I finally got around to reading A Canticle for Leibowitz after seeing it mentioned in various places over and over as the seminal dystopian future novel. It's a bit SF and a bit fantasy, I suppose. I was, on balance, surprised with how kindly Walter Miller treated religion in his book; specifically Catholicism.
The novel as a whole, however, I found slightly disappointing. The imputation of a cyclical nature of humanity, that we are doomed to rise to technological heights and then bring ourselves down into the dust again through their misuse before rising and beginning the cycle anew I found to be implausible. The fragility and tenuousness of civilization seems to me to indicate that, once lost, it would not be recovered. Indeed, I would suspect that the catastrophe, should one come, would herald the end of the world as we know it.
As to the technical aspects of the writing and the world Miller concocted, he deserves whatever encomiums are sent his way. The world is plausible within the confines of the world he has conceived, the characters are varied and different and he does not become too attached to them. No plot shield protects them, though the results are not always what one would expect even knowing that going in. Well worth the read, and suggested for anyone who enjoys a good story despite my reservations. It may well be that I was unduly influenced by the praise I had read and had set my expectations impossibly high.
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