The Postman
| The Postman | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
|
| Author(s) | David Brin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Post-apocalyptic science-fiction |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
| Publication date | 1985 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 294 pp |
| ISBN | 0-553-05107-5 |
| OCLC Number | 12215763 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 19 |
| LC Classification | PS3552.R4825 P6 1985 |
The Postman (1985), is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by David Brin. A drifter stumbles across the uniform of an old United States Postal Service letter carrier and with empty promises of aid from the "Restored United States of America," gives hope to a community threatened by local warlords. The first two parts were published separately as "The Postman" (1982) and "Cyclops" (1984). Both were nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novella. The completed novel was awarded first prize in the John W. Campbell Award's for the best science fiction novel of the year in 1986,[1] and won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel that same year.[1] It was also nominated for Hugo[1] and Nebula[2] awards for best novel.
In 1997, a film adaptation starring Kevin Costner was made of the novel.
Contents |
Plot summary [edit]
 |
This section needs an improved plot summary. (March 2013) |
Despite the post-apocalyptic scenario and several action sequences, the book is largely about civilization and symbols. Each of the three sections deals with a different symbol.
The first is the Postman himself, Gordon Krantz, who takes the uniform solely for warmth after he loses everything but his sleeping clothes. He wanders without establishing himself anywhere, and acts in scenes of William Shakespeare for supplies. Originally a student at the University of Minnesota, he has traveled west to Oregon in the aftermath of the world-wide chaos that resulted from several EMPs, the destruction of major cities, and the release of bioweapons. Taking shelter in a long-abandoned postal van, he finds a sack of mail and takes it to a nearby community to barter for food and shelter. His initial assertions to be a real postman builds, not because of a deliberate fraud (at least initially), but because people are desperate to believe in him and the Restored United States.
Later, in the second section, he encounters a community, Corvallis, Oregon, which is led by Cyclops, who is apparently a sentient artificial intelligence created at Oregon State University which miraculously survived the cataclysm. In reality, however, the machine ceased functioning during a battle and a group of scientists merely maintain the pretense of it working to try and keep hope, order, and knowledge alive.
Eventually, in the third section, as the Postman joins forces with Cyclops' scientists in a war against an influx of "hypersurvivalists", he begins to find that the hypersurvivalists are being pressed from Oregon's Rogue River area to the south as well. The hypersurvivalists are more commonly referred to as Holnists, after their founder, Nathan Holn. (Many times through the book, curses are uttered which damn Holn for his actions.) Nathan Holn was an author who championed a virulently violent, misogynistic, and hypersurvivalist society. Holn himself is said to have been hanged sometime before the events in the novel, but in the time following what should have been a brief period of civil disorder, followers of Holn prevented the United States from recovering from the limited war and the plagues that followed.
As the story ends, he comes close to the Holnists' southern enemy and finds traces of them, primarily in the symbol that they rally behind: the Bear Flag of California. The final scenes of the novel give the impression that the three symbols may come together in an effort to revive civilization.
Another message of the plot deals with the backstory of the post-apocalyptic world: specifically, that it was not the electronics-destroying electromagnetic pulses, nor the destruction of major cities, nor the release of various bio-engineered plagues that actually destroyed society, but rather, it was the Holnists themselves, those who maintained large stockpiles of weapons and ammunition and preyed on humanitarian workers and other symbols of civilization.
Translations [edit]
- Japanese: "ポストマン" ("The Postman"), 1988, 1998
- German: "Gordons Berufung" ("Gordon's Vocation"), 1989
- Russian: "Почтальон" ("The Postman"), 1992, 1995, 1998, 2002, 2004
- Hungarian: "A jövő hírnöke" ("The Messenger of the Future"), 1998
- Turkish: "Postacı" ("The Postman"), 1998
- Italian: "L'uomo del giorno dopo" ("The Man of the Day After"), 1987
- Bulgarian: "Пощальонът" ("The Postman"), 1998
- Spanish: "El Cartero" ("The Postman"), 1998, 2008
References [edit]
- ^ a b c "1986 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
- ^ "1985 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
External links [edit]
- The Postman title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Postman: The Movie, An Impression by the Author of the Original Novel by David Brin
- The Postman at Worlds Without End
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2006) |
