Turn The Page: A Canticle For Leibowitz Walter M Miller Jr.

I seem to remember this being recommended to me with a line like \’If you say you like Science Fiction then you need to read this.\’ It is different — it has a very different flavour to a lot of the science fiction that I had read up to that point except for maybe The Glass Bead Game. It is more of an exploration of culture through science fiction than anything you usually think of when that genre label is attached to something. It reads really easily and contains a gravitas that it might not possess if not delivered in a semi-religious tone. The foundations upon which this future are built are stained with the psychic colours of a post-war veteran. As with a lot of great science fiction it looks as much, if not more, at the time in which it is written than it does at the future. It has never been out of print and it is easy to see why — there is no fat on this book; it is a lean and direct book that evokes so much in a way that seems lost to a degree to a generation raised on Star Wars. If Star Wars is a MacDonald\’s Happy Meal this is a gourmet steak.

—————-
Now playing: PJ Harvey – The Desperate Kingdom Of Love
via FoxyTunes