The Dog Stars

The Dogs Stars by Peter Heller is a dystopian story about humanity post-sickness and what people will do to survive.

Hig and Bangley now live at a small airport near Denver. Hig is a pilot who flies over the wide fields surrounding their home to make sure no other survivors are trying to sneak up on them. Hig thinks of Bangley as a gun-happy survivalist who, for some reason, thinks they work well together. Their uneasy friendship gives them both a better chance of survival. 

It has been nine years since the sickness and then the bloods that killed most people. In the first couple of years after they found the airport, Hig and Bangley had to defend themselves against armed groups a few times. Now Hig sleeps, not in the house with electricity, but being a berm in the field with his dog Jasper. The house with the lights is the easy target that allows them time to react to anyone sneaking in. 

For as long as the fuel lasts, Hig will fly. He figures he has a while left before the rest goes bad, and then there are additives to extend its life. He uses the plane, not only to scout, but to visit the Mennonite families with the blood disease to trade vegetables, and to the highway as a treat to pick up cases of soda from a crashed semi on the highway.

But Hig cannot get out of his head that twice he has heard a radio response from Grand Junction.  

Heller has written an award-winning novel of dystopian fiction. This book will keep readers on edge, worried about what will happen to Hig. And Heller’s writing is so beautiful. Read all of his books. 

Heller, Peter. (2012). The Dog Stars. NY: Alfred A Knopf.