Postman FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
FROM THE CRITICS
Gale Research
"The world Brin draws [in The Postman] is terrifying," saysLos Angeles Times Book Review contributor Ronald Florence, referring to the power-hungry paramilitary bands that tyrannize people who live in small, unprotected settlements. Stripped by the bandits, protagonist Gordon Krantz finds a mail carrier's remains and borrows the dead postman's uniform. Thereafter, the villagers see him "as a symbol of civilization," relates Washington Post Book World's Gregory Frost. Maintaining ever-larger lies about his identity, Krantz accepts the role of public servant and civil authority they ascribe to him. The story develops "Brin's premise that people need something bigger than survival to believe in," notes a New York Times Book Review contributor. Analog's Tom Easton finds it a recommendable demonstration of "the value of myths." Like other reviewers, Frost notes several "weaknesses" he later deems "minor," and praises the "mythic dimension" Brin brings to almost every element of the novel."
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
A moving experience...a powerful, cautionary tale. — Whitley Strieber
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