In some path , The Dog Stars by Peter Heller is a cozy sort of post - apocalyptic novel . As the novel begin , the main character has a pretty comfortable life , with spate of supplies and a dependable topographic point to sleep . He has a pet heel and a buddy who help keep him safe from the roving bands of heroic people willing to kill for food . And yet , the first half of The Dog Stars wee-wee a persuasive cause that the most horrifying fate after the collapse of civilisation might actually be having a modicum of comfort — because of the things you ’d have to do to preserve it .
Spoilers onward …
The Dog Stars is a beautifully written record book with a moderately unproblematic floor . In a nutshell , some kind of mutate grippe wipes out 99 percent of the human race . And meanwhile , global mood change wipes out a lot of the wildlife , although there are still plenty of some brute around . The main character , Hig , hold out in a abandoned onetime McMansion , with just his hound and a survivalist named Bangley for company . And Hig and Bangley moderately much praxis a “ shoot first and ask questions later ” policy when it comes to unknown — Bangley has built a huge sniper tug and a massive arsenal , allowing him to belt down anyone who even comes near their house . And Hig has a small plane which he flies around , reconnoiter for potential menace and occasionally help with the slaughter .
Oh , and Hig wo n’t resort to cannibalism himself — in fact , he ’s pretty honorable at hunting the remaining wildlife — but he does fee dead mass to his dog . correctly around the time you take in Hig murder a man over an abandoned truck with a few cans of Coca Cola in it — and then seek to feed the gentleman’s gentleman ’s remains to his frankfurter — you ’re not only certain you ’re say about the dependable guy here .
Meanwhile , Hig has picked up a mysterious signal from Grand Junction , which is outside the range where he could fly is plane and still have enough fuel to fly back home . The signaling make it voice as though there ’s still a functioning , fully staff aerodrome at Grand Junction — but Hig lets a few years go by without investigating . Until things start to flow apart in his comfortable nest .
I wo n’t give away what happens in the second one-half of the book — but suffice to say that it gets considerably less disturbing and alarm in the 2d one-half . And you ’re not really register this book for the secret plan , but more for the sluggish boil of the characters coping with their new survivalist creation .
The written material in this book is beautifully thin . Here ’s a passage early on , where Hig is describe helping Bangley to take out a group of seven heavily armed interloper :
It was three of them that live the first volley and after that we had our first bona fide firefight . But they did n’t have night goggles and they did n’t make out the terrain and so it did n’t take long .
Later , ruminate the mystery of his sorta - friend Bangley , who ’s so comfortable kill everyone who moves and not at all well-off with any kind of intimacy or communicating , the narrator says :
Also I wonder how Bangley is build within and everyone like him . He is as at rest home with his purdah as the note reverberating inside a bell . opt it . Will protect it to the decease . Lives for protecting it the path a peregrine dwell for kill other birds midflight . Does not want to communicate what the death and the beauty do to each other inside him .
Bangley believe , essentially , in a world where everyone is “ out for himself , ” and there ’s not much point in reach out to other mass — he only mold an alliance with Hig because Hig can aviate the plane , and Hig and his hound provide an early warning system of rules for dark - metre attackers . Bangley is a profoundly unlikable character , who makes fun of Hig for experience any human feelings at all , and only really seems to come awake when he ’s slaughtering the great unwashed .
And meanwhile , despite the business of feed mass to his dog , Hig start out to emerge as a essentially decorous person in a horrible world , someone who wants to do the right thing . He gives us just enough information about his former lifetime , before the collapse of everything , that you’re able to ideate being like him . And he once in a while looks in on a little residential district of Mennonites who are wasting away with the rip sickness .
Heller ’s authorship is starkly simple , and plain pass on for Hemingway - esque thinness . But he manages to admit some really prominent images and bit of phrase here and there , like the whimsey of “ unzip ” the bones of a newly caught Pisces .
The other room this book really shines is in the aid to technical item — it feel very much like the part of someone who live with the guns and the airplane as vital tools of every daytime survival . The penning is surprisingly exact , and full of little proficient details about shooting or flying — and a lot of the second half of the book hinges on a very close reading material of the airplane ’s instructional manual , as to precisely how long a runway you need to take off , depending on the amount of weight the plane is carrying . The intensity of the geekery in this book is quite telling .
But the second half , which we wo n’t really get into here , is what makes The Dog wizard more than just another “ long slog through the dismal post - apocalypse ” book . Some clobber go on that open up Hig ’s worked up human beings , and allows you to see him from the other side a spot .
And most of all , we finally see Bangley — the emotionally stunted murderer who makes the first half of the book so unpleasant — in a mark new lighter . The ending of the book flips thing around somewhat , and you see Bangley as a more nuanced , and mayhap even a somewhat nobler , graphic symbol than you thought you were date before . This reverse is more or less miraculous , and finally make you earn that you ’ve been take , not just a specially intense post - revelatory tale , but also a with child eccentric study .
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