Thursday 29 November 2012

The Postman by David Brin


While perusing the bookstore this weekend, I noticed that Orbit has released a new edition of David Brin’s The Postman. Since I have been meaning to read the book for years, I figured this was a good excuse to pick it up.  

While I enjoyed the book, it fell far short of the classic for which I was hoping. The first half of the book is a fun, tense story of survival, discovery, and the dawning of hope for new future, but the second half bogs down in a mish-mash of different themes and ideas that don’t completely seem to fit together. I got the impression that the author didn’t fully know where the book was going, and perhaps forced it to its conclusion instead of letting it fully develop.

Still, I read the book in less than three days, so it certainly pulled me along and kept me entertained.  In the rather thin sub-genre of post-apocalyptic works, it probably stands as one of the better ones, but in the larger world of science-fiction and fantasy, it certainly doesn’t crack the top 100. 

3 comments:

  1. Is this the one that the film with Kevin Costner in, is based on then?

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  2. That's the one. I saw it years and years ago. I think the plot of the book and the plot of the movie diverge about halfway through.

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  3. There are better books by David Brin out there. My favorite is Startide Rising, which deservedly won both a Hugo and Nebula. It's part of the "Uplift Saga" which starts with Sundiver, but Startide Rising was written first and stands on its own pretty well.

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