Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary Story with Decent Writing
Review: ...wasted. It's hard to say how good a book this could have been based on the concept, but the execution was just, well, terrible. One of the best (worst?) examples I can think of where an incompetent protagonist survives much longer than he/she has any right to, or than a reader can believe. Goofy plot elements abound along with the introduction of incredible (as in not credible, not as in "wow!") characters to create even more dire challenges, when mere bad guys were would have fit the existing storyline better.What's really frustrating are the glimpses of Brin's obvious skills. These keep you going until the end, but just barely. Now about the movie...
Rating: 
Summary: Great!
Review: Anyone who saw the movie and thinks they know what happens now so the novel is ruined for them, or who disliked the film for its cheezy and epic required dramatic music etc. (I loved it myself!) shouldn't be put off reading the novel! Although the theme of hope and the symbol of a postman beginning to reunite a nation is the same, (and the occasional character or event) essentially it is completely different... Brin's writing style is enjoyable but not constantly completely engrossing like Michael Marshall Smith (amazing sci-fi writer!)or Anne Rice, for example, but the imagination and scope and detail, the characters and ideals and events that he describes are so real - he really recreates the whole world (well, the US anyway) post-apocalypse and its very believable. Towards the end I was completely enraptured in the events and its a great book! If you've seen the film dont be put off when you're reading by thinking you know what happens next, go into it with an open mind because what happens is almost completely different...
Rating:
Summary: A Definitive Post-Nuke Book
Review: Before SF novelist David Brin became known as one of the "Killer Bs" of 80s and 90s SF, he penned a serial novel called "The Postman," a post-apocalyptic romp through the Williamette Valley in Oregon. Set in an area dominated by militias, survivalists, and the kinds of folks who like to blame Jewish people and blacks for America's troubles, Brin lampooned the typical, gutsy, survival-of-the-fittest attitude in post-apocalyptic (PA) fiction, creating a unique blend of adventure story and important moral lesson. In an interview, Brin said that most PA fiction revels in the downfall of civilization, creating a kind of macho paradise which would be great if you were a gun-toting conservative white male. For everyone else, it would be hell, and that is exactly what "The Postman" tackles. Fifteen years after the Doomwar, a combination nuclear, biological, and chemical exchange between the US and an unknown enemy, Gordon roams the landscape looking for a cause to follow. The largest organization in this atmosphere are a loosely-organized militia-army, who follow the teachings of the deceased Nathan Holn, a racist whose beliefs about life and freedom were a mix of Ayn Rand, David Duke, and a badly warped Charles Darwin. Gordon, a college-educated thinking man, wants nothing to do with the militias, but is inadvertantly forced into acting when bandits steal his clothes and he is forced to dress as a postman and invent a story about the Restored United States to get some food. On his way, Gordon meets towns wallowing in drugs and violence, paranoid people so scared by oppression they trust no one, and an organization seemingly controlled by a computer artificial intelligence. When the militias begin attacking the Williamette Valley in far greater fervor, Gordon begins to organize the resistance, aided in part by George Powhatan, an organizer who has begun to rebuild civilization in his own way. "The Postman" makes clear that the downfall of civilization would not be a good thing, especially if you happened to be a woman, or black, or anything else not conforming to the WASP-militia stereotypes. Aside from a good adventure story, Brin's book bucks convention and treads new groud, providing an obvious stepping stone for later SF novels in the genre like "The New Madrid Run" and "The Rift." The prose can be rocky, but given "Postman" was published serially (and wasn't necessarily aspiring to high literature), this can be overlooked for the far more positive points of its content. Final Grade: B-
Rating:
Summary: The Postman by David Brin
Review: Book Review by C. Douglas Baker THE POSTMAN is set sixteen years after a cataclysmic event (presumably a nuclear war although there is room for speculation that it may have been some other disaster such as a large comet hitting the earth) has plunged the world to the brink of a dark age. Trying to survive in Oregon's Cascade Mountains, Gordon Krantz happens upon a run-down United States Postal Service jeep while trying to find a warm place to sleep and spends the night. Taking the leather jacket and cap off the skeleton of his unfortunate bunk-mate, with the full regalia of the U.S. Postal Service as accoutrements, and a sack full of old mail, Gordon sets off to hunt supplies. Thus begins Gordon's almost unconscious generation of a false legend. Attempting to extort supplies from settlement in the mountains, Gordon comes up with a story about a "Reformed United States" to the east and the reorganization of a Postal Service. Using his newly acquired postal gear as props, Gordon takes upon himself the role of a "postal inspector" who has come to reestablish postal routes and "inspect" local governmental institutions. He even, luckily, comes up with a few letters from the mailbag addressed to relatives of people in the community as a ruse to bolster is story. Through this reckless prevarication Gordon weaves his way into the good graces of the people he comes into contact with, simply by being a catalyst to their nostalgic remembrance of a time when the United States was a superpower and the postal service was so reliable as to be taken for granted. Gordon's "big lie" offers hope of a return to better times. Traveling around in this persona, Gordon lets the legend grow, even appointing "postal inspectors" in various areas as he goes along, creating a loyal cadre of "followers". As the legend takes hold, Gordon finds that he cannot tell the truth or back out of the duty that communities impose on him--that being giving them some hope that a better world is ahead and doing something to bring that future about. They believe in Gordon and his
"Reformed United States" and he cannot let them down. Despite a very promising plot, THE POSTMAN is a bit frustrating. Authors using a lost-holocaust world as their setting must viscerally convey the extent of the catastrophe and the eeriness of a post-technological world. Brin in THE POSTMAN fails to do so. The reader never really emotionally feels the impact of the disaster and the odds facing the main character, Gordon. As a result, the book never delivers the emotional blow that is necessary to make the struggle back to a semblance of civilization satisfying to the reader. Brin is too contrite in his brief descriptions of run down cities, empty wildernesses, and struggling communities. The novel just does not "feel" like it is set in a post-holocaust society, despite that the characters and actions take place there. Brin also fails to bring life to his characters. Even the main character, Gordon, is not as well drawn as he could be. Brin does an even less stellar job at developing his peripheral characters. When important persons are suddenly killed the reader does not feel the sense of grief that great authors can convey, because the reader never really "knew" the character. This is particularly true of his female hero Dana. Her attempts to save her community and the fate of her band of "scouts" does not touch the reader because Brin never fully cultivates the reader's sympathy or understanding for her or her comrades.
That being said, I actually enjoyed the novel (surprise!). Despite feeling estranged from the characters and plot, Brin's prose and ability to write action scenes and keep the story moving made it an enjoyable reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: Post-apocalyptic genre fiction at its most average
Review: Brin's tale of a loner's midlife journey in a world devastated by warfare, climate change, and disease is exactly what genre-bound science fiction readers expect. The protagonist, Gordon, is an intellectual male whose resourcefulness has helped him adapt to a world whose institutions have collapsed and whose people live in tiny, scrabbling communities. He traverses the (former) Northwestern United States in vague search of something hope for - but accidentally, by way of a postman's uniform he finds in a moment of desperation, brings hope to everyone he encounters. Ultimately he must reconcile himself to the world as it has become and decide what is truly worth fighting for. "The Postman" fancies itself an ideological novel, and Brin lays it on thick. Gordon's search for meaning is unceasing, and unceasingly discussed. While his crusade is at first sympathetic, it quickly wears thin under the novel's weight as, instead of developing Gordon's character, Brin attributes his every decision to the increasingly desctructive cause. More than just lazily written, "The Postman" can be frustratingly immature. The protagonist's - and the book's - tone toward technology is plausible for the young college student Gordon once was, but inappropriate for a middle-aged man whose life and country have been destroyed by a machine society. Brin's version of feminism seems designed to win bonus points with female fans, but its heavy-handedness and condescension are no less alienating than outright sexism. These flaws, combined with Brin's broad-stroked, barely-serviceable prose, undermine any serious reader's enjoyment. But "The Postman" is appealing nonetheless. It's easy to get into, and the action sequences are freqent and page-turning. The plot meanders pleasantly, making the book seem longer and meatier than it actually is, and although the ending is both sudden and predictable, it's not unsatisfying. And ultimately, Brin offers what many sci-fi readers are looking for: a world in which things are different, a new set of rules and a history that comments on our own. This is not great literature, but it's a fairly good book.
Rating:
Summary: Post-apocalyptic genre fiction at its most average
Review: Brin's tale of a loner's midlife journey in a world devastated by warfare, climate change, and disease is exactly what genre-bound science fiction readers expect. The protagonist, Gordon, is an intellectual male whose resourcefulness has helped him adapt to a world whose institutions have collapsed and whose people live in tiny, scrabbling communities. He traverses the (former) Northwestern United States in vague search of something hope for - but accidentally, by way of a postman's uniform he finds in a moment of desperation, brings hope to everyone he encounters. Ultimately he must reconcile himself to the world as it has become and decide what is truly worth fighting for. "The Postman" fancies itself an ideological novel, and Brin lays it on thick. Gordon's search for meaning is unceasing, and unceasingly discussed. While his crusade is at first sympathetic, it quickly wears thin under the novel's weight as, instead of developing Gordon's character, Brin attributes his every decision to the increasingly desctructive cause. More than just lazily written, "The Postman" can be frustratingly immature. The protagonist's - and the book's - tone toward technology is plausible for the young college student Gordon once was, but inappropriate for a middle-aged man whose life and country have been destroyed by a machine society. Brin's version of feminism seems designed to win bonus points with female fans, but its heavy-handedness and condescension are no less alienating than outright sexism. These flaws, combined with Brin's broad-stroked, barely-serviceable prose, undermine any serious reader's enjoyment. But "The Postman" is appealing nonetheless. It's easy to get into, and the action sequences are freqent and page-turning. The plot meanders pleasantly, making the book seem longer and meatier than it actually is, and although the ending is both sudden and predictable, it's not unsatisfying. And ultimately, Brin offers what many sci-fi readers are looking for: a world in which things are different, a new set of rules and a history that comments on our own. This is not great literature, but it's a fairly good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Garbage...
Review: I am an avid reader and a fan of the "post-apocalyptic" genre, but I have to say, this book is utter garbage. I only read up to the third chapter or so... I couldn't take it. Terrible writing, disjointed pacing, awful introspective ramblings, and unrealistic, two-dimensional characters make for great kindling, and little else. It's the only book I've ever thrown away!
Rating:
Summary: Much better than the movie could ever hope to be
Review: I am not a fan of fiction, but I read this book a few years ago when the movie came out and radio personality Art Bell spoke about the book. I read it and found the book to be a pleasant surprise. The book is about Benjamin Franklin as much as anything else. It gives Franklin a lot of the credit that modern America seems to have forgotten about. The Postman also gives a little type of history lesson about early America and how it actually came to be a unified nation that would someday change world history. In a nation without TV, telephones, radio or other communication due to lack of electricity, the postal service is much more important than one could imagine.
Brin's book is also a lot about women in American society and how much worse things would be for them in another, tragic, furure society. Brin dedicates this book to the women in his life who have fascinated him and that dedication is evident throughout the book. Brin's ability as a writer takes what might otherwise be only a dark and ugly story of futuristic nuclear disaster, and makes it one of hope for the future and appreciation for the past.
As I wrote earlier, I am not a fan of fiction, but I found this worth the read. Forget about the movie, give the book a chance and you may well agree with my appreciation for this particular work of fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a western Sci-fi!
Review: I was hesistant in buying this book due to my unfavorable impressions to the horrible trailers that I saw for the movie, The Postman. The story intrigued me, but I had passed over the book 4 different times in various bookstores. Well finally on my 5th lookover, I decided to buy it and I'm sure happy I did. I took it home and read the book in two sittings. Couldn't get enough of the book and was sad to see it end. It was a fast read, and I liked the fast plotting of the book. I wanted to see how each new town that Gordon, the "Postman", traveled to would react to him. Great read. Although labeled as a Sci Fi book, I tend to see some Western aspects of the books. There aren't cities anymore, but towns. Plus Gordon is traveling in the wilderness like a frontiersman, trying to rediscover the west. I find the western sci-fi/fantasy genre to be a very unexplored genre. Some books I recommend would be Devil's Tower, and Devil's Engine by Mark Sumner. A nice mix of traditional western with Fantasy. Brin, I sure hope you write a sequel. Gordon still has more of the west to explore!
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Summary: A postapocalyptic novel with hope.
Review: 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.
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