A review by notoriousesr
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Hundreds of years in the future, humanity has nearly destroyed itself with nuclear weapons. In reaction to the horrors that technology wrought, the world plunged itself into a new dark age, where the Albertian Order of Leibowitz, a small Catholic order, is trying to preserve what little is left of the distant past.

This book lies pretty far outside my usual reading habits, and at times it was a refreshing break from my consistent diet of literary fiction. Miller does something really creative and interesting here with science fiction, in that, for the most part, it is a story of religious faith and belief in the inherent value of knowledge. Especially because it was written in post-WWII period when nuclear holocaust was a clear and present threat, it’s a particularly effective critique of the human bent towards destruction. However, there was a lot of what I felt was unnecessary filler in between bright moments of clarity, which brings this down to 3 out of 5 illuminated blueprints.