My Rating: 
Author: Walter M. Miller
Narrator: Tom Weiner
Length: 10 hrs 59 mins
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
My Review:
A Canticle For Leibowitz is one of those books that I could never make it through. Each time that I tried to read the book I would immediately get hooked and engrossed until I was about a third of the way into the book. As soon as the first part of the book titled “Fiat Homo” (Let There Be Man) ended and “Fiat Lux” (Let There Be Light) began I would always hit the wall.
The problem that I kept having here was that the book suddenly jumps 600 years into the future. So there is a completely new cast of characters to learn. As well as a new landscape and political atmosphere. All of this together overwhelmed me and spoiled my reading. I would always get frustrated and put it down with the intention of finishing it later. Of course that never actually happened.
Flash forward a few years and I unexpectedly found the audiobook version of A Canticle for Leibowitz sitting on my doorstep. I was thrilled! I had an opportunity to redeem myself!
I was very encouraged to notice that this book is narrated by Tom Weiner. I had recently become an instant fan after hearing Weiner’s narration of Farnham’s Freehold.
Listening to the first part of A Canticle For Leibowitz was very encouraging. Tom Weiner’s performance was excellent. When the end of “Fiat Homo” arrived and “Fiat Homo” began, Weiner’s narration kept me anchored to the book.
Overall: A Canticle For Leibowitz turned out to be a huge surprise to me. The second and third parts of the book that I had never managed to read on my own were incredible. If I had only known what I was missing! “Fiat Homo” merely lays the ground work for the thought provoking action of “Fiat Lux” and “Fiat Voluntas Tua”. A Canticle For Leibowitz manages to link each section together in such a way that the listener becomes excited when minutia from the previous section are discovered sprinkled throughout the rest of the work.
It really makes you think about what our descendants will value thousands of years in the future. Will they be puzzling over obscure blueprints full of doohickii, squiggles, quids, laminulae, and thingumbobs?
A Canticle For Leibowitz is a great listen that results in long lasting contemplation!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher.
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Canticles is a wonderful book. Yet, I have never been able to complete the Sequel Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. I’ve tried a few times, and have gotten like 100 pages in, then just can’t focus on it.
Tom Weiner is becoming the apocalyptic go-to guy for Blackstone. I am very glad that he will be narrating Angels of Vengeance by John Birmingham. He did the first of the “After America” trilogy, but not the second.