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Cover of A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Walter M. Miller Jr.

  • 320 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 1959
  • 72 editions
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1 About this book

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.

  • Science fiction
  • Mutation (Biology)
  • Apocalypse
  • Civilization
  • Monks
  • Nuclear warfare
  • Monastic and religious life
  • Christianity

2 About Walter M. Miller Jr.

1923–1996

Walter Michael Miller Jr. (January 23, 1923 – January 9, 1996) was an American science fiction writer. He wrote short stories that became a celebrated fix-up novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959). His only novel published in his lifetime, it won the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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