A Canticle for Leibowitz

By: Walter M. Miller Jr.

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1961

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of 20th-century literature - a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish, ruined world, slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infantile 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 there, 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.

Seriously funny, stunning, tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.

©1959 Walter M. Miller, Jr. (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Chillingly effective.” (Time)

Surprised by its profundity over dramatizations.

Most dramatizations only include the first parts of the novel. The whole book is greater.

Brilliant

Let yourself travel through time and put things, people, culture into perspective
Enjoy the ride

Tom Weiner as always, amazing

Incredible book.
Incredible narrator.

Nothing else to say, I have read it once and listened twice. Weiner is one of the greats along side Victor Bevine, George Guidall and other favorites of mine like William Dufris and Grover Gardner

beautiful.

A beautiful testament to the power of Catholic tradition to marry human reason to transcendent meaning.

Hauntingly beautiful

I would recommend brushing up on your church Latin. This is a rare book that presides in the realm of stories that challenge concepts of Christianity and religion through brilliant sci-fi concepts without revealing the author's opinion. (well not directly anyways)

Excellent Narration of a Timeless SciFi Classic

Any additional comments?

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it - the tragic essence of one of Science Fiction's greatest stories. The audio book adds a lot of nice nuances to an already excellent tale of tragic, future history. A great way to enjoy a must-read novel.

A Classic Cautionary Tale

I read this in high school. I enjoyed it then...at least more than other works I was forced to read. Something about it always stuck with me. Now, after listening to it on Audible (29 years later), I understand why. The themes, ideas, and truths it conveys are timeless and well done. Though originally published in 1959, this book holds up incredibly well almost 60 years later.
Highly recommended.

thought provoking idea

needed more than 1 book to do this concept justice. stark, entertaining ideas and characters, well performed, but lacked relatedness and real character development.

Good story. Great narration.

I read this book 25 years ago when in high school. I was floored by it then. Revisiting it in my middle age and I see it somewhat differently now. It is a good book, with themes that transcend the genre. But I forgot how dark the world described by Walter Miller is. Still, it’s a classic and should be on the list of anyone interested in great science fiction or seminal American works.

Breathless and brilliant

What did you love best about A Canticle for Leibowitz?

To categorize this book as "science fiction" is too narrow. It is a brilliant philosophical novel that examines the leitmotif of nihilism underlying all human constructs and continues to resonate today. Like the monks of the historical "dark ages" the religious brothers in the Albertian Order of Leibowitz preserve the remnants of past science knowledge (the memorabilia) for the time when humanity rises from the ashes of its own destruction, again and again. As the small cadre of monks leaves Earth for the last time, one wonders whether the memorabilia they carry with them is a treasure to be preserved or the seeds of their own future destruction.

What did you like best about this story?

Tom Weiner's command of tone and language - the Latin!

Which character – as performed by Tom Weiner – was your favorite?

Abbott Zerchi

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Two perspectives on eons - the vultures who believe the world was created for them and the centuries that hold dominance over everything. What an original take! Also the last chapter when Rachel quickens.

Any additional comments?

I'm late in discovering this piece. So glad that I did!