The Postman

This is a great read. A classic about post apocalyptic America after political turmoil and disease have decimated the population and society is fractured into small communities trying to survive. The lie of one man raises the hopes of scattered groups that a resurrected United States may still exist.

To employ that old cliché, the book is better than the movie. I'm not a great fan of science fiction, but the evident intelligence of the author leaches through the writing of the story to make absorbing reading, I felt. A more intimate personal story than the film was able to achieve.

Having seen (and liked) the movie, I was really pleased with the book. I have read and enjoyed many of the books from David Brin. He is a very talented writer and his character development is terrific. I guess I was amazed at the extent of the detail and intricate plot development offered in this work. In retrospect, It made the movie seem very one-dimensional...

For anyone who has seen the film, "The Postman," read the book. It's a great read even if you haven't seen the movie, but to realize how much someone can screw up a book in making a movie out of it, this is a classic example. The Postman (movie) has practically zilch in common with the book - continuity, location, characters, storyline. Wow. Set largely in western Oregon, Brin's novel starts slow but builds to a great crescendo at the very end. Wish Costner had had more faith in following Brin's storyline. It would have made a great movie.

How can anyone say the movie was better? Wow. This book is so engrossing as the story moves along, it's impossible to put down. Someone needs to remake this book as a movie: a movie that follows the book and not someone else's intentions.

The novel concerns a wanderer some years after an apocalyptic series of disasters results in the disintegration of the United States. He comes across a dead postman and his letters, and he takes the uniform and letters. People afterwards mistake him for a real postman, and he uses the misunderstanding to his advantage. He eventually establishes postal routes between several towns and sparks hope in the people for the future.

That premise is a somewhat interesting one, and it drives the first third of the book. After that, though, the book is not interesting. The protagonist finds a series of villages who owe fealty to a computer named Cyclops. He soon discovers that the computer does not function and that it is a lie just as his own postman hoax is.

Even worse is the feminist motif of the last third of the book. The protagonist meets a headstrong woman who thinks the country's women are to blame for the apocalypse because they could have reined in their men. When the Cyclops villages are threatened by hostile forces, this woman organizes a band of women to infiltrate the invaders as seductresses who will, on an appointed day, kill as many of them as possible.

The book ends musing about the flaws of man and the virtues of woman. No mention is made of the subtlety that men have the capacity for brutality only because women favor strong and aggressive men.

All in all, the book seems to lose the post-apocalyptic feel, it loses the interesting postman ruse, and finds itself in some totally lame feminist screed. The worst part of the book is the climax in which two augmented soldiers fight one another to the death in hand-to-hand combat.

Another annoying aspect of the book is the protagonist's constant soul-searching. It occupies the first pages and does not relent.

I actually read this book many years ago, not long after the movie with Kevin Costner came out. There were some important elements left out of the movie that I think should have been included, parts that make the book well worth reading. As a dystopian novel it has a lot of heart.

As a self-professed post-apocalyptic fiction aficionado, I was very disappointed by this book. It cannot compare to some of the classic apocalyptic novels. Poorly written, very painful to read. The characters are wooden, the plot is simple, the dialogue is artificial, and there is nothing about this book that sets it apart from any other post-apocalyptic novel that you could find in the mass-market stack in the Walmart sci-fi section.

Very disappointing. Boring. Do not recommend.

Such a disappointment, utter crap. A clever concept and interesting setting ruined by heavy-handed socio-philoso-politics that was sophomoric at best in its own day and which has not aged well. I got this because the movie seemed like the kind of move-from-a-book where the movie wasn't really that good but had some interesting ideas in it where you figure the book was probably better than the movie. Nope.

I like post-apocalyptic fiction, so the odds that I would enjoy this were already high. But despite the fact that some critics felt that this was not one of David Brin's best efforts, I have come to regard it as one of my all-time favorites in the genre, and have read it more than once.

My first time through was via paperback not too long after it was published in the 1990s. It is much more plausible than some others in the genre; no zombies running around, no strange paranormal occurrences, no really unlikely vestiges of technology surviving the apocalyptic event itself (which the book doesn't much dwell on). In fact, the setting is really the only thing sci-fi about the story. It is really a tale of a survivor that is reasonably imaginative, reluctantly pushed by circumstance into a leadership role that he mostly tries to avoid. In some ways, the Postman could almost be called an anti-hero.

The book is set in Oregon, which is where I lived at the time, so it was very easy for me to visualize the settings and get into the story. I absolutely loved it. Interestingly, one thought I had just after finishing it that first time was that it would make a great film. Someone else obviously thought so too, because just a few years later the Kevin Costner film version arrived, which is much better known. The movie differs significantly from the book, especially as you get nearer to the end. However, the film also became one of my favorites, and I ended up buying it eventually.

I now have the book in Kindle as well, and read it again recently. It was just as good this time around. Highly recommended!

In a post-nuclear apocalypse America, a lone man discovers he can inspire hope and unity among his fellow survivors by adopting the guise of a pre-war postman. What emerges from this basic premise is David Brin’s well thought out meditation on the benefits and dangers of advancing technology and a heartfelt love letter to America and American law and values. The novel reimagines the early American frontier in the near future, complete with direct references to the original settlers of Oregon and historical battles against “American Indians.” Though the comparison between Native Americans and Brin’s villainous survivalists is problematic on many levels, Brin does well to capture the promise and hope of the American vision while subtly raising the question of how this latest iteration of America will stop history from repeating itself. His suggestion that women must play an important role in curbing the baser instincts of some men is intriguing, though it remains undeveloped in a novel in which the protagonist, his chief ally and the main antagonist are all men and women remain fringe characters. Still, The Postman offers a solid dystopian plot with plenty of action and twists and turns, as well as more than enough fodder for contemplation about American values, technology and civilization.

This was a very enjoyable post-apocalyptic novel about the power of hope.

Gordon Krantz, a loner, is attempting to survive long enough to find someone or some group who has accepted the responsibility for re-establishing civilization. He finds a postman’s uniform and dons it as protection against the cold. He even keeps the mail bag – it’s a sturdy bag and he thinks reading the mail will be entertaining during his lonely travels. When he enters a nearby village, people assume he is a “real postman” and a representative of some re-formed bit of civilization. His charade is bolstered when he is able to deliver a decade-old piece of mail. While he is grateful at being welcomed and revered, Gordon is ravaged with guilt over his deception and soon leaves to “continue delivering the mail,” taking several new pieces of mail with him.

As Gordon continues his search for a pocket of civilization, he maintains his charade for survival reasons. He eventually discovers, despite his guilt over the charade, that the hope he inspires along the way is contagious...

This was a very enjoyable read. Each pocket of people Gordon encounters has formed their micro-society differently – for survival purposes – and the author poses several interesting social questions. The characters are well wrought and memorable and I found myself wishing I knew them as he did. But through it all – and despite the horrors and negativity of a post-apocalyptic world – hope remains a shining beacon.

Give me another couple of years, and I’ll probably crack this one open again.

The Postman more or less steers clear from the set-piece elements of the post-apocalyptic genre, but not completely. Written in the mid-80s, it describes a world that was halted at that moment, giving importance, say, to a mail carrier as a symbol of federal authority. There are excursions into the realm of 80s feminism, brought forward, which hardly a soul would recognize today. The idea of the supercomputer, detached from everything, working in isolation to solve problems in ways that are inscrutable to all but a few technicians, is also not our world. Technology is in everyone’s hand, quite literally, and on the go.

Despite these anachronisms, The Postman is a solid read. Gordon is invested with the positive qualities of the hero without too much of a stretch to unbelievable exploits. He is hemmed in by his world, by the lies of authority he tells, and can’t get beyond them.

In the end, that is the redeeming feature and message of the novel. So much of “authority” is based on duplicity. We invest figures with authority from a sense of need – not necessarily because they have such authority. The postman explores this dynamic, sometimes with a light hand, sometimes not. But in the end, this is the element that saves the novel from rough cliche.

I really love the dystopian genre. Not because of the darkness and chaos that is so prevalent, but because I love to see how humans retain such incredible sparks of humanity in the face of eternal darkness and destruction. The Postman is a perfect example of that and one of the better dystopian books I've read.

Gordon is a trader and scavenger--barely living by his wits until he comes across the remains of a postman in an abandoned vehicle. He takes the postman's clothes and gear, never knowing how such a simple act of survival will change his life and his world. As he wanders into villages and towns, Gordon (as the postman) becomes a symbol to people of what they lost with the destruction of their society through war and disease. Almost accidentally, Gordon starts the US postal service and begins to connect peoples and towns with simple acts of social letters. Of course, there are those who don't want him to succeed and the last half of the book is an adventure worthy of any action movie.

My only wish with the book was that the female guerilla fighters had been given more time and attention to. Or, since I'm wishing anyway, their own book!

The Post man transports the reader to a post apocolptic word where small hamlets are all that’s left of humanity. When one man finds a post officers uniform he essentially starts the post by himself. The story itself is very good with interesting characters and a compelling plot, however the writing style grated on me. Often times the author goes off on a tangent about this or that with flowery interludes that I could do without. Overall its interesting but not great.

The Postman is an insightful and inspiring story of a man in his quest to protect the flickering flame of civilization from the imposing dark ages of a post apocalyptic world. As Gordon Krantz makes his way across the apocalyptic wasteland, barely surviving among the ruins of civilization, he stumbles upon an old United States Postal vehicle that forever changes the direction of his life. What starts out as a lie to simply gain shelter and food becomes an idea that ignites a revolution. This is a story more about ideas that any particular ideology. In fact, David Brin often presents ideology as being part of the reason for civilization's demise. For instance, the term "survivalist" becomes derogatory as some radical elements of the community have embraced the fall of civilization as an opportunity to subdue, pillage and conquer. Don't fret preppers: The Postman was written in 1985, before the more recent, positive culture of self-sufficiency and permaculture which has become more widespread in recent years spreading through good people like Jack Spirko at The Survival Podcast. The power of ideas should not be underestimated. While it is easy to focus on the more negative examples of crooked idealism gone astray such as the case with hitler and the nazis (disrespect intended), Brin proposes that ideas can have an equally positive effect as he presents the United States as a successful society structured upon ideas that actually lead to a decrease in human suffering. Civilization is presented as an idea or a collection of ideas rather than a physical manifestation. The Postman is a substantial work of fiction that will provide you with considerable grist for the mill of contemplation, if you are so inclined. Alternatively, if you are simply seeking a great story with likeable characters, you will not be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this novel. Brin did a great job giving some life to the main character Gordon Krantz. Gordon continued to fight his hardest to escape the lies he built only to fall deeper into them. With each lie however, hope is given to the surrounding towns and each look to Gordon as their savior. There are not huge levels of Sci-fi, but this is still a great post apocalyptic story.

Now moving on to the movie adaptation. I thoroughly enjoyed the book just as much as I enjoyed the movie however, for two completely different reasons. Kevin Costner pretty much read the novel while he was doing work around the house, because he must have taken the script and had at it with the weed whacker, then stomped on it with his golf shoe, and topped it off by using a flamethrower. Whatever pieces were left over he made the movie and then mainlined some coke, then decided to make his own movie/ending. However, as unlike as the novel and the movie are I did really like Kevin Costner's movie, but I enjoy it as if it were a completely different concept involving a postman.

Brin's story immerses you in a world where ordinary folks have to deal with the loss of civilization and marauding gangs (or mini-"nations") of merciless macho guerrillas. Although the the hero carries a thread of decency throughout the book, the story keeps you guessing as to whether or not that decency will amount to anything in the end. The premise leads to an interesting commentary about the power of ideas and institutions on society. The ending was a bit disappointing due the somewhat over-convenient addition of scientifically-enhanced humans--although their presence also sends a cautionary message about the unwise use of technology.

This is a good modern classic Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi story. If you were an adult (or teenager) in the 1980s, you understand the cold war paranoia of the threat of limited nuclear warfare, the spot light in the media of the rise of survivalists & militia groups, the conspiracy theories of various advanced technology "secret" military projects and the beginning of personal electronics. Well welcome to the world of David Brin who wrote this book in the 1980's. These themes are seen throughout the story.

This is a well written, fast paced story in which you lose track of time as you read it. In the post-apocalyptical US, one man's ideas of survival is to "act" as a US Mail carrier and create a myth that the US government has reestablished itself. He uses this technique to obtain his means of survival. There are many plot turns, some of which you anticipate and some that are mildly surprising. To some, this may be somewhat dated due to the 1980s cultural influences in the story line, but overall a very good read.

It is a well worth the time to read it and I recommend it if you have never read post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi - this makes a good first choice for this genre.

Lies within lies build into a very interesting and fun book. There does seem to be a odd statement being made about gender roles here - that women are/should be the shepherds of men's evolution (and assumes all children they had were consensual). It is something that doesn't sit quite right with me in 2017 and is in itself a statement that women don't make history themselves, only guide men's. It says men are the best and worst of humanity, and women are even-keel - reaching neither peak or valley. Other than these dated ideas, I found it quite enjoyable.

I listened to the audio book and it completely pulled me in. Perhaps it was because it is set in a part of Oregon I know and love. Perhaps it was the reader. However, I think what pulled me in the most was the engaging story.

Set in a post apocalyptic Oregon, a drifter spends a night in an old, abandoned/forgotten U.S. Mail jeep to keep warm and avoid a gang intent on beating him up. He steals the long dead postman's uniform for warmth and a few letters to read to pass the time. However, in his travels, he discovers the people are thrilled to have a postman around and he invents a story of being a postal inspector from a recovering government. The problem is his lies get bigger and more complex as he passes village to village, fulfilling the fantasies of the people and passing letters around. As his prestige grows, he finds himself at odds with local warlords and maintaining the facade of his creation.

Brin writes a very tight story, examining the aspects of maintaining a lie and the inner turmoil of a weak-willed nobody who enjoys the perks and prestige his fabrications bring. I enjoyed watching the evolution into the leader he becomes and the change in his morals. Along the way, unbeknownst to him, he becomes the lie, making it a lie no longer.

I really love the dystopian genre. Not because of the darkness and chaos that is so prevalent, but because I love to see how humans retain such incredible sparks of humanity in the face of eternal darkness and destruction. The Postman is a perfect example of that and one of the better dystopian books I've read.

Gordon is a trader and scavenger--barely living by his wits until he comes across the remains of a postman in an abandoned vehicle. He takes the postman's clothes and gear, never knowing how such a simple act of survival will change his life and his world. As he wanders into villages and towns, Gordon (as the postman) becomes a symbol to people of what they lost with the destruction of their society through war and disease. Almost accidentally, Gordon starts the US postal service and begins to connect peoples and towns with simple acts of social letters. Of course, there are those who don't want him to succeed and the last half of the book is an adventure worthy of any action movie.

My only wish with the book was that the female guerilla fighters had been given more time and attention to. Or, since I'm wishing anyway, their own book!

The Post man transports the reader to a post apocolptic word where small hamlets are all that’s left of humanity. When one man finds a post officers uniform he essentially starts the post by himself. The story itself is very good with interesting characters and a compelling plot, however the writing style grated on me. Often times the author goes off on a tangent about this or that with flowery interludes that I could do without. Overall its interesting but not great.

The Postman is an insightful and inspiring story of a man in his quest to protect the flickering flame of civilization from the imposing dark ages of a post apocalyptic world. As Gordon Krantz makes his way across the apocalyptic wasteland, barely surviving among the ruins of civilization, he stumbles upon an old United States Postal vehicle that forever changes the direction of his life. What starts out as a lie to simply gain shelter and food becomes an idea that ignites a revolution. This is a story more about ideas that any particular ideology. In fact, David Brin often presents ideology as being part of the reason for civilization's demise. For instance, the term "survivalist" becomes derogatory as some radical elements of the community have embraced the fall of civilization as an opportunity to subdue, pillage and conquer. Don't fret preppers: The Postman was written in 1985, before the more recent, positive culture of self-sufficiency and permaculture which has become more widespread in recent years spreading through good people like Jack Spirko at The Survival Podcast. The power of ideas should not be underestimated. While it is easy to focus on the more negative examples of crooked idealism gone astray such as the case with hitler and the nazis (disrespect intended), Brin proposes that ideas can have an equally positive effect as he presents the United States as a successful society structured upon ideas that actually lead to a decrease in human suffering. Civilization is presented as an idea or a collection of ideas rather than a physical manifestation. The Postman is a substantial work of fiction that will provide you with considerable grist for the mill of contemplation, if you are so inclined. Alternatively, if you are simply seeking a great story with likeable characters, you will not be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this novel. Brin did a great job giving some life to the main character Gordon Krantz. Gordon continued to fight his hardest to escape the lies he built only to fall deeper into them. With each lie however, hope is given to the surrounding towns and each look to Gordon as their savior. There are not huge levels of Sci-fi, but this is still a great post apocalyptic story.

Now moving on to the movie adaptation. I thoroughly enjoyed the book just as much as I enjoyed the movie however, for two completely different reasons. Kevin Costner pretty much read the novel while he was doing work around the house, because he must have taken the script and had at it with the weed whacker, then stomped on it with his golf shoe, and topped it off by using a flamethrower. Whatever pieces were left over he made the movie and then mainlined some coke, then decided to make his own movie/ending. However, as unlike as the novel and the movie are I did really like Kevin Costner's movie, but I enjoy it as if it were a completely different concept involving a postman.

Brin's story immerses you in a world where ordinary folks have to deal with the loss of civilization and marauding gangs (or mini-"nations") of merciless macho guerrillas. Although the the hero carries a thread of decency throughout the book, the story keeps you guessing as to whether or not that decency will amount to anything in the end. The premise leads to an interesting commentary about the power of ideas and institutions on society. The ending was a bit disappointing due the somewhat over-convenient addition of scientifically-enhanced humans--although their presence also sends a cautionary message about the unwise use of technology.

This is a good modern classic Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi story. If you were an adult (or teenager) in the 1980s, you understand the cold war paranoia of the threat of limited nuclear warfare, the spot light in the media of the rise of survivalists & militia groups, the conspiracy theories of various advanced technology "secret" military projects and the beginning of personal electronics. Well welcome to the world of David Brin who wrote this book in the 1980's. These themes are seen throughout the story.

This is a well written, fast paced story in which you lose track of time as you read it. In the post-apocalyptical US, one man's ideas of survival is to "act" as a US Mail carrier and create a myth that the US government has reestablished itself. He uses this technique to obtain his means of survival. There are many plot turns, some of which you anticipate and some that are mildly surprising. To some, this may be somewhat dated due to the 1980s cultural influences in the story line, but overall a very good read.

It is a well worth the time to read it and I recommend it if you have never read post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi - this makes a good first choice for this genre.

Lies within lies build into a very interesting and fun book. There does seem to be a odd statement being made about gender roles here - that women are/should be the shepherds of men's evolution (and assumes all children they had were consensual). It is something that doesn't sit quite right with me in 2017 and is in itself a statement that women don't make history themselves, only guide men's. It says men are the best and worst of humanity, and women are even-keel - reaching neither peak or valley. Other than these dated ideas, I found it quite enjoyable.

I listened to the audio book and it completely pulled me in. Perhaps it was because it is set in a part of Oregon I know and love. Perhaps it was the reader. However, I think what pulled me in the most was the engaging story.

Set in a post apocalyptic Oregon, a drifter spends a night in an old, abandoned/forgotten U.S. Mail jeep to keep warm and avoid a gang intent on beating him up. He steals the long dead postman's uniform for warmth and a few letters to read to pass the time. However, in his travels, he discovers the people are thrilled to have a postman around and he invents a story of being a postal inspector from a recovering government. The problem is his lies get bigger and more complex as he passes village to village, fulfilling the fantasies of the people and passing letters around. As his prestige grows, he finds himself at odds with local warlords and maintaining the facade of his creation.

Brin writes a very tight story, examining the aspects of maintaining a lie and the inner turmoil of a weak-willed nobody who enjoys the perks and prestige his fabrications bring. I enjoyed watching the evolution into the leader he becomes and the change in his morals. Along the way, unbeknownst to him, he becomes the lie, making it a lie no longer.

In post-apocalyptic Oregon, nearly two decades after the Doomwar, Gordan Krantz, a drifter who trades his skills as an ersatz thespian for room and board in the small hamlets he encounters in his travels, finds a new purpose in life. When Gordan happens upon a long dead mail carrier one day, Gordan takes his coat to help him stay warm on his journey...and nothing is the same again. As he travels from one small enclave to another, the people in these towns respond to the sign of the postal service in an unexpected way. The people in these towns are soon writing letters to loved ones that haven't heard from in nearly twenty years. Gordan gives no promises, but does his best to deliver these letters with the aplomb of a genuine mail carrier. But that's the catch, the people of these towns don't realize that Gordan is not an actual mail carrier. And soon, Gordan is the "representative" of the Restored United States...a fiction Gordan creates to give the people some hope. Hope that they are not alone in their small part of what was once a great country. Hope that there is someone else out there...that they are part of something greater than themselves and their small, introverted enclaves.

Growing up most of us are taught to "never tell a lie". But David Brin's thoughtful examination of how a lie can turn into myth...a myth of a nation reborn...can deliver hope to people where there was none before. And the very act of spreading this myth can make it true, a nation can be reborn if enough people believe it can be. Are there really lies worth telling?

I very much enjoyed Brin's concept of Gordan creating this myth, initially out of personal necessity, and then watching Gordan do his utmost to turn the myth into a reality.

The only significant qualm I had with the plot itself was that there was an awful lot of "stuff" going on around Gordan that, because the tale is told entirely from Gordan's perspective, we never really got to see in a lot of detail. I would have like to have seen the story told from the perspective of those around Gordan, as well as Gordan himself. Nonetheless, when I read a story by Brin I am always impressed with his characterizations, especially the characterizations of the main protagonist...and The Postman is no exception. I would certainly recommend this tale to anyone who enjoys, not only solid scifi, but plain old good stories.

In a post-apocalyptic future, Gordon Krantz is something of a nomad, drifting from village to village, acting out one-man plays in exchange for food and shelter. While evading bandits he stumbles upon an old postal truck. Krantz takes the dead letter carrier's uniform and, helping himself to the mailbag, begins playing a new role: that of a postman dispatched by the reconstituted government to reestablish delivery routes. There is no new government but villagers fighting for survival and fending off tribes of marauders are desperate to believe him. The question is whether Krantz will live up to the illusion he's invented.

I'm a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction in general, but I approached this novel with the thought that it might not live up to its hype. I was mistaken. Brin created a credible future world, and the concept of a survivor feeling compelled to deliver the mail (even if he stumbled onto the idea for reasons that were far from altruistic) is brilliant: mail delivery becomes not only a means of stitching together a torn nation, but a powerful symbol of national unity and pride. Gordon Krantz is more than a bit torn himself, a man of less than heroic stature who, by the novel's end, has grown into not just a hero, but an icon of heroism. Krantz is a fully developed character (a rarity in sf), and his personal transformation is inspiring. The supporting characters are also solid and purposeful. The Postman is a strongly plotted, well written novel, in many ways better than another, more celebrated version of a post-apocalyptic future: The Road.

David Brin's The Postman tells the story of Gordon Krantz, a man who finds himself still struggling for survival some sixteen years after nuclear war has almost completely destroyed the United States. Luckily for him, Krantz had been a bright student before his school days so suddenly ended forever at the age of sixteen, and he remembered enough Shakespeare and other classic literature to be able to earn his food and shelter as a traveling entertainer as he made his way westward from Minnesota.

But Krantz knew that his survival always depended on his ability to avoid bands of murdering bandits or sudden death at the hands of Mother Nature. One day his luck ran out. After an encounter with bandits left him with little more than the clothes on his back and in desperate need of shelter to avoid freezing to death, Krantz stumbled upon an old post office jeep, complete with the driver's remains. In order not to freeze, he clothed himself in the heavier clothing of the driver for the night and continued to wear the old uniform the next day when he left the jeep's shelter.

Much to Krantz's surprise, the next group of people he encountered was joyful to be hosting a mail carrier, someone they never expected to see again after having lived through sixteen years of isolation and precarious survival. They insisted on sharing past-life memories and stories about the mailmen they remembered from childhood and Krantz did not have the heart to tell them that he was a fraud. But, fraud or not, Krantz realized that he could easily acquire food and shelter by pretending to be a postal inspector sent by the "Reformed United States" to set up post offices throughout the state of Oregon. He justified his lies by telling himself that he was offering hope and inspiration to people who probably needed those things for their long term survival almost as badly as they needed food and shelter.

As word spread throughout the region, Krantz was soon to learn that the hope he offered created both opportunity and risk for the people who heard his story. For sixteen years those people had managed to survive, but they feared a large group of survivalist refugees from the past who intended to take what they had and make them into little more than slaves. Suddenly, with knowledge that the "Restored United States" would one day be there to help them, people were almost anxious to confront their vicious enemy. Only Krantz knew the truth, and he dared not steal the hope that these people embraced so desperately.

The Postman offers another doomsday scenario, this one a little more hopeful than most. It illustrates how a man who believes in ideals and morality can make a critical difference if only he has the courage and near foolishness to tackle what seems like an impossible task. Krantz wanted to give up but he could not abandon the people who had embraced "the postman."

I suspect that many people, like me, have not read David Brin's novel because of exposure to Kevin Costner's rather lame movie of the same name. Although the movie was based on Brin's book, rest assured that that is where the resemblance begins and ends.

The main criteria for judging a recreational novel like THE POSTMAN is whether or not it kept the pages turning. This one did, which is why I finished it, and which is why you are getting to read this fine review. David Brin offers up a vision of life in the near future after the Doomwar and the ensuing anarchy has destroyed civilization as we know it. What remains is a healthy scattering of small communities struggling to survive the chaos.
Some of the survivors are would-be tyrants; the rest of them are decent, but cowed folk who try to get along. You can guess who gets the better end of the deal. The novel follows Gordon Krantz, one of the decent, but unusually strong guys as he tries to navigate the bleak landscape. He stumbles upon a Postman's uniform, and accidentally discovers that he can trade dreams of a restored United States back East in exchange for food and lodging. The question of the novel is whether the myth Krantz is offering is enough to get the decent folks to come together and throw off the tyrants.
The writing is not terrific, but the action unfolds at a good pace. We are drawn into Brin's world enough to care about how it all turns out. Along the way, Brin invites us through a meditation about the foundations of civil society. His main question is how a "civilized" guy can exercise violence against the tyrants, without becoming one of them. In Brin's vision, the women who live among the despots are treated despotically, and his insight is that genuine civilization depends, in some way, on the strength of women. What he lacks is any good vision of how that necessary feminine strength can be used to civilize the men, and so the end of THE POSTMAN falls flat. My guess is that Brin's failure simply reflects our own society's inability to really understand the nature of feminine strength. Still, give Brin credit for seeing that it is a question.
THE POSTMAN is a fine way to while away a few hours at the beach. It might even cause you to pause and muse over a few ideas in the shower, before the whole thing washes away and you move on to your next good read.

There are very few Armageddon tales that are as well constructed as this one is. 'The Handmaid's Tale", the trend-setting "We" and "A Canticle for Leibowitz" while also being well done, lack the overall atmosphere created in this dystopic novel. David Brin not only creates a believable tale of the future destruction of the planet but he brings so many other concepts into it as well. Women's equal role in society, the possible dark future of technology, the innate bruteness of some of society's males, the roles that hope, responsibility, honesty and altruism play in social structure, and what is necessary to become a 'hero' in a world that needs it most. The ending, in itself, is highly realistic insomuch that we are left with hope for the future that is clouded over by the sadness of the past.

Please do not equate this novel with Kevin Kostner's movie of the same title. While both attempt to deal with the same concept, they are as different as chocolate and chalk.......

The Postman is a post-apocalyptic fictional work that is different from others in the genera. It is not an instruction manual in surviving the collapse, or escapist fare whereby a vexing contemporary social problem is resolved by the destruction of civilization.

Instead it is a part fantasy novel whereby the protagonist-The Postman-uses a ruse that the United States was returning to normal after a disaster of some sort through regular mail services. Caught up in his deceit, the Postman ends up visiting various places where the different philosophical ideas are explored.

In one instance, science/technology-as-religion is given a hard literary look and in another the ideas of Ayn Rand (although in a different form) are questioned-and questioned very well.

A very enjoyable read that is uplifting and unsettling at the same time.

In David Brin's postapocalyptic novel, The Postman, the civilized world has been destroyed by a brief nuclear war and the ensuing nuclear winter, diseases, and barbarism. Set in what used to be Oregon, remnants of civilization exist in small independent towns inhabited by survivors and their offspring eking out a living through agriculture and trades.
Gordon Krantz is a lone wanderer, surviving by moving from village to village as a storyteller and minstrel. He finds a dead postal worker's skeleton in the woods and co-opts his clothing to stay warm. With the bag of postage, he hits upon a scam of representing himself as a postal inspector of the "Restored United States," sent to establish post offices in each town and re-establish mail service. He is surprisingly embraced everywhere he travels because of people's thirst for community and communication... and hope. He unwittingly becomes a victim of his own scam and is reluctantly thrust into a leadership role in reuniting Oregon, and by implication the rest of the nation in the future. Along the way, he discovers the way each town coped with the aftermath of the war, makes various friendships, falls in love, and leads the war against the rogue survivalists from the south.
I quite enjoyed this novel and found it uplifting in the message of a regular man who had greatness thrust upon him and came to realize that he had to take responsibility. The movie, starring Kevin Costner, is also good but diverges a good bit from the book, especially in the second half. As is often the case, the book is better.

Actually I can't attest to having seen said movie, but a cursory reading of the plot of the movie shows that they seemed to have played a bit fast and loose with this book, which considering the reviews it got, probably wasn't a good thing. Oh well. To each his own, you're never going to get an exact translation. At least they're restored the brilliant reissue cover, much as one can admire Kevin Costner as an actor, I would have preferred not to have his bedraggled face staring at me every time I go to pick the book up. That all stated, this is a highly entertaining and fairly straightforward book, probably not as deep as Brin would like it to be, but a good try nonetheless. We have a future US destroyed by war, with scattered towns basically living their own separate existences, while an army run by survivalists inspired by a Hitleresque fanatic are trying to take over everything in sight. Our hero enters this mess while trying to escape some roving raiders and finds a postal uniform and some mail . . . from there he concocts a lie to help him get food and stuff but winds up inspiring everyone and restoring hope to a faded nation, regaining his own lost ideals in the process. Needless to say there's plenty to like in this book, Brin's envisioning of a future US with everyone living in the shadow of the past war is great, the story moves at a quick pace, so even when it's not that engrossing you're still reading, and the situations are varied, with a fairly uplifting message that manages to come across as sincere. However, most of the stuff you can see coming from miles away so don't expect "shocks on every page", with the exception of maybe the main character and some others, most of the people populating the book are a tad one dimensional, sure there's lot of them but very few of them feel "real". Brin appears to be shooting for the same status that Earth Abides (a really great novel, by the way), Alas, Babylon and maybe even On the Beach have garnered over the years but he defeats himself by making it too science fictional, what worked in those books was a palpable sense of reality, that this stuff could happen tomorrow, Brin's got too many talking computers, augmented humans and fancy future stuff to give the reader a true connection with his future. So in the end what you wind up with may not be an enduring classic beloved by millions but merely an extremely entertaining and diverting SF novel. Which, all told, may be enough.