A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes.

This was an excellent post-apocalyptic novel that handled themes of the separation between church and state, the role of Catholicism worldwide, and both the beauty and danger of knowledge with creativity. While I liked this book immensely, I found some of its nonlinearity and poorly introduced characters to be a bit confusion, which led me to re-read sections to figure it out.

This was an interesting book and I am glad it was a book club pick (S & L). The outlook of the book to me felt refreshing and slightly depressing. I hope the portrait of humanity was not accurate, and the fact that there wasn't already mass nuclear annihilation is a good start.

Read a little over half the book. The post apocalyptic scenario was good enough. I liked the descriptions and the premise of a world where all the knowledge was destroyed to prevent another great war.

I liked how the main character was truthful to his believes and his personality was very well developed.

But the book gets lost in too many details and too little story. I perhaps could be more agreeable to the history of every part of a room if there was more content to wrap my mind around.

This is a book that I would have absolutely loved as a high school student. I wished I were a high school student while I was reading it. Digesting it in huge chunks at a time. Hanging out in the study hall area before school, debating and quoting and dissecting with four or five other nerds who were reading it simultaneously. (That's how I've read most of the science fiction that I've really loved in my life. It's the best way to do it.) The problem with classic science fiction is that science fiction is a genre that eats it own and constantly regenerates ideas. So was Neal Stephenson's [b:Anathem 2845024 Anathem Neal Stephenson http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1224107150s/2845024.jpg 6163095] a complete homage? Yes, in many important ways. And certainly, it was influenced by Canticle, which proceeded it by 30+ years. But I read Anathem first, so Canticle comes off looking the derivative one. I feel bad, because I know it's historically inaccurate, but I'm just kind of over post-apocalyptic-humanity-is-doomed-to-repeat-its-own-mistakes-and-perpetually-destroy-itself. There were a few tropes I loved - most notably the dilemma of is a species technologically generated by humans to replicate humans less than human? However, that was really only considered for a sentence or two.