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This indeed is a lovely book, one of my very favorites, and one of the most influential science fiction novels written. Maybe only Vonnegut was able to match th

This indeed is a lovely book, one of my very favorites, and one of the most influential science fiction novels written. Maybe only Vonnegut was able to match the combination of grimness and humor. Walter M Miller Jr was a Catholic, and it helps to see the book through that particular blend of hopeless original sin and joyful redemption. He, and many of his characters, believed in both. It's a sensitive portrayal of people who are deeply religious for principled reasons, yet don't fall into easy caricature. It's the only novel that he ever wrote. He published a couple dozen short stories, many of which are worth reading. Several are available here -- https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/Walter%20M._Miller,%20Jr..html https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/Walter%20M._Miller,%20J... His notes for a "Canticle" sequel were stitched together after his death into "Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman," but that's not even a patch on the original. Terry Bisson did much of the work, and I'm sure it was hard. Where "Canticle" is humane and sharp and focused, "Wild Horse Woman" is perfunctory and scattered and meandering.

shusaku 4y ago
> Walter M Miller Jr was a Catholic On that note, I couldn’t help but read the book as a critique of the Protestant reformation.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  Not saying you're necessarily wrong, but... why? What in the book points you to that conclusion?
- sweettea 4y ago
  Indeed,for basically this reason the book was a large influence in my conversion to Catholicism, viewing it as more able to keep knowledge preserved than the Reformed Protestantism of my upbringing.
ghaff 4y ago
When I put together a favorite short stories list in SF, I cheated a bit by making "Fiat Homo" (which is the first part of the re-worked novel) one of them. But it's one of the great books.
mherdeg 4y ago
It's been a while but "A Canticle For Leibowitz" is one of my sf favorites and one I revisit every few years. I don't share the view of this post's author that Miller was saying nuclear holocaust is an inevitable result of the human condition. Rather, I see Canticle as the Catholic interpretation of the contemporary American cultural belief that fiery nuclear war was coming soon -- the gestalt embodied in, say, Tom Lehrer singing "We Will All Go Together When We Go". Given that society feels that way, Miller asks -- how did we get there? Where might we go next? And how do we reckon with the concepts of sin and grace in this wholly alien future we seem to have suddenly entered?

shusaku 4y ago

> Walter M Miller Jr was a Catholic On that note, I couldn’t help but read the book as a critique of the Protestant reformation.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
Not saying you're necessarily wrong, but... why? What in the book points you to that conclusion?
sweettea 4y ago
Indeed,for basically this reason the book was a large influence in my conversion to Catholicism, viewing it as more able to keep knowledge preserved than the Reformed Protestantism of my upbringing.

ghaff 4y ago

When I put together a favorite short stories list in SF, I cheated a bit by making "Fiat Homo" (which is the first part of the re-worked novel) one of them. But it's one of the great books.

mherdeg 4y ago

It's been a while but "A Canticle For Leibowitz" is one of my sf favorites and one I revisit every few years. I don't share the view of this post's author that Miller was saying nuclear holocaust is an inevitable result of the human condition. Rather, I see Canticle as the Catholic interpretation of the contemporary American cultural belief that fiery nuclear war was coming soon -- the gestalt embodied in, say, Tom Lehrer singing "We Will All Go Together When We Go". Given that society feels that way, Miller asks -- how did we get there? Where might we go next? And how do we reckon with the concepts of sin and grace in this wholly alien future we seem to have suddenly entered?