A Canticle for Leibowitz

A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel (1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel), assembling three novellas, by American writer Walter M. Miller Jr. Set in a Catholic monastery in the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the book spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz preserve the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the world is again ready for it.

A Canticle for Leibowitz in Earthgrip
A Canticle for Leibowitz was an important teaching tool in Professor Jennifer Logan's class. Three Foitani students were especially intrigued by the novel's theme, as their own culture had self-destructed nearly 30,000 years earlier in the Suicide Wars, which made a nuclear war on a single planet look like child's play.

Foitani student Aissur Aissur Rus was confused by the titles of the novel's subsections. His translation computer rendered the middle section "Fiat Lux" as something to do with an ancient automobile and a brand of soap. Logan explained the novel's use of Latin, which was also enlightening to the human students. Logan found it odd that the humans had trouble with it, as Latin was still important in liturgy, as well as being a root language of Spanglish.

A Canticle for Leibowitz in The Valley-Westside War
In one alternate, life imitated A Canticle for Leibowitz in 1967, when the Russian-American War devastated civilization in a similar manner. The Mendoza family, agents of Crosstime Traffic, thought grimly of this oddity on occasion, while the locals probably weren't interested in learning about it.