 |
| Walter M. Miller Jr. |
Walter M.
Miller Jr. was an American author of science fiction, known for a single book that
has become a classic: A Canticle for
Leibowitz, possibly one of the best science fiction novels of
all time, at least among those in the apocalyptic sub-genre, which describes
what might happen after a total nuclear war.
The novel
is divided into three parts: In the first, Fiat Homo, the world is just
beginning to recover from the disaster. As in the centuries following the fall
of the Western Roman Empire, the Catholic Church takes the responsibility for
saving what little remains of classical culture (ours) through the monks of an
order founded by one man, Leibowitz, who before the nuclear conflagration was an
electrical engineer. In the second part, Fiat Lux, several centuries have
gone by, a new civilization has emerged and the world is entering a new Renaissance.
In the third, Fiat Voluntas Tua, this civilization has reached its peak,
materialism comes back, and history threatens to repeat itself. But this time
Miller leaves a possible escape open: the colonization of the galaxy.
