The Dog Stars

This book wasn't what I expected. I read the summary and it stuck with me for months. Finally I borrowed it from the library and decided to give it a try. The writing style is.... different. It reminded me of a style that some high school english teacher would praise as being “classic”. It was simply bizarre. It felt like one of those movies where you follow a guy around in the wilderness for awhile, watching his mundane life until this little climax happens. Usually in the form of an animal attack or something like that....

I thought that Hig would be living alone in the wilderness, then not far into the book he's go in search of this mysterious radio call. Even if he spent most of the book flying on his way there, it sounded like an adventure. Instead, the first 1/2 of the book covers his boring life in the wilderness, trying to survive with his aging dog Jasper and his psycho neighbor Bangley. Their conversations don't use quotation marks. That makes it even more confusing to read. Half the time I couldn't tell if they were actually talking or if it was just a conversation in his own head.

The second half of the book focuses on following the radio call. That is... if you can call it following. I wont say more at the risk of spoilers. It really did feel like one of those books that an english teacher praises and most of the students are left going “huh”? Then there are those few oddball students who say they loved the book and want to read more like it.

Would I recommend this? Most likely no. There is a very few select people who I think would enjoy this, but the audience seems pretty narrow. I was excited about the premise, but this left me unsatisfied.

Well, I don't recommend reading this book while the COVID-19 pandemic is raging, as it deals with a devastating flu pandemic that has very nearly wiped out the human race and, combined with advanced global warming, has made the earth a pretty tough place to live. Nonetheless, a guy, Hig, has found his place, sharing a territory with another guy, Bangley, and they have an odd co-existence. Aside from the premise that was just science fiction when it was written, which is just too horrible to contemplate right now, I found the book pretty melodramatic and overdone. A little too much crying, for example, given how much hardship Hig has endured over the 9 years since civilization went to hell. The voice is interesting, but annoying, with a steady stream of fragments and single words. I guess in the fictional world the disease spread too fast to develop a vaccine–I don't think the word was mentioned once in the book–but I'm grateful our world has one for COVID-19. Hope it works. (I listened to the audio version of the book but also had a print copy in which I could follow along.)

Well, this was certainly a timely read. A killer flu epidemic accompanied by a blood disease has emptied North America (and presumably the whole world) of almost everyone. It is a grim world. The few survivors are mostly prey and predators – sometimes both at once. Even if you aren't a stone-cold killer, you had best be prepared to act like one if you want to survive.
Hig, the protagonist of this story, has learned that lesson well. He and his dog Jasper have teamed up with Bangley, a gun-loving and very competent survivor with a mysterious past. Together they have managed to survive nine years. But Hig yearns for something more, a life less dark. Will he survive to find it?
The writing is beautiful and literary in spite of the dark subject. Heller is very good with descriptive language.
However, at one point he apparently makes a howler of a botanical mistake by placing a warm-weather, low-land species up in the mountains. That took me right out of the story, and I had to stop and reset my brain before continuing. If it was on purpose to indicate climate change perhaps, well ... I still don't buy it because mountains. (I won't say what the plant is. If you don't know, it shouldn't bother you.)
Solid four stars.

A serious veer off My Path to Read Happier Books. I have loved reading apocalyptic books since I was a teen, so how could I skip this one, a book that's gotten a lot of great press?

Since nobody really warned me, I'll let you in on a few things. It's dark, dark, dark. It's big B Bleak. There are a few humans left alive on earth. Most of the ones left alive are constantly thinking about how to stab or shoot or trap the many, many threats out there in this new world. Shooting and fighting on every page.

Great writing, of course, and lots of truth, but a major downer.

I regret that I listened to the audio version of this book instead of reading it with my own eyes. I think I would have better appreciated the writer's style. I liked the premise, plot and characters. The short sentences and tightly edited phrases throughout did not work for me. I wanted some variety in the pace. The audio performance gave this book a monotoned, robotic feel.

I skimmed it – not a huge fan of the writing style, but I felt the main character was well-developed and I loved his relationship with his dog. And of course it felt very “of the moment” with the pandemic we're now living through. I hope our ending is better than the situation described in this book.

I described The Dog Stars to a friend as a cross between Cormac McCarthy and Jack London. The former for the grim post-apocalyptic setting and the latter for the lyrical descriptions of adventure. Thankfully, this book is not a depressing as The Road. I'm hoping to read more fiction fromPeter Heller in the future... if a super flu doesn't wipe us all out first.

2019 edit: I came back to upgrade my rating from 4 to 5 stars. I still think of this book and Heller's lyrical prose frequently.