The Postman

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Brin, David	4-week checkout	Due 05-06-2024

This is the story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth. A timeless novel as urgently compelling as War Day or Alas, Babylon, David Brin's The Postman is the dramatically moving saga of a man who rekindled the spirit of America through the power of a dream, from a modern master of science fiction. He was a survivor--a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating war. Fate touches him one chill winter's day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. The old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope, and with it he begins to weave his greatest tale, of a nation on the road to recovery.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Better than the Movie submitted by Chris82 on July 31, 2011, 3:51pm This is a great book that takes place in a post apocalyptic future. It has very little to do with the terrible movie by the same name. Worth reading.

Powerful (and not like the movie) submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 16, 2023, 1:35pm A really wonderful novel about vision, community, and the power of ideas.

And yeah, it was written in the mid-1980’s by a white guy (excellent storyteller that he is), and so that does shape the story in some particular ways. I actually read (well, listened to) the version edited in mid-2020 that was slightly updated so the dates wouldn’t be jarring and the pandemic was referenced. I liked the nuances of that. I don’t know if anything else was changed based on 40 more years of culture and history.

I never saw the Kevin Costner movie and went and watched the trailer. Not surprisingly, it makes the story look entirely like a post-apocalyptic male “fight fer mah freedum!” I can see where they get that, and it’s not like that *wasn’t* in the book, but that so much isn’t what the book is about.

Like I said: vision, community, and the power of ideas. It was excellent.