THREAD: on reading A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ for the first time. This is a classic dystopian future novel from 1959 - with a Catholic twist. Best of you don't know too much going in... but to give you an idea (without spoilers)....

...it is basically three losely-connected stories through the time around a community of monks in the South-West of the US after an atomic war... guarding knowledge and praying...

... this is a novel for you if you like philosophically charged stories in an epic dystopian setting - with the dryness of the desert.. love of Latin and of monks/monastery helps... it's VERY Catholic but visionary and as touching as it is stark...

..it asks the central questions about Man and Society through a dystopian lens. There are humble lives, grim and at the same time incredibly consoling deaths... and a final chapter that I would like to see in the 70mm Christopher Nolan version......

..you won't like it if you enjoy your Sci-fi action-filled.. there's lots of talking going on, boyo... and Atomic War is ever present (as befits a novel from 1959). If you are an atheist or an agnostic all the religious stuff might be a tad too much...

...finally, I have discovered one of my favourite characters in literature in Brother Francis.... Thanks for the interest, back to doing ambassador stuff now...

...oh and a HUGE thank you to all my followers who have written in to encourage me that I should read this! I owe you one!