A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

[lestatar]

With the whole gang on this one - a brilliant piece of work indeed, and IMO a must read for any fan of top quality writing, strong story-telling and thought-provoking books, regardless of genre.

Read a few more pages and it was ask an you shall receive. I only hope, for the sake of those cannibalistic mutant highwaymen that Brother Francis had more meat on his bones than ever he had brains or character.

It is getting more interesting now.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Read a few more pages and it was ask an you shall receive. I only hope, for the sake of those cannibalistic mutant highwaymen that Brother Francis had more meat on his bones than ever he had brains or character.

It is getting more interesting now.

[poohbear_nc]

This is a brillant, completely original, and memorable novel. It's one I keep returning to for re-reads, and find something new each time. The total audacity of positing a future society venerating the force that destroyed it = brilliant!

[kennyc]

I must put this one on my TBRR list.

[Catlady]

Boy, I'm going to have to reread this one. It's firmly labeled in my head as "great book I read in high school," but all I can really dredge up in my memory is the grocery list and "bring home for Emma." Not much in this thread seems familiar.

Yes and excellent story and book. The ending was strange, but over all very good. I especially liked this passage, heh, heh:

Spoiler:

Soon, the priest spoke at length of his fears, while the hermit, mender of tents, listened patiently until the sun had begun to leak through the chinks in the west wall to paint glowing shafts in the dusty air.
"Since the death of the last civilization, the Memorabilia has been our special province, Benjamin. And we've kept it. But now? I sense the predicament of the shoemaker who tries to sell shoes in a village of shoemakers."
The hermit smiled. "It could be done, if he manufactures a special and superior type of shoe."
"I'm afraid the secular scholars are already beginning to lay claim to such a method."
"Then go out of the shoemaking business, before you are ruined."
"A possibility," the abbot admitted. "It's unpleasant to think of it however. For twelve centuries, we've been one little island in a very dark ocean. Keeping the Memorabilia has been a thankless task, but a hallowed one, we think. It's only our worldly job, but we've always been bookleggers and memorizers, and it's hard to think that the job's soon to be finished--soon to become unnecessary. I can't believe that somehow."
"So you try to best the other 'shoemakers' by building strange contraptions in your basement?"
"I must admit, it looks that way--"
"What will you do next to keep ahead of the seculars? Build a flying machine? Or revive the Machina analytica? Or perhaps step over their heads and resort to metaphysics?"
"You shame me, Old Jew. You know we are monks of Christ first, and such things are for others to do."
"I wasn't shaming you. I see nothing inconsistent in monks of Christ building a flying machine, although it would be more like them to build a praying machine."
"Wretch! I do my Order a disservice by sharing a confidence with you!"
Benjamin smirked. "I have no sympathy for you. The books you stored away may be hoary with age, but they were written by children of the world, and they'll be taken from you by children of the world, and you had no business meddling with them in the first place."

Just like the role of the church in the first (real) Dark Ages [In Europe].

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Yes and excellent story and book. The ending was strange, but over all very good. I especially liked this passage, heh, heh:

Spoiler:

Just like the role of the church in the first (real) Dark Ages [In Europe].

Yes - such beautiful irony!

[jgaiser]

Browsing MetaFilter this evening, I ran across this.

An NPR audio adaptation of A Canticle for Liebowitz as a 15 part serial at The Internet Archive.

[bfisher]

A great book, and thanks for the pointer to the NPR radio play - looking forward to listening to it.

[alansplace]

read it about 25 or 35 years ago, and now have it on my tbrr [to be re-read] list. really liked it the first time.

[wyndslash]

bought a copy and hope to be reading it soon c;

[frquixote]

Originally Posted by Ransom

You can get it here, but it's still only in the large print edition.

Wow! I've been looking for both this book and Alas, Babylon for ages. One out of two's OK. Since it is offered in Mobipocket format, it is an easy convert to epub via Calibre. Loaded it on my Sony 650 and changed to XS sized font and it was perfect for my aging eyes.