Try free for 30 days

1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title).
Stream or download thousands of included titles.
Access to exclusive deals and discounts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
A Canticle for Leibowitz cover art

A Canticle for Leibowitz

By: Walter M. Miller Jr.
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
Try for $0.00

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $27.99

Buy Now for $27.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

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)

What listeners say about A Canticle for Leibowitz

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    48
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    39
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Follow The Marked Path..

Based on a commonly known "yarn" this story outlines a possible scenario for ongoing religious belief based on the events of an apocalyptic world event and post apocalyptic interpretations of events..
worth the read..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected

Not what I expected. Listen to chapter 7, but the story did not do it for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic sci-fi

Loved it, gritty and pithy.
Enjoyed the three parts and message throughout.
Captured a desolate future that’s very now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Better than expected

I am working my way through the top sifi books and this one came up. I was doubtful but was glad I took the time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Something Special

I was driven to purchase this book by Tim Cain, the creator of Fallout, who said it was one of the inspirations for his work. Now having listened to it, I am surprised by how much I came to truly admire and appreciate the book. It’s a story of humanity, and all its strengths and failings. To see it through the lens of it’s strange world was fascinating and moving. Its a classic and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Where are the women?

I wonder how all those male characters came about? Were they hatched? How odd that for most of this book there was not one woman (or if there was, her presence was so minuscule as to be practically unnoticeable I.e. Emily.) In the last canticle, an “annoying” (to the powers that be) female journalist, an ugly woman with two heads and a woman and her daughter who have catastrophic injuries from a nuclear bomb (against whom Catholic dogma on euthanasia could be argued)? Is that the best he could come up with?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

so good!

Awesome story. I couldn't put it down but in the second part it skipped a fair bit.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

What the hell was going on with this story

I was about as close as I have ever been to requesting a refund on a purchase. Despite a couple of promising moments this was a complete train wreck in my opinion. Each time a section seemed to gain some momentum it just stopped dead. Sci Fi often has allegorical elements and I can go along with that but I just missed the point of this story. It flailed around a lot but just never seemed to land a punch.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Myk
  • 02-09-2018

Showing its age.

This book could really use a narration team to change voices when the story leaps to a new time period.

The choice of a monastery as the primary setting masks the almost complete lack of female characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Past, Present and Future Apocalypse

What did you like most about A Canticle for Leibowitz?

it is almost 60 years old but its message is never so timely, crucial and urgent.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Canticle for Leibowitz?

The final chapter and pages were spellbinding and almost peotic

What about Tom Weiner’s performance did you like?

A very versatile voice

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

Brother Francis's journey

Any additional comments?

A great and grand & deeply disturbing sci fi saga of apocalyptic past, present and future...a bleak, nihilistic dystopian story, often mixed with philosophy, spirituality, flashes of joy and happiness, dark humour and sardonic wisdom....first published in 1959-1960, the technology is dated but the message and theme are as crucial and urgent as ever. The somewhat long winded Latinisms and Catholicisms, were a little tiring, even for an ex Catholic Latin scholar like me, and parts of the plot superfluous or overly symbolic. Overall, however, a magnificent story...and a damningly powerful polemic against the absolute and almost endless myopic stupidity and cruelty of mankind.....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.