The Dog Stars

by Peter Heller

Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley.
 
But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.

• ISBN10: 0307959945
• ISBN13: 9780307959942
• Publish Date: 7 August 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 319
• Language: English

Reviews

[lisacee]

A different sort of post-apocalyptic book, where people are very few and nature is in power. Beautifully written, told through Hig's slightly addled mind, this book made me want to get away from it all. Go live off the grid and from the earth.

[lovelybookshelf]

Originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:

The Dog Stars has the standard elements of the usual post-apocalyptic novel: most of humanity has been wiped out, in this case due to a flu and then a blood disease; the protagonists defend their territory from the (mostly) antagonistic groups of people who remain; there is grief for what has been lost, and the ever-enduring hope for a better future and finding others like them; there are even a couple of action scenes.

But the novel's delivery gives a unique spin. This is Hig's story, told from his point of view, and wow, is it ever fragmented. Poor grammar, incomplete sentences that just kind of drift off... No quotation marks; sometimes you have to really concentrate to figure out if he's talking to himself or to another. Hig refers to himself a "brain-cooked human." I believe it because, wow, sometimes he is downright incoherent, but he mentions he was a writer before the flu hit. This approach is a daring choice on the author's part, one I felt added to the post-apocalyptic confusion and fight to survive.

While reading, my mood went back and forth between the knot in your stomach you get watching The Walking Dead, and the overwhelming loneliness of a Jack London novel. It was an odd mix for me. The middle slowed down a bit, but that didn't last too long. Overall, I did enjoy The Dog Stars, I just didn't have many strong feelings about it either way.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

The Dog Stars is really a stylised book full of interesting characters and quirks. Peter Heller's novel is a story of a pilot Hig’s who has survived a pandemic flu that has killed off most of the world’s population. He’s lot his wife and is living in a hangar of an abandoned airfield with his dog and his only neighbour is a misanthrope. He is now living in a world filled with loss, what will he risk to rediscover himself and reconnect with other survivors? Will he go against all odds just to make a connection?

This book has an interesting blend of literary fiction and dystopian adventure, it reminds me a little of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in that aspect. The characters are great in the book, with their flaws and interesting personalities. I think Peter Haller did a great job with the characters. The book at times tends to be dark and gritty which works well with the sense of the end of the world and the violence that would assume such an event. But then at times the book seems over descriptive and sometimes feels too flowery and nice which never really seemed to match this dystopian novel.

There are so many great elements in this book but there are other aspects of the book that didn’t work for me. My main problem with the narrative; it felt almost experimental, trying to do something that didn’t quite work for this style of book. It is written in a first person perspective but also written in a past tense, so you have a feeling that everything will be ok and no sense of tension throughout the novel. At times the sentence feels broken and disjointed, I’m not sure if this is an attempt to show that the narrator is unreliable but I don’t think it worked too well in this kind of novel.

The Dog Stars is a remarkably unique novel and there are some great aspects of this novel to sink your teeth into. It was a captivating and enjoyable ride; even if I had issues with the narrative and at times felt bored with the story. The characters in the novel were definitely the highlight of this book but the adventure was helped move the plot along. Personally if I compare this book with Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road, I would recommend it over The Dog Stars, but this doesn’t mean you should overlook this novel.