The Dog Stars📖

Canis Major, the constellation shown in the book’s cover. It can be seen in Colorado’s skies during the Winter months. Till Credner, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Dog Stars is a novel that occurs after an apocalyptic pandemic. The main character, Hig, survives in isolation with just two companions, Bangley, the gun-nut, and Jasper, the faithful dog. It is, still, not so much a post-apocalypse book as an interpersonal relationships and connection story, of course, set in an extreme context.

The world of The Dog Stars is dangerous and unwelcoming. Survival is not easy and not just because of the lack of civilization, and one of the main dangers are other survivors. The book shows this well, not only with what happens during the story, but also in the way the characters think and react. There’s a constant check on safety and risk assessment even by Hig, who is not up to Bangley’s standards of survival skills by himself.

The relationship of Hig with Bangley is a curious one. It starts purely transactional – each has something to offer the other –, and by the time the novel starts Hig is asking himself how they stand with one another. They have been living together almost a decade with no one else to communicate, and still there are times that they show they know surprisingly little about each other.

▽ A Cessna 182, very similar to Hig’s Beast (this is a 1958 model instead of his 1956 one). FlugKerl2, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Cessna 182, very similar to Hig’s Beast (this is a 1958 model instead of his 1956 one).

The text is extremely terse, and at times broken. It seems to be a reflection of Hig’s trauma and lack of human connection, and maybe an after-effect of having gone through the illness that ended up killing almost everyone. It can require an effort to read, especially at the beginning before getting used to it. There’s also no quotes being used. Any comments or things said have to be figured out by context. There will be occasions one is not sure whether a character said something or Hig just thought of it, and needs to continue reading to know which. This is an effective way of showing Hig’s mental state, but it does require a bigger effort from the reader.

There are long passages describing nature and some activities like river fishing. They are a big part of the characters and it shows in the text. They were, though, tougher for me to get through. I can’t complain about the quality of the text, or the fit in the story, but it did break a bit the flow for me. I think this is certainly a “me thing” instead of a big flaw in the text.

The edition I read includes a “Reading Group Guide” by the author himself. It can also be found online(1) (1)But of course, don’t read until after reading the book. as a “Readers Guide”. I think it’s a very good addition and do wish more books included one. At the end of the guide, there are also some suggested reading, and basically the few there that I haven’t read have just joined my “to be read” pile.

So, I do recommend the book, but would comment on the pacing issues I faced and the effort that reading will take. I did enjoy it in the end, and am glad about having read it. I read it due to it being recommended by a friend, but apparently it’s also going to be a film soon. It is a very film-able book, and if Ridley Scott makes a half decent job it will be quite a good one(2) (2)I still haven’t seen the film, of course, but would still recommend reading the book in any case. .