L'héritage de saint Leibowitz

mass market paperback, 609 pages

Published Jan. 21, 2000 by Denoël.

ISBN:
978-2-207-25054-9
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OCLC Number:
49186164

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3 stars (11 reviews)

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

19 editions

Lucifer is Fallen

5 stars

A beautiful yet disturbing book. I did not expect to find new-to-me horrors in a nuclear apocalypse story, especially one written so early in the Cold War. It is an incredibly thought provoking book, one that will stick with me for a long time.

Contrary to another reviewer, I believe the lessons in this book are as timely and important today as they were more than 60 years ago. The threat of nuclear annihilation is still with us and will never go away as long as humanity tolerates their existence. Canticle highlights this danger more than any other book I have read.

Since finishing, I have read a number of reviews and analyses of Canticle and am a bit confused by the repeated critique of its lack of female characters. The story takes place almost exclusively in the context of a Catholic monastery where women aren't even allowed. So the …

Review of "L'héritage de saint Leibowitz" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Half a century later this book's particular brand of nuclear anxiety seems a little cliche and silly--especially with regard to human deformity. Since it takes place mostly in an abbey it's not terribly surprising how few women there are in it, but I'm not crazy about the treatment of the two (three?) notable female characters in the book's third part. But despite its fault I thought the book was well worth reading, for the thoughtful, dry, darkly humorous tone throughout.

Review of 'A Canticle For Leibowitz (S.F. Masterworks)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's split into three parts. Fiat Homo (Let There Be Mankind) follows Brother Francis, a young novice in the Albertian Order of Leibowitz in the 26th century. This is 600 years after a nuclear war. The human race very nearly died out and many are born with birth defects. In a backlash against technology and learning, the Simplification destroyed books and killed scientists, leading the world into a new dark age.

The monks preserve Memorabilia, relics of Leibowitz who they are trying to get canonized. As a reader you soon realise what these relics are, but the monks have no idea of their meaning. It shows the importance of preserving knowledge but also the context.

Brother Francis is a bit of a nervous, naive chap. He discovers a fallout shelter in the desert, in which he believes he's found a relic, a drawing made by Leibowitz himself. The Abbot isn't …

Review of 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I read this because it was selected as the Book of Honor for this year's Potlatch science fiction & fantasy convention. I had read it before, when I was in high school or college, and had a vague memory of liking it at the time. The novel is set in a world where nuclear war happened sometime in the 1940s or 1960s, with the action opening after enough generations have passed that there is no one alive to remember the world before and literacy is almost zero. The book seems to be shaped by the Cold War, China's Cultural Revolution, and Miller's Catholic faith. It was inspired by his experience in WWII, bombing an ancient abbey. Miller was a short story writer, and this book came about by modifying two long short stories, and then adding the last third of the book. The action takes place in and around an …

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