Judiciously Recommending "The Dog Stars"

Here's a new novel for all you post-apocalyptic fiction fans. Yes, I realize that this is becoming a rather saturated segment of the book market, but bear with me. In this one, there is no capital, there is no arena. No aliens, no districts. There is just a broken world. And it’s definitely not written for the young adult market.

The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller, is set in the not-at-all-distant future. A flu pandemic wiped out most of the population 10 years earlier, but Hig has survived it. Global warming is also on the rise, so some of the natural world around him is dying and changing. Hig and another survivor, a crusty older man named Bangley, live on a makeshift compound at an airstrip in Colorado. Together they have created a perimeter to keep roaming survivors, who are all considered armed and dangerous, out of their territory. Hig also still has his dog, Jasper, who gives him the companionship he so desperately needs since the death of his wife and just about everyone else.

There is an element of bleakness in this novel, particularly in the horrors that people perpetrate on each other in the wake of the disaster, that mirrors The Road by Cormac McCarthy. However, Heller is, among other things, a writer for Outside Magazine and National Geographic Adventure, and his love for nature and the outdoors is evident. Amidst the grim survivalism of the story, Hig makes his way into the mountains, ostensibly to fish and hunt, but mostly to surround himself with beauty and ease his sorrow. Heller’s description of the natural world is lovely, and Hig’s situation is sometimes achingly real to the reader—he is still alive and he still has a desire to live; he is a man of constant sorrow, but he still seeks and recognizes beauty.

There are a couple of gruesome moments, understandable given the situation that the character is in, as well as some language that makes me hesitate to recommend the book to just anyone. There are also a couple of moments where you must suspend disbelief—it seemed he needed to solve a problem or two with the plot. Furthermore, aspects of the storyline read like male fantasy to me. Yet I loved reading it, and I gave it to my husband to read almost immediately because I knew he would love it too. Neither of us could put it down.

The Dog Stars depicts a man caught in the valley of death, unable to give up on hope and beauty.