By the late 1950's science fiction was leaving monsters and time travel and aliens: space had been explored and colonized; nothing else "exciting" in outer space remained--black holes and other novelties not withstanding. Science Fiction moved toward the para-psychological and the eerie. But the year 1959 marked the publication of a novel seemingly much apart from the productions normally recognized as science fiction.

Decades after its publication, A Canticle for Leibowitz still appears to state the misunderstanding that science fiction predicts the future. As we are besieged with information and many writers caution that information is not the same as intelligence or knoweldge or even wisdom, A Canticle for Leibowitz does hint at prediction. Yet the thrust of Walter Miller's classic is to depict the problems of being human, pointing out areas of concern, and dramatizing puzzles we should all be aware of and strive to answer.

In the stamp of Arthur C. Clarke, Miller seems not to make judgment as describe appearance. Miller does not condemn his civilization; he just offers a possible, logical outcome. Understanding the development of western civilization helps to understand this novel. This historical sense does not extend to a recitation of dates, kings, or battles; even individuals are not important. The reader must be aware of the general sequence of events important to western civilization from the time of the dark ages, through the renaissance and the western expansion, and recognize the influence of those earlier times on our own culture. One might be amazed that Miller predicted (if that is the right word) the general use of the computer and the information revolution in today's society.

Perhaps Miller is more concerned with human nature than cycling history. It should soon be aware to a reader that A Canticle for Leibowitz is a repoduction of history and a represenation of cyclic history, but that is not the full import of what he is writing. Miller is able to weave the heritages of western civilization--religous, military, educational--into a novel re-creation of what may be happening.