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...
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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: 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!
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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.
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Summary: Important and powerful
Review: I saw the movie before reading the book. I generally agreed with movie critics that it was overdone and terribly acted. But I was fascinated by the central concept of "The Postman." So I decided to read the book. Whereas, the End Times fiction series "Left Behind" depicts the horrors of extremely centralized government, a one-world order, "The Postman" embraces the opposite concept, extremely DE-centralized government. In this story whose chronological setting is the year 2013, the United States has collapsed and a form of government known as feudalism has taken its place, a form of government that existed in Western Europe and Japan several centuries ago. There are numerous self-governing units which have little to no communication with each other. People bound themselves to the land of local dictators in exchange for protection. In the absence of any central government there was no military or police to protect people and their freedoms. These feudal lords were oftenin turn be pledged to even more powerful landowners who might be under feudal lords themselves and so on. But Gordon Krantz, in an effort to keep warm, stumbles upon something terrifying to these lunatic general-dictators. A postal service to bind people of a large republic with communication. Gordon tells several villages about a Restored United States of America and that he is a postman for that new republic. There is no Restored United States of America but that is not the point. People start believing in the possibility of a better future for the first time in a long time. And even if they did not believe the story new ideas had been introduced to them. The Holnists, followers of a long dead Nathan Holn, are committed to the idea that the strong who dominate the weak, otherwise they have been brainwashed by these weaker people. This is a hatable philosophy and serves as the story's main villian. My main complaint is that the book is not quite that engaging. It was not something I was unable to put down. There are several differences between the book and the movie in plot, and characters. But both seem to be in the exact same setting. I think the nuclear war theme is a little overdone and I would like to see how the author could have made the United States collapse in another way. Would he have chosen an extremely bad economy? a series of natural disaster? A book about the events leading to the scenario which "The Postman" describes would be even more fascinating.
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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.
Rating:
Summary: Mystical yet not tacky
Review: The depiction of events in David Brin's The Postman is well-observed, provides great texture, and yet is minimal. Gordon Krantz is studied with care, his inner thoughts communicated very well, yet most importantly his temperament is established through various trials he handles or mishandles. Other characters are touched on, some remaining highly memorable.
Rating: 
Summary: Mythology reborn.
Review: The Postman is the Iliad of modern day America. The plot is tight and lean, and one of the most cinematic books I've read (a perfect candidate for a film). The characters are mythological archetypes molded by the (foolish) gods of technology. The Postman explores many aspects of symbols and their social impact, through for example, the mythology of the postman and the ideals of the United States. The book evokes a sense of majesty and magnificence to the technological wonderland that precedes the period of post-nuclear holocaust that the book is set in. It is also remarkably restrained in its usage of the science fiction element. Brin wisely let's us see the technology through the imagined social ramification rather than making it the linch pin of the novel, (there's a scene where the climax involves the sound of space invaders) a mistake I think that many sf writers make. The setting of the book is so well constructed that many disparate theme's are encompassed quite naturally - post nuclear holocaust, genetic engineering, the basis of government and the myth of the nation and the call for moral responsibility. At no point does he let the plot unwind into the realm of the fantastically ridiculous. At the end of the book, you'll be cheering for those inspirational ideals which drive the characters in the book but more importantly, should be a reflection of our pre-holocaust society.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than the movie
Review: Unlike the movie, this book is not only better than the movie, but it doesn't have Kevin Kostner in it ;)
I really liked this book, but then again I have always been a sucker for EOW stories (end of world). If you liked Lucifer's hammer then you will like this book. If you liked Lucifer's Hammer or this book, then you may also want to check out Earth the New Frontier by Adam Celaya (a brand new post-apocalyptic novel that rocks the house!!)
If you like EOW books, then get this one. You will not be dissapointed!
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