based on a "what if" scenario of worldwide nuclear devastation (mainly by fallout) and the resultant shift of civilization back to the dark ages, Canticle explores a possible unfolding of events over the next millenium or so. It contains three novelettes set in widely separated time periods with no common characters (except for a strange one who doesn't age). All three parts are great; I think the first one is best with respect to the narrative and the last one is best with respect to engaging the mind.

All three stories focus on a single monastery, which was founded by Saint Leibowitz to accomplish a primary mission: to collect and preserve as much pre-war printed material as possible in the hopes that one day when technology catches up, people will be able to make use of it. The monks call this collection the Memorabilia. In the first story everyone outside the church is extremely hostile to any printed material and to education in general, because education and technology caused the development of weapons of mass destruction. So the monks have sort of a tough time preserving their Memorabilia. The story centers on Francis, a monk who when new to the order makes an interesting discovery in a fallout shelter.

By the second story, secular education is set to thrive again as the world begins to embrace technology and modernization. The Memorabilia start to show their worth while at the same time a large empire is rising. As technology improves, the church is taken less seriously. In the third story, technology has surpassed ours today and the Memorabilia's usefulness has been exhausted. However, the people of that time seem not to have learned from their past and the church prepares for a desperation move to start anew.

It's clear that Miller was a brilliant author and I wish he'd been more prolific. His style is casual and easily digestible yet full of subtleties and wit. Unfortunately Miller committed suicide before completing the sequel. It was published anyway in its incomplete form but apparently lacks the polish of Canticle. Nevertheless, it continues the second of the three stories in Canticle and explores new themes as well. I hope to get around to it someday.

Rating:
Summary: The Future of History
Review: This book was recommended by a history professor I had while attending a Catholic college. Instead of a novel, Canticle for Leibowiz gives us three connected short stories.

The first divulges the events surrounding the canonization of St. Leibowitz, an engineer from the long dead 20th century who founded an order to preserve knowledge during a post-nuclear holocaust time of book burnings. There is a little sly humor here as the characters misunderstand what is, to them, ancient history. For example, "fallout" is assumed to be some kind of demon that accompanied the "flame Deluge". So there is great puzzlement as to why someone would want to protect them in a "fallout shelter". However, Brother Francis, the main character of this section, is pretty much a simpleton who merely flows with the course of history. This isn't his story; the story happens at him.

If the first story chronicles a time of the new Dark Ages, the second story plays out at the dawn of the new Renaissance. A scholar arrives at the abbey to pore over the records they have preserved, only to discover that one of the brothers has created a rudimentary generator and electric light. However, much of this section seems to involve discussion of the mired politics between a neighboring empire and New Rome. There's a lot of telling regarding off-screen characters, leaving less room to show the main characters.

Fortunately, the third story does a lot towards redemption of the book. Society has once again gained technological prowess and has, once again, let slip the dogs of nuclear war. Zerchi, the current abbot of the monastery, faces two crises: a plan to take to the stars to preserve the Church, and the more immediate concern of government-sponsored euthenasia for those deemed hopelessly irradiated. Though there is a sense of history (characters from the previous sections are obliquely referenced), Zerchi doesn't seem drowned in it. Whether you consider his actions right or wrong, they are *his* actions, and the rationale for them is made plain, which makes him a more compelling character.

All in all, this isn't a bad piece of storytelling (though there is a disconcerting profusion of Latin), but with the exception of the dialogue between Zerchi and Dr. Cors about God and suffering, there wasn't much that stuck with me.

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: Let it be...
Review: Walter Miller's classic, A Canticle for Leibowitz, has been one of my favourite books since the first days I read it (I read it in three days, one day for each of the three parts of the triptych). The premise is one that we have come to recognise as a familiar theme -- post-nuclear-holocaust earth. However, this was a relatively new theme in the early 1950s, when this novel first appeared as a serialised story in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Remarkably, for an early work, this remains one of the standards by which subsequent efforts have been judged.

--Fiat Homo--
In the first part of the story, we are introduced to Brother Francis, a member of the order of St. Leibowitz (well, not yet a saint, but considered one by his order), who, as it turns out, was an early survivor of the nuclear conflagration (later described as the Deluge, in biblical tones that recalls the flood of Genesis). Leibowitz, we discover, was looking for a way to help society maintain order in the destruction--being an historian, even though he was Jewish, he remembered the relative stability of society in the Dark Ages being guided and enhanced in the aftermath of fall of Rome by the Church in general, and monastic orders in particular. So, he founded a house, which continues.

Brother Francis, on a desert retreat, happens upon a scrap of paper that bears a possible signature of Leibowitz. Becoming ecstatic, he devotes his life to preserving and illuminating this document. Eventually he takes a doomed trip to New Rome (which we discover is in the heart of the North American continent). He is killed on his way back to the monastery, but not before delivering the Leibowitz document to New Rome and aiding the order in its quest for sainthood for Leibowitz.

--Fiat Lux--
In the second frame of the triptych, we come upon a political situation several hundred years later, much like the middle ages (Hannegan II under papal interdict while claiming title as Defender of the Faith) -- yet there are new discoveries both among philosopher/scientists of the present and researchers looking back into the past. There is to be to the order a visit from Thon Taddeo, a noted scholar and poet, and politically important person, and the monastery is concerned in many ways to make a good showing. Brother Kornhoer, figuring out texts on ancient electricity, contrived an electric light to the amazement and consternation of Thon Taddeo.

The poet, too, ends up dying on a journey, out in the desert.

--Fiat voluntas tua--
Again hundreds of years have passed, and mankind has once again reached the space age. Genetic purity is a concern (as mutations continue among many of the people due to the fallout of the Deluge). Warfare continues to grow in intensity and severity, and politics remains as ever ineffectual in containing the ambitions and greed of potential dictators. We have come into the nuclear age once again, and illegal nuclear testing has been detected. The world has become a much more secular place. But, once again, the monastery is at involved in the tensions, and more importantly, toward planning for life after another Deluge.

Visionaries at the monastery prepare to send brothers into space to survive what seems a sure collapse and nuclear war, so that they might once again be able to help rebuild society, preserving knowledge and the order of the Church.

* * *

This story is filled with small details of great insight -- how a Dark Ages person might interpret finding scraps of the modern world; how rediscoveries might be welcomed and not welcomed variously; how human personality is, alas, unlikely to change despite much pain and effort.

We are introduced to a man called 'the Old Jew of the Mountains' -- I at first thought this was the apostle John (who is referred to in legendary lore as the apostle who wasn't martyred, or the apostle who wouldn't die until the return of Christ); later I realised that it was Lazarus -- he who was raised from the dead by Christ, and because of this power, could not himself die, but remained outside society awaiting the return.

There are so many philosophical points which remain alive for those of us in the post-Cold War world, that this is a work of vision akin to Verne or Wells (though without their higher literary ability). This is a great story, and one that stays in the mind ever after.

Rating:
Summary: A classic grandiose sweep of future history.
Review: One of the earlier, and still the best, post-nuclear-holocaust novels around. Walter Miller treated the concept in a broad historical view, breaking the story into three parts at successive intervals of 600 years after the "Flame Deluge" (nuclear war) which presumably occurs in the late 20th or early 21st century. All three focus on the perspective of a new monastic order which emerges in its aftermath, dedicated to the preservation of scientific and technical literature preserved by their founder, an engineer later known as Saint Leibowitz.
To quickly summarize: part 1 is in the depths of a new dark age, begun by the widespread rejection of technology and learning following the holocaust. The monks, isolated in the North American desert, illuminate manuscripts based on ancient circuit diagrams and fearfully unearth a fallout shelter. Part 2 sees a second renaissance beginning amid warring city-states and nomadic raiders, with a gifted would-be scientist struggling to retrieve knowledge from the monastery's memorabilia. In part 3, as far from today as today is from the time of Hadrian, mankind has climbed back to and exceeded the heights of technology from which it fell. But in a supermodern age of robot traffic and interstellar colonization - and reinvented nuclear weapons - nations still vie with each other just as they always have. Is the only lesson of history to be that we never learn anything from history?
The religious framework is the chief continuity between the three periods, and gives a real sense of history - putting the far imagined future into a format with which one can identify is no small achievement for the author. Characters, though seeming somewhat po-faced, do come through and are more than two-dimensional. What is best, though, is the subtle detail of settings and circumstances which makes it thoroughly believable. The shift between different historical mindsets and perspectives is well-acomplished. My only criticism is that some pseudo-Scriptural passages require a Latin dictionary.
Miller can hardly be blamed for not fully realising the severe environmental consequences of a global nuclear exchange, such as the nuclear winter - he was writing before the relevant studies had been made.
Though not the longest novel of its kind around, quality is certainly evident over quantity. Anyone who enjoys intelligent and serious speculation should give this book a chance.

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Summary: A Theme for the 9/11 Aftermath
Review: Walter Miller, Jr. had a vision of the future despite writing this 20 years ago. It is so applicable to todays threat of nuclear war or strikes. And each period describes today in a general way our universe as it exits today.

I regret Walter Miller, Jr. committed suicide, and failed to live and see things as they exist today. He was a talented writer, and could have contributed so much more.

I would recommend this book to any reader! It's an excellent work.

Rating:
Summary: A classic, but....
Review: I dislike post-apocalypse stories--possibly unreasonably so--because of past experience. For every Alas Babylon, there were real dogs like The Postman or The Day After. This is the main reason why I had never read Walter M. Miller's classic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz. Since it kept appearing on my Alexandria Digital Literature recommendation list, and several people had expressed amazement that I had never read it, I decided to overcome my bias, and at least give it a try. It started out bad--the main character avoiding a possible mutant in a desolate Utah setting that included a fallout shelter (and the word fallout had new meaning, describing a "scary" monster of the past). Yawn. But I persisted, and it got better.

Split into three equal sections, each covering a different main character and time period. The first section, "Fiat Homo," is the least interesting, or maybe, the most irritating, describing the young initiate Francis and the results of his Lenten fast; nuclear devastation has driven science underground, preserved by a strange order of Catholic monks. This live-close-to-nature aftermath scenario is the type so over used to be annoying, yet Miller's version, which I initially disliked, actually has something that all the imitators lacked depth. The priesthood role of preservation, initially a silly concept, is quite fleshed out by Miller until it achieves believability. Compare this with, say, Waterworld, where the groups of people and technology have no rational logic. . .

The middle section, "Fiat Lux," occurs a few centuries later, when human society is being rebuilt, as well as new scientists trying to re-work the old knowledge. The interplay here is between the monks who wish to preserve the old information until the time is right, and the new scientists, who insist that the time is now. The opening of this section, describing one of the nomad groups of the plains, reads too much like Robert Adams' interminable Horseclans novels, but Miller can be forgiven that, by not only being first, but also for having the good sense to stop after one chapter.

It is the last section, "Fiat Voluntas Tua," that really sets this novel apart from the crowd, and, in my opinion, confirms its classic status. Set in the far future, when all of society has been rebuilt, including the nuclear technology that caused the first cataclysm, the Abbot of the preserving order finds that humans did not learn from the past, and that preparations must be made for another period of darkness. As in the other sections, Miller is able to make this future scenario entirely believable.

If A Canticle for Liebowitz had been confined to just one of these sections, I would have hated it. But the three sections are basically inter-connected novellas that do manage to create the semblance of a single novel at the end. Miller did nothing to change my aversion for post-apocalyptic works, but I did gain appreciation for his take on it.

Rating:
Summary: a must read
Review: This is an easy, "must Read." My only disliking was the ending. I just feel it could have been alot stronger. This is a classic though and should be read by all.

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Summary: Awesome, Educational and Thought-provoking
Review: As evidenced by the fact that this novel has inspired over 140 reviews from Amazonians, it has clearly had a substantial impact on many of the millions who have read it since its publication in 1959--and I count myself among them.

The late 1950s and early 1960s--the height (or depths) of the Cold War--inspired a number of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novels, including Nevil Shute's On The Beach (1957), Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon (1959), Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler's Fail- Safe (1962) and Philip Wylie's Triumph (1963). George R. Stewart's Earth Abides (1949), though written somewhat earlier, also falls into this category. But Walter M. Miller's award-winning novel is the standout of this excellent group--a visionary, thought-provoking tour-de-force to be read and re-read.

While those who know Latin or are steeped in Catholicism and the ways of the Roman Church may have an initial leg up on the rest of us, neither is a prerequisite for an appreciation of this book. In fact, the look at abbey life, the new "Middle Ages," the re-invention of the the electric light, etc., are all highly interesting and educational. When I studied the Fall of Rome, the rise of the Church and Medieval history in college, much of it seemed eerily similar to stuff I had read years before in what was commonly described as a mere "science fiction" novel.

The best stories are the ones that stay with you long after you've read them--sometimes forever. This is one of those. Read it and think, read it and wonder, read it and remember.