When Gordon hears rumors of a working supercomputer operating out of Corvallis, he hopes to find something more substantial to rest his hopes on than his own flimsy lies. And although Gordon feels guilty for lying to them, the legend has a way of propelling him forward into ever more grandiose fabrications. He explains that he’s here on the west coast as their emissary. He convinces people there’s a government back in St. As a performer, he’s the perfect fit for the part. What would a good moral novel be without a big lie? As Gordon travels through Oregon, from small town to isolated community, he meets people who fall in love with the legend he’s spun. In exchange, he gives them hope-and one hell of a good story. ![]() It gives him a cover story for his travels and opens the door to distrustful communities. Though he never intended to do so, Gordon eventually departs carrying their mail-letters to lost loved ones living in distant towns. His jacket and hat and leather mailbag set people’s imaginations afire. But the real act he’s performing, unknown even to himself, is that of a postman. Gordon travels to a small community where he earns his room and board by performing Shakespeare plays from memory. Eventually he finds the aforementioned jacket of a long-dead postal worker, and it saves his life.įrom there, things get even more interesting. The story gallops along at that pace for thirty or forty pages, fully immersing you in Gordon Krantz’s life-or-death flight from a group of bandits who stole his supplies. Brin’s prose is rich and sharp, and he pulls you into action from chapter one. It takes place in a world that’s been devastated by nuclear war. The Postman isn’t all kittens and sunshine. They piqued my interest at “he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker”, and sank the hook with “symbol of hope.” I’ve always been somewhat of a romantic, and I was dying to know what an optimistic post-apocalypse world would look like after reading dark ones like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. This is the story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth. 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. He was a survivor-a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating war.įate touches him one chill winter’s day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect him from the cold. Some of the tech was a little dated, but I love stories of hope with a science fiction twist. It was a great story, full of action and popcorn philosophy, set in a dark and dangerous post-apocalyptic Oregon. Postal Service to inspire people, and I picked up the novel for the first time. I was hooked by the concept of reviving the U.S. ![]() While Brin’s book has little to do with our current postal predicament, the idea of a hopeful post-apocalyptic novel intrigued me when I saw it come across my news feed. As the struggle over the USPS slowdowns and financial trouble burns in the media, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel from 1985 resurfaces: David Brin’s The Postman.
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