The Postman

David Brin’s post-apocalyptic tale takes a slightly different path than Cormac McCarthy’s [The Road]. But beyond the differences in style and tone, the stories echo essentially the same message, one of the spirit of hope found in human sacrifice and honor.

Gordon Krantz is a drifter, scavenging the debris of a self-destructed civilization and dodging blood-thirsty groups of feudalists bent on taking control of the meager remnants of life. On the run from just such a survivalist raiding party, Gordon shelters in a wrecked postal truck, spending the night snuggled next to the skeleton of its original pilot. The next morning, Gordon takes what he can find of use, a leather mail satchel and the driver’s leather coat, each with the show more official emblems of a forgotten authority. When Gordon stops into a village for shelter and food, these emblems inspire the drifter to lie about who he is. Broken and desperate villagers, eager for a symbol of hope and re-birth latch on to Gordon’s lie, treating him with deference and showering him with gifts. As the lie takes root in the hearts of those he meets, Gordon begins to recall what it meant to believe in something larger than himself.

[The Postman] begins with a poetic, if dark, prelude, lyrically describing the end of one world and the beginning of a new life. The chapter that follows introduces Gordon on the run, quoting what looks like a passage from [The Art of War]. With such an introduction, Brin sets an impossible high standard, and while the rest of the book is good, it never lives completely up to the promise. Brin jams a few too many twists and a few too many characters into the story, sometimes falling into preaching instead of storytelling. [The Postman] is at its best when it’s focused on Gordon as he transforms from guilt over his initial lie into a life of hesitant duty and honor. The hesitant heroes always carry the most potential.

For those folks who found McCarthy too dark and couldn’t recognize the hope in his stark book, [The Postman] offers a lighter, more action-oriented take on the same material. The hope is more obvious, within easy reach.

4 bones!!!! show less

I'm a sucker for a good post-apocalyptic tale, and The Postman did not disappoint on that score. The United States has been destroyed, and isolated communities in the Pacific Northwest are barely surviving in the aftermath of a war that was less damaging than the plagues that followed on its heels and killed most of the population. When a solitary traveler is mistaken as an agent for a reconstituted U.S. government (due to his having stolen the uniform and mailbag of a dead postman along the way), he figures out a way to use the lie to bring communities together to fight the larger threat of anarchic gangs of "hypersurvivalists" who bear an uncomfortable resemblance to modern-day militia groups.

It's touching to see how eagerly the show more villages want to believe that they are not alone in the world. The postman initially doesn't intend to deceive them, but soon figures out that it's the best way to bring them together against the common enemy. Beyond the basics of the plot, the book also has a powerful message about the real dangers of the post-apocalyptic world. The war itself caused limited damage, the plagues that followed did more, but it was the "hypersurvivalists" with their stockpiles of weapons and food who caused the most damage and prevented the country from rebuilding itself by attacking and disrupting humanitarian relief efforts. As Pogo said so long ago, "We have met the enemy and it is us." show less

In my experience people who pretend to be postmen are usually up to no good, they are more apt to enter your homes under false pretenses and rob you blind than attempt to unite the post apocalyptic Disunited States of America. The protagonist of this book has to be the most heroic postman in fiction. You thought Postman Pat and Cliff Clavin from Cheers are the bees knees? They got nothing on Gordon The Postman, he really knows how to deliver!

This is the second Brin book for me, the previous one I read was [b:Startide Rising|234501|Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2)|David Brin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432746993s/234501.jpg|251634] which was fun but just a wee bit disappointing in that it did not resonate with me much (those show more "uplifted" dolphins are just a little too cute for me, even the badass ones). Still, I like Brin's writing and the basic premise of The Postman so I thought I'd give it a go, and it turned out to be one of my more inspired decisions. An optimistic post apocalypse book is a rarity, if this is a sub-sub genre I doubt it will catch on, you don't warn people about the errors of their ways only to have things eventually turning out OK. I think this book is more about idealism than a commentary about where the world is heading today. It is about a lie that grows into a truth rather than “A lie told often enough becomes the truth” which is an entirely different mailbag.

While the story is sentimental in places, and not entirely unpredictable or cliche-free, Mr. Brin pushes the right buttons most of the time (leaving the left buttons entirely untouched). He has me cheering "AMERICA F*CK YEAH!" and I am not even American. I also like it that when the climactic kickassery ensues it is not between the titular Postman and the "boss villain", let the more interesting side character do the heavy lifting for a change. This is an excellent read that touches me at the emotional core. Five stars? I'd award it all the stars in the sky plus those residing in Hollywood!

Note: I don't think I want to see the Costner movie after reading this factoid on IMDb. show less

A decade and a half after worldwide nuclear war, a survivor, running through an Oregon forest to escape bandits, stumbles across a jeep and the skeleton of a mailman from the early years of the apocalypse, when there was still a semblance of government. He takes the uniform, hat, and boots to replace what has been stolen, and also a bag of mail, addressed years ago to people probably long dead. To ensure his welcome at suspicious settlements, he pretends to be a representative of a rebuilt government mail service and manages to find a few addressees still alive in the area. As his cover story becomes accepted, he in turn is forced to accept new letters bound for the areas toward which he is traveling, and without intending to, he begins show more to forge connections between some of the villages. His travels lead him westward toward the Pacific, and he eventually becomes entangled with a town seemingly being led by a smart computer and with a survivalist group determined to destroy everything not in its control.

I avoided reading this for years because of the terrible reviews of the Costner film (although I've seen more positive ones lately), and it was pleasant to discover a worthwhile post-apocalyptic tale under all the baggage. It's just a good old-fashioned story with some hope for humanity mixed in. show less

Superb. Powerful, compelling, poignent.

Set in post apocalypse america, some 16 years after a limited world war, society has collapsed back into shattered enclaves. Gorden, ex-marine, ex-milita and almost ex-survivor is alone in the wilderness of Oregan. An encounter with local bandits - both more and less organised than himself - goes badly and he flees deeper into the hills, chancing upon an abandonded and unfound jeep for shelter. In the morning he disregards any scruples (which already sets him out as different from many others in this world) and takes the jacket and gear from the long dead postman / driver who no longer requires them. Little does he realise their potential. But as he travels westward isolated and deeply suspicious show more communities - managing to raise themselves out of subsistance level barbarianism - are awed at the symbol he represents in his uniform, and life goes easier for a while. However like a cancer eating away at society, not everyone is willing to pull together and in these barbaric ages, Survivalists, gun nuts, alpha men, and those with short term vision threaten the very tenuous existance that even the most hardy farmer manages to eke out. Gordon's uniformed presence and the concept of 'offical' help damages their ideals and self justifications, forcing a dramatic showdown.

The only slightly discordant note is the dates. This was written in '85 and the story is set in 2011 which makes the great collapse about 95-98 or so. Some of the technology postulated for this 10 year advance from 85 is just highly improbable - but have seemed much more reasonable set 25 or more years later on. The only other gripe is that the book is not long enough! The ending came far too soon - although perfectly paced as a plot - I wanted to carry on reading for days more. The characters are skillfully crafted, deftly handled to pull at emotions. The motivations and complex moral and ethical dilemmas required to stay alive in such a world are subtley introduced, and you feel the characters' pain as difficult choices have to be made. The descriptions are limited but again very well crafted leaving glowing images of a world just starting to recover. This allows the story to flow from location to location over time spans that are clearly indicated within the text at a gripping pace. The social commentry is muted, but clearly marked - humankind has to pull together, everyone, or else all will perish.

Truly a masterpiece of dystopia, hope, spirit, and meaning of being human rather than just alive.

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Despite my relatively modest review, I really enjoyed this book. I have no recollection of ever seeing the Kevin Costner movie based on it, but I'll probably seek it out now. The book depicted (to me) a realistic picture of life almost 2 decades after the collapse of civilization. There's no zombies here, no supernatural influence. Just the horror of stronger people taking advantage of others not able to stand up for themselves. And that is every bit as terrifying as zombies and ghosts.
I dinged the rating a bit because I thought that the book slogged down some in the middle, and I also thought that the view pretty much by all the characters regarding the weakness of women was a bit too simplistic. This book only came out in the show more mid-90's, so, while this might have been understandable in an older book from the mid-century, it was just too distracting at the surprise felt when a woman exhibited any strength of character. show less

‘The Postman’ suffered from over-hype. It is one of the favourite books of a friend of mine, who praised it to the skies. To compound this, I love dystopian novels and have read quite a few of them. Unfortunately, my high expectations were not met. It took me a while to get into the novel, probably because I didn’t really take to the main character. His point of view dominated the whole thing, but his inner monologues left me cold. He seemed often to berate himself for being such a great guy, what a pity he couldn’t just be selfish and stupid like nearly everyone else! Whilst his behaviour was that of a pretty great guy, mostly, I found his headspace somewhat unpalatable. I also found the equating of feminism with 'judging men' show more tedious.

That said, after a slowish fifty pages I did get into the book. The conceit of a postman as talisman of civilisation’s resurgence is rather a neat one. I felt that it got a little too messianic by the end, in fact the importance of One Man seemed to be exaggerated throughout. The role of Cyclops was neat, though, and I liked Dena (who deserved a lot more time to explain herself). I also appreciated the nature of the apocalypse as a confluence of bad events, any one or even two of which could have been overcome. The notion of civilisation’s resilience being overloaded by plague, war, famine, and social unrest all occurring simultaneously and reinforcing one another is a believable one. The novel is an effective polemic against survivalism, emphasising that secure and happy daily life relies on the existence of a functioning government and social fabric. This is interesting in light of its being published in 1985, when neoliberal individualism was consolidating its grip on the US.

This novel is also amongst those slightly unsettling dystopias that now lie in the past - the events of ‘The Postman’ happen in 2011. show less