TIL there’s a 1959 book called A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jr, about a post-apocalyptic abbey in the southwest US desert, the same general area where FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS takes place, where monks preserve scientific knowledge after a devastating nuclear war.
The abbey in Canticle is located on an old road that goes “from the Great Salt Lake to Old El Paso…” Having just met Marcella during the Point Lookout DLC in FALLOUT 3, I’m wondering if this inspired the “Abbey of the Road” that she talks about in the game? It sounds a bit like the Followers of the Apocalypse and the Brotherhood of Steel factions in the Fallout franchise, as well.
One of the monks in Canticle meets a vagrant Wanderer (yes, that’s the character’s name) who leads him to the entrance to an ancient fallout shelter containing relics of the old world. In the end, the monk ends up being eaten by mutants.
The book then jumps ahead several centuries to another nuclear war, this time between the “Atlantic Confederacy” and the “Asian Coalition.” The monks execute an emergency plan to preserve knowledge by leaving on a starship to extrasolar colonies.
According to one of the developers Chris Taylor, Canticle, Road Warrior (1981) and City of Lost Children (1995) were major influences when creating the original 1997 FALLOUT game.
UPDATE 2024: In one of his YouTube videos, Tim Cain also mentions Canticle as an influence in the development of FALLOUT, along with A Boy and His Dog (1975), I Am Legend (the 1954 novel), Mad Max (1979), Forbidden Planet (1956), Doctor Strangelove (1964), The Day After (1983), La Jetée (1962, later adapted into the film 12 Monkeys) and many more books, movies and games. Check out his channel if you want to know more about the development of FALLOUT.
~ J.L. Hilton
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