Wednesday, April 20, 2016

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

I read this book for the following category in my Back to the Classics 2016 reading challenge:

7.  A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic. Dystopian could include classics like 1984, and children's classics like The Hobbit are acceptable in this category also. 

The story is set far into the future, after a nuclear holocaust, in a monastery in the Utah desert. The monks preserve the written relics of their founder, an engineer, without understanding what they are. The story is told in three parts, and I liked the first part quite well, but I was disappointed in the second and third parts.  I rate it 2 out of 5.

1 comment:

The Idaho Beauty said...

I am so glad you chose to read and review this. I'm very familiar with the title but for some reason had the idea that it was a totally different kind of book. I rather like futuristic dystopian novels, really into them back in the seventies (Alas Babylon made the biggest impression on me) and still lean towards them today, so it amazes me that this one slipped by me. Off to the library I went and I just finished it. I would give it a slightly higher rating, but not the 5 that the book jacket would imply it should have. And the first part didn't quit grab me like the rest of it. So personal preference prevails as it often does.

Something else the book jacket told me. Forty years after this was published, Miller wrote the "long awaited" sequel. I've just picked it up from the library, going to follow the antics of those monks now that they are in space. I trust you won't be joining me? :-)