The Dog Stars by Peter Heller: Review

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller is set in a post-apocalyptic near future. The “apocalyptic” event in this story is a pandemic that had happened off-screen, nine years earlier. Those who survived the ‘blood sickness’ are few and far between, but most of them you don’t want to meet. It is every man for himself, as is often the case in a post apocalypse. Our main character, Hig, is a pilot. He and his partner, Bangley, have made a small airport in Colorado their home base. Bangley is fanatical survivalist. We don’t like Bangley very much, but it is probably true that his presence has kept Hig alive. Banley’s attitude is shoot first and . . . well, don’t even bother asking questions, just shoot. Bangley thinks Hig is too full of the milk of human kindness, and he is probably right. As much as we detest Bangley, without him there to teach him and to look out for him, Hig would have long ago become dog meat.

Having secured this airport and setting it up so they can see people coming from miles away, Hig and Bangley and Hig’s dog are about as comfortable as they can be in that situation. Hig has access to a comfortable amount of aviation fuel so he can scout the surrounding area in his little plane and even make occasional mercy flights to the Mennonites who are camped some miles away. He hunts and fishes though many of the common species have become extinct in the area.

But something haunts Hig. Three years ago while flying, he heard radio communications from the Grand Junction Airport. It was brief and he could not get them back. It was also too far to fly to Grand Junction and back on a single tank of fuel, so he never investigated. But it was out there, the possibility of civilization or at least human contact. One of these days he is going to try it.

The style of this writing is unique. It is clipped and run together. There are no quotation marks, so you are not always 100% sure if someone is talking. It is poetic, almost stream of consciousness. Sounds like a horrible confusing jumble, right? No. Actually it does not take long to become acclimated to the writing style. It kind of fits the world he is living in.

This book has similarities to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. While there are some sad moments in this story, it is not nearly as depressing as The Road. As much as I would not like living in this world, I very much enjoyed reading about it.

Star Liner

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