Best Selling Books by Walter M. Miller Jr

John Smith XVI, new President of the Western Federation of Autonomous States, had made a number of campaign promises that nobody really expected him to fulfill, for after all, the campaign and the election were only ceremonies, and the President -- who had no real name of his own -- had been trained for the executive post since birth.

The manner in which a man has lived is often the key to the way he will die. Take old man Donegal, for example. Most of his adult life was spent in digging a hole through space to learn what was on the other side. He had to be fated, didn''t he, to go out the same way?

Após ter sido quase aniquilada por um cataclismo nuclear, a humanidade mergulha em desolação e obscurantismo. Os anos de loucura e violência que se seguiram ao Dilúvio de Fogo arrasaram o conhecimento acumulado por milênios. A ciência, causadora de todos os males, só encontrará abrigo na Ordem Albertina de São Leibowitz, cujos monges se dedicam a recolher e preservar os vestígios de uma cultura agora esquecida. Cobrindo mil e oitocentos anos de história futura, Um cântico para Leibowitz narra a obstinada epopeia de uma ordem religiosa para salvar o conhecimento humano. Marco da literatura distópica e pós-apocalíptica, vencedor do Prêmio Hugo de 1961, este clássico atemporal é considerado uma das obras de ficção científica mais importantes de seu tempo.

Lieutenant Laskell surfaced his one-man submarine fifty miles off the Florida coast where he had been patrolling in search of enemy subs. Darkness had fallen. He tuned his short wave set to the Miami station just in time to hear the eight o''clock news. The grim announcement that he had expected was quick to come: "In accordance with the provisions of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, Congress today approved the Manlin Bill, declaring a state of total emergency for the nation. President Williston signed it immediately and tendered his resignation to the Congress and the people. The executive, legislative, and judiciary are now in the hands of the Department of Defense. Secretary Garson has issued two decrees, one reminding all citizens that they are no longer free to shirk their duties to the nation, the other calling upon the leaders of the Eurasian Soviet to cease air attacks on the American continent or suffer the consequences. "In Secretary Garson''s ultimatum to the enemy, he stated: ''Heretofore we have refrained from employing certain weapons of warfare in the vain hope that you would recognize the futility of further aggression and desist from it. You have not done so. You have persisted in your blood-thirsty folly, despite this nation''s efforts to reach an agreement for armistice. Therefore I am forced to command you, in the Name of Almighty God, to surrender immediately or be destroyed. . . ."

Dans le désert de l’Utah, parmi les vestiges d’une civilisation disparue, frère Francis de l’ordre albertien de Leibowitz a fait une miraculeuse découverte : d’inestimables reliques du martyr Isaac Leibowitz lui-même, qui jadis avait organisé la sauvegarde des dernières miettes du savoir balayé par le Grand Déluge de Flammes. C’est une lueur d’espoir en cet âge de ténèbres et d''ignorance, le signe tant attendu d’une nouvelle Renaissance. Mais l’humanité a-t-elle tiré les leçons d’un cataclysme qui l’a laissée exsangue, défigurée par le feu nucléaire? Saura-t-elle enfin se préserver des apprentis sorciers? Car l’Histoire, bientôt, menace de se répéter... Entre Le nom de la rose d’Umberto Eco et Docteur Folamour de Stanley Kubrick, une chronique rageuse et sarcastique de la folie humaine.

Des siècles après le Grand Déluge de Flammes, quelques communautés émergent de la barbarie. Parmi elles, un ordre religieux fondé par le savant Leibowitz pour sauvegarder les livres et le savoir qui subsistent. Le frère Dent-Noire Saint-Georges, un moine d''origine nomade appartenant à l''ordre albertien de Leibowitz, reprend le flambeau, tant bien que mal. En effet, il doute de plus en plus de sa foi et souhaiterait être libéré de ses vœux. Mais les temps qui viennent risquent d''avoir raison de ses désirs : un conflit menace de nouveau, l''élection d''un nouveau pape est de plus en plus difficile et le monde pourrait bien retomber dans ses pires travers.