[net.books] "The Postman" by David Brin, Bantam Books '85

jps@rayssd.UUCP (John P. Schroeder) (01/22/86)

		 		The Postman
				By David Brin
				Bantam Books '85

	
	"The Postman" is Mr. Brin's latest novel.  The theme may have its
	origins in the postman character that appears in the Niven/Pournelle
	novel, "Lucifers Hammer," yet the idea is different (even if the
	post-holocaust background is getting a little tired as a background
	for science fiction).

	In post-holocaust America a wandering minstrel is making his way out
	of the mid-west toward the coast when he gets hold of a pre-holocaust
	mailman's uniform.  Using the uniform as a key into the few surviving
	communities, he creates a story about a "Restored U.S."; the first
	manifestation of this is the mail service.  The survivors grasp at this
	straw and everything he represents.  "The Postman" is full of the type
	of scenes that were in the movie "Deliverence", --man's inhumanity to
	man in the absence of society.  Eventually, the con-man finds a greater
	purpose in what he's doing and begins to work for the restoration of
	America and the founding of the Oregon Commonwealth.

	I liked the novel, but then I like the author -- I even read his
	space operas.  The type of writing in this book hasn't appeared 
	(at least in book form) from the author, before now.  In a few places
	I think Brin needlessly made the story more science fiction-ey and, in
	the process, added inadequatly terminated sub-plots.  Yet, in all I
	think it is a good effort and worth reading.

	One of the things that I really liked about the story is how the 
	"survivalists" came out as the bad guys.  Recently, many
	post-holocaust stories have appeared with survivalists coming out
	on top, at the expense of civilization.  Authors like Niven, Pournelle,
	Bear, and Gerrold have been extolling the virtues (in their stories)
	of having a bunker up in the mountains filled with ammunition and
	canned peaches. A recent extreme example of this sort of mentality
	(and not far from "The Postman" story line) was the case of
	the two men in California who kidnaped people, took them to their
	bunker and then murdered their victims after filming them performing
	sexual acts.  The author writes about the survivalists contributing
	to the breakdown of the central government and presents a view of the
	phenomenona that I have not previously seen in science fiction.