From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)

Walter M. Miller Jr.,

Mary Doria Russell (Introduction)

Start date: June 15, 2014

Finish date: July 1, 2014

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Discussion leader: Gertie

Why we're reading this: Down the long centuries after the Flame Deluge scoured the earth clean, the monks of the Order of St. Lei…more
[close] Down the long centuries after the Flame Deluge scoured the earth clean, the monks of the Order of St. Leibowitz the Engineer kept alive the ancient knowledge. In their monastery in the Utah desert, the preserved the precious relics of their founder: the blessed blueprint, the sacred shopping list and the holy shrine of Fallout Shelter.

Watched over by an immortal wanderer, they witnessed humanity's rebirth from ashes, and saw reenacted the eternal drama of the struggle between light and darkness, life and death

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 345 topics — 20,918 comments total

AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

* Nominate books for the next discussions! (fall)
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 27 posts · 74 views

last updated Sep 30, 2025 09:37AM

* What is a good book for AW discussion? (Nominations pool)
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 63 posts · 211 views

last updated Jul 22, 2025 09:33AM

showing 10 of 39 topics view all »

Other topics mentioning this book

A Canticle for Leibowitz
By Dan · 28 posts · 304 views

last updated Jun 30, 2014 06:34AM

Ground Zero or .....?
By Dan · 21 posts · 148 views

last updated Sep 02, 2011 12:55PM

Suggested reading
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 191 posts · 894 views

last updated Jan 31, 2011 07:22PM

This topic has been closed to new comments.

(CLOSED) What are you reading right now? (book titles should be clickable TEXT links!)
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 2073 posts · 1584 views

last updated Jan 10, 2014 09:13AM

Suggestions
By Ashley · 83 posts · 406 views

last updated May 29, 2012 03:09AM

Wild, dark times are rumbling towards us -- will you help me?
By Paul · 109 posts · 154 views

last updated Aug 15, 2011 12:53PM

Who are you? (INTRODUCE YOURSELF)
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 1352 posts · 1705 views

last updated Jan 30, 2014 04:02PM

suggestions for suited for adult-mature reader
By Marie · 79 posts · 414 views

last updated Sep 13, 2012 05:29PM

best apopaclyptic or post apopaclyptic books
By Collene · 11 posts · 234 views

last updated Feb 15, 2012 09:41AM

When (or with what book) did you realize you liked the PA genre?
By Gertie , Please go nominate books for book club! · 272 posts · 515 views

last updated Oct 27, 2014 02:33PM

What Members Thought

Sep 28, 2010 Stephanie rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010, fiction, dystopian-post-apocalyptic

Considered a classic for post-apocalyptic fiction, "A Canticle for Leibowitz" is a study in the timelessness of human nature and the folly of expecting that nature to change.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" is a set of three vignettes, told at different periods after the Earth is destroyed in a post-WWII era apocalypse. Issac Leibowitz, an electrical engineer of the then-modern era, survives a nuclear holocaust and then makes it his duty to preserve as much scientific and cultural history as he can. T ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2014 Red rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi, dystopia-apocalypse

While the most likely mechanism for mankind's self-annihilation may have changed since 1959, this novel remains relevant.

The author tackles big ideas and moral complexities over a huge span of time and provides a chilling depiction of the bleak cycle of unbridled hubris leading to destruction. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review