The Dog Stars is a post-apocalyptic tale of a pilot in North America who goes by the name of Hig. Big Hig, his prepper-turned-survivalist ‘mate’ Bangley, and his dog Jasper have carved out a fairly safe refuge at a regional airport, left empty at the end of the world. They spend their days farming, salvaging, hunting, and going on recon flights around the area. Hig and Bangley have a fractured yet symbiotic relationship that is not without turmoil. Hig’s a big ol’ softy, see, who makes time to visit ‘the families’ of diseased folk who live near by and bring them supplies. He disappears into the mountains with his dog for fishing trips, leaving Bangley to man the fort (literally) while he gets his precious Me Time. Together, Hig and Bangley occasionally have to fight off the odd band of marauders, but generally they have a peaceful and well-supplied existence aided by Hig’s cessna and fuel stabilizer in ample supply.
Until Jasper dies.
It happens fairly on in the book and sets up the course for the rest of the novel, so I don’t feel that is a spoiler, as such.
Hig falls apart when Jasper passes away peacefully on one of their mountain fishing trips. By this point in the post-apocalypse life, Hig has lost his wife and now his best friend. He spirals, gets reckless, and takes flight to go in search of meaning or purpose or an end.
This was not a bad book by any stretch, but the odd and disjointed writing style was fairly off putting for the first half of the book. This is an example of a typical sentence:
“For the dog he said. Angry. Because I didn’t do my job. To him.”
There are very few quotation marks used throughout, which can make it hard to tell who (if anyone) is speaking in any given scene. This style of disjointed sentence structure is at its peak in the first few chapters, while the story is getting up and running. For that reason, I’d be hesitant to recommend this book outright. If you are looking for your next post-apocalyptic tale, maybe get your hands on a sample or borrow this from your library before committing. I was eventually able to settle into the strangely written narrative, but judging by reviews from others – it can be too much to ask.
Overall, 3 recklessly scavenged cans of Dr Pepper out of 5.