Reddit reviews A Canticle for Leibowitz

There's A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, a novel made up of 3 fairly short stories set in 3 different era's after a nuclear apocalypse. We read it recently in r/SF_Book_Club here.

I also enjoyed 'I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream' by Harlan Ellison. The whole story was posted as hundreds of separate submissions in this novel subreddit (the head of the redditor who posted this is probably adorning the wall above Harlan Ellisons mantelpiece).

A few years ago I read The Amtrak Wars series, I enjoyed them as a teenager but I'm not sure if they'd hold up as well with a reread.

What other reddits do you surf?
I moderate /r/RATS, /r/Louisiana and /r/OpenChristian. I also read a lot in /r/SquaredCircle, /r/SRSBusiness, /r/SRSDiscussion, /r/polyamory, /r/woahdude and I've been dipping back into /r/Christianity a bit lately as well.

What do you do in your free time?
I read. I reddit. I smoke my pipe and drink my cocktails. I watch pro wrestling. I cuddle. I toy around with making jewelry (trying hammered wire recently) or playing with polymer clay. I'm considering this thing they call "ex ur size" or some such. It involves riding on a bike that goes nowhere. I understand I can read or watch TV while I do it, so I figured what the heck.


What do you read?
Right now I'm going back and forth between The History of White People and A Canticle for Leibowitz. Before that I read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. the most powerful book I've read in the last few months was Silence by Shusaku Endo. You should read it. And then you should read Lamb because you'll need something a bit more jovial. But not until after you've sat with it a while.

What do you watch?
Ring of Honor Wrestling, WWE, Leverage, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother.

Do you Blog?
Yup, though not regularly enough to develop any sort of readership.

Do you game?
I just got my first console since the original NES when I was in junior high. It's a Wii. Every once in a while I'll play Mario Kart of do something on the Wii Fit.

Do you play a musical instrument/sing?
I make noise periodically. I want to do more.

What are your favorite movies?
Absolute number one favorite? Hedwig And the Angry Inch. The only tattoo I have is from that movie. Other favorites include The Big Lebowski, Pump Up The Volume, The Wrestler, Shortbus, Dangerous Beauty, Walk The Line.

What is some favorite music?
My absolute favorite band is Over the Rhine. Behind them, tied for second place, you'll find Boris, the Cure, Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash. Also up there are Kris Kristofferson, Mischief Brew, the CrimethInc band called Requiem (there are lots of bands called Requiem), The New Orleans Bingo Show. The list goes on for days.

For that particular class, I believe the assigned reading was:
>* Wastelands - John Joseph Adams

• The Crystal World - J. G. Ballard
  
• Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
  
• Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
  
• World Made By Hand - James Howard Kunstler
  
• It's Only Temporary - Eric Shapiro
  
  I also took a class on dystopian literature, which included:
  >* The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
  
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
  
• Neuromancer - William Gibson
  
• Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
  
• The Children Of Men - P. D. James
  
• This Perfect Day - Ira Levin
  
• Dark Mirrors: Dystopian Tales - John Walters
  
• What Came After - Sam Winston
  
  Others I could recommend:
  >* Lost Horizon - James Hilton
  
• A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller
  
• Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
  
• The Iron Heel - Jack London
  
• The Running Man - Stephen King
  
• Armageddon's Children - Terry Brooks
  
• The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
  
• The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
  
• 1984 - George Orwell
  
• Pretty much anything written by Kurt Vonnegut

A Canticle for Leibowitz is missing?

And if Timeline , Atlas Shrugged, and Minority Report are there, why not Flowers for Algernon?

Absolutely. Everybody should read A Canticle for Leibowitz. http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319748042&sr=1-1

Alas, Babylon

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Whoop-di-do-da, Happy Cake Day! My absolute favorite book is [A Canticle for Leibowitz] (http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369148346&sr=1-1&keywords=a+canticle+for+leibowitz) by Walter Miller. It's a sci-fi book depicting three different eras of human society's evolution after a devastating nuclear war through the eyes of a religious order that sprung up shortly after the bomb. It's not an easy or chipper read by any means, but it's good. I love it because it has all the philosophical things I love in sci-fi: science, morality, the struggle of religion in modern society, post-apocalyptic dystopian survival, American imperialism... and somehow it's not dry or preachy or hokey.

I used to eat scrambled eggs mixed with grape jelly as a kid.

shudder

Edit- link

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060892994/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2NTUQVT5GNRFH&coliid=IKV39RU7DTSH

back to the beginning

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• The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke [Songs]. Began August 6th.
  
  
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• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. [canticle]. Began March 1st.
  
  
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A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. One of my favourite books. Amazon link

World War Z, by Max Brooks

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller

I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson -- fair warning: it's actually more of a short story/novelette. But even if you've seen the Will Smith movie, the book is different (and, in my opinion, better) so you'll still want to read this one.

The Last Policeman, by Ben Winters -- sort of fits. It's not exactly post-apocalyptic. It's more pre-apocalyptic. It's a sort of noir detective novel, except the government has announced that an asteroid is going to collide with the earth, probably ending life as we know it. So it's kind of a murder mystery while the world breaks down around the hero. The first book in this trilogy won an Edgar Award in 2013 for Best Paperback Original.

Parasites Like Us, by Adam Johnson -- This one's more light-hearted. The hero is a 2nd rate anthropologist working at a 2nd rate university. He illegally conducts a dig at the site of an early American settlement, and gets thrown in jail. Turns out that the dig unleashed a virus that threatens to wipe out civilization. It focuses more on the human elements of the story -- life, love, etc. -- and less on the apocalypse, and it's filled with dark humor and satire.

Just an FYI to everyone who doesn't realize: Walter Miller was one of the legends of early sci-fi--though he inexplicably stopped publishing after his masterpiece A Canticle for Leibowitz.

For me, A Canticle for Leibowitz is one of the best.

I'm fairly terrible at giving good synopses, so I'll let Amazon's summary do the work for me:

> 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.

It's a seriously devastating book. You should be able to find a used copy of it somewhere fairly easy, it's considered a bit of a classic. Also, the Amazon link I provided isn't even the cheapest (new) edition you can get, that would be the mass-market paperback, but I linked to the trade paperback one first because it has the best cover-art.

I was going to mention [Alas, Babylon] (http://www.abebooks.com/search/an/frank/tn/alas+babylon) but it was very short. I also think that A Canticle for Leibowitz was okay as well.

She probably has all of the books you've mentioned if she really likes them, bookish people usually do... A special edition might be an idea, but I won't be able to help you with that, I go for cheap paperbacks due to money ;)

I'm tempted to recommend "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, it's not sci-fi classic per se, but it's a dystopian classic, she would probably like it if she likes Brave New World, but again, she might already have it. Still I'm sure she'd be thrilled to get a thoughtful thank you gift from you, even if she's read it before or even has a copy... Here's a link to that book on amazon, if you want to have a look: amazon link

If she does like classic sci-fi, here are some old-school, hard sci-fi (but it's not all just spaceships and aliens) that she might enjoy and possibly even not have, since a couple of the authors aren't from English speaking countries:

• Stanislaw Lem "Solaris" amazon link
  
• Arkady and Boris Strugatsky "Roadside Picnic" amazon link
  
• Artur C. Clarke "Childhood's End" amazon link
  
• Walter M. Miller Jr. "A Canticle for Leibowitz" amazon link

Thanks for that; I just looked up the reviews for this book on Amazon, and I am ordering a copy today!

Not exactly sure what you mean with Dystopian/Futuristic... Dystopian in the sense of 1984 or Brave New World? As in organic transition to near-future dystopia?

If you mean postapocalyptic, I am just going to quote myself...
Post-Apocalyptic I recommend two things:

>A Canticle For Leibowitz Brilliant novel consisting of slightly linked chapters from shortly after collapse up to new civilisational heights. Don't read the sequel, it's a bad Western.

>Wool by Hugh Howey. Really gripping, believeable world-building and decent characters. Sequels are ok, but if you can stand not getting proper conclusions stop after Wool :)

>EDIT: Aaaah, I forgot one of the most important ones - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Depressing, low-key, believeable. The prose is stunning. If you read anything read this.


Futuristic is pretty broad, I guess you mean SciFi? Alastair Reynolds is always a good recommendation - it's kind of plausible Science Fiction on a big scale. He is pretty good at characterization, keeps the plot in sight and there are still epic space battles. Good starting point is Revelation Space.

Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Some of the better/more popular ones:

• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang Kate Wilhelm.
  
  
• Eternity Road Jack McDevitt. Well written, but not very insightful.
  
  
• The Postman David Brin.
  
  
• Mockingbird Walter Tevis. Great read. Think Idiocracy, with a serious take. Humanity's totally run by robots, everyone's forgotten how to read and think for themselves, and the world population's dropped to almost nothing.
  
  
• We Yevgeny Zamyatin. The inspiration for George Orwell's 1984. Not the best read IMO, but some people claim it's better than 1984. It's possible I read a poor translation.
  
  
• Island Aldous Huxley. It's a utopian island surrounded by a dystopian world. Might not fit in this list, but it's a good read if you like Huxley. I think it was his last novel.
  
  
• 1984 George Orwell. One of my favorite novels. I have a bumper sticker with the quote "War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery", which is a slogan from the book. (Also, a sticker on my mirror with "Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me"). The link points to Animal Farm and 1984.
  
  
• Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury. Another must read. Very well written, thought-provoking novel. Is it still required reading in schools?
  
  
• Earth Abides George Stewart.
  
  
• Alas, Babylon Pat Frank. Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle. I'm grouping these two together because they're very similar, both in setting and politics. I didn't really enjoy either. The politics were not at all subtle, and the characters fit too neatly into stereotypes, and too obviously the writer's hero fantasy. Still, they're pretty popular, so try them out and feel free to disagree with me.
  
  
• Brave New World Aldous Huxley. Really just a utopia that's rough around the edges, if I'm remembering it correctly (also called an anti-utopia, thank you wikipedia). Another must read.
  
  
• A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter Miller.
  
  
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub Stanislaw Lem. Another favorite. I once created a text adventure based on this book. It was about as frustrating as that Hitchhiker's Guide game.
  
  
• The Road Cormac McCarthy.
  
  
• Philip K. Dick It's hard to keep track of PKD's novels, but some of them are dystopian, all of them worth reading. Favorites: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (also known as/inspired Blade Runner), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, The Man in the High Castle.
  
  
• The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood.
  
  
• Y: The Last Man A graphical novel/comic collection. Decent art, great story.
  
  Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
  
  Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
  Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.

Read "A Canticle for Leibowitz." Here's a brief summary from a review on Amazon:

>Walter Miller's only major novel is not simply a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel but also a multi-layered meditation on the conflict between knowledge and morality. Six hundred years after a nuclear holocaust, an abbey of Catholic monks survives during a new Dark Ages and preserves the little that remains of the world's scientific knowledge. The monks also seek evidence concerning the existence of Leibowitz, their alleged founder (who, the reader soon realizes, is a Jewish scientist who appears to have been part of the nuclear industrial complex of the 1960s). The second part fast-forwards another six hundred years, to the onset of a new Renaissance; a final section again skips yet another six hundred years, to the dawn of a second Space Age--complete, once again, with nuclear weapons.

The monks worship a scrap of paper they found that survived the apocalypse, it's actually a shopping list. This book is amazing because it makes you think about the origins of human society, where it's going, and human nature as it exists today. Positively exquisite.

I am interested in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and any apocalyptic books you may have.

Here are the apocalyptic books that I have remember having on my shelf.
[The Eleventh Plague](http://www.amazon.com/The-Eleventh-Plague-Jeff-Hirsch/dp/0545290155
/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345558472&sr=8-1&keywords=eleventh+plague)

The Compound

Children of Men

A Canticle for Leibowitz

The Road

Hands down, The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. It's actually a series of four books (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch) following Severian the Torturer after he is banished from his guild for showing mercy to one of their "clients."

It's just...beautiful and complex and you'll discover something new and fascinating each time you read it. The tetralogy has been ranked on par with the works of Tolkein and has been recognized all the major sci-fi awards, and gained wider literary recognition as well. See the editorial reviews section on the linked Amazon pages:

>"Outstanding...A major work of twentieth-century American literature." --The New York Times Book Review

>"Wonderfully vivid and inventive...the most extraordinary hero in the history of the heroic epic." --Washington Post Book World

>"Brilliant...terrific...a fantasy so epic it beggars the mind. An extraordinary work of art!" --Philadelphia Inquirer

>About the Author: Gene Wolfe has been called "the finest writer the science fiction world has yet produced" by The Washington Post. A former engineer, he has written numerous books and won a variety of awards for his SF writing.

Anyway...yeah, I kind of like these books.

EDIT: A Canticle For Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is great, too. It's kind of post post apocalyptic, and it examines the self destructive nature of humanity.

A Canticle for Lebowitz is another great (albeit not perfect) book that doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves.


Edit: ReverendSlack mentioned this one first, but I didn't see it.

If we're doing fiction, I nominate A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter Miller. It was required reading at Jesuit prep school and really challenged me on faith, God, and the meaning of life. And it's great sci-fi.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is my favorite. Swan Song is good. I'm reading The Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer. It's pretty good but it's more like a young adult/teen series. I am Legend was great. So much better than the movies. Alas Babylon and On the Beach are Post nuke novels that gave me nightmares. If you need more check out this List

Not answering your question at all, but check out "A Canticle for Leibowitz". Somewhat related to this idea, one of the best books I've read in a long time.

http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994

http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248001865&sr=8-1#reader

With a first page that reads as badly as Canticle does, you would regret it almost instantly.

OP: most redditors have frighteningly bad taste in books (and music, and often art). Not all, but anything with more than half a dozen upvotes will be something to avoid.