Skip to Main Content

Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Is It Available?

Title

The Dog Stars

Peter Heller

Review

I thought that perhaps I’d had my fill of post-apocalyptic novels- but I was wrong.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Dog Stars.

The novel opens into a world defined by the collapse of society- there has been a terrible flu epidemic, and what few survivors are left must fight (sometimes to the death) for everything they have.  The hero of the novel is Hig, we don’t know his last name- it’s a world that doesn’t need too many identifiers.  Hig’s only companions are Jasper, his dog, and Bangley, his military-minded friend.

Hig is a pilot- he survives in the only place he knows, his local airport.  He is able to fly the perimeter on patrol to watch for potential human threats.  He is alive when he flies- it’s his salvation.  A few years ago he heard a ghostly transmission from an airport that was too far to fly on the fuel he had.  The decision Hig must face is a decision between what is safe and known, and the unknown possible human connections at the other airport.

The plot of this novel moves quickly, and Peter Heller writes in a manner that feels natural to the nature of the story.  When you read this story it’s easy to imagine the loss the characters feel, the intensity of the loneliness they must endure. ~ Emily Z. Brown

Review Date

Reviewed March 2013