Its a little chinsey, but I really liked it so I'm giving it a 4.5 ( )

Crazy complex, a meditation on humanity and civilization. Divided into three parts, the first after what seems to have been a nuclear war, the second partway into a time of political consolidation and the rise of nation-states, but also the rebirth of scholarship, and the third at a toe-to-toe arms face-off. There are threads that connect the three very disparate sections; the canticle for Leibowitz standing in for the concept of knowledge, the monastery devoted to knowledge preservation, a wild-haired wanderer, the themes of humanity. Each section revolves partly around life at the monastery and a particular issue of their time. Being largely unfamiliar with the structure of the Catholic church, I felt a little hampered at times as some of the concepts Miller plays with seem to do with Church structure, and faith, and certainly a number of references seem to be in Latin. It didn't hamper reading, by any means, but I can't help wonder if it affected how I read Miller's larger messages, especially as the last third seems to deal with elemental questions of conceptual sin. The characters are used to illustrate the larger issues, but many are still well crafted and interesting. Brother Francis drew me into the book in the first section. There was a well rounded and interesting cast in the second, but the third seemed to be mere props for the message. A thoughtful and classic book.

"Both he and they knew that he had only been reading the palm of a plan, had been describing a hope and not a certainty." ( )

So, this is basically three stories linked together over a long period of time. For me, the first story was 4 stars, the second story was -5 stars, and the third and last story was 3 stars. So, overall, I would rate that book as 2 stars, or "just OK", although the middle of the book was so bad and boring I almost quit the entire thing.

This is pretty typical of 1960's science fiction, focused on big ideas with basically no women to speak of and reflects a lot of the apprehensions and fears at the time of nuclear/cold war. I know this is considered a classic, and I can certainly see why, but it just didn't do it for me. I much prefer older science fiction by Heinlein or Clark or Asimov, and they deal with big questions but still have a story and characters that are half interesting. ( )

I guess this is a classic of sci fi literature, written in the late 1950s and focused on the dangers of nuclear Armageddon. It starts in the near future, after a nuclear war has destroyed society and a subsequent worldwide purge of scientists and statesman has occurred, as they are to blame for the destruction.

A monastery is set up in the desert American west, where Christian monks have rescued great works of science and literature, named after Liebowitz, a key founder and martyr who is eventually granted sainthood by the Church. We then follow the monks at intervals of many hundreds of years, as society rebuilds itself slowly and attempts to rediscover the science it has lost.

The book is profoundly cynical about human nature, seeing nuclear destruction as inevitable and likely to repeat. The writing is pretty good, but the focus on Christian imagery got tiring for me- there's lots of Latin in there! (This was written before Vatican II). The last section is kind of tedious, with a lengthy tangent into the ethics of euthanasia that I found unnecessary. Not my favorite sci fi classic. ( )

I was so mad when I finished the first part I just couldn't enjoy the rest. ( )