From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Dog Stars

Peter Heller

Start date: April 16, 2015

Finish date: May 1, 2015

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Why we're reading this: MAY 1ST, DISCUSSION BEGINS.
Chosen by our "book dictator" Joanne, The Dog Stars is a popular post-apocaly…more
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MAY 1ST, DISCUSSION BEGINS.
Chosen by our "book dictator" Joanne, The Dog Stars is a popular post-apocalyptic book (flu pandemic) we've not read in the group, so we're about to change that...

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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

* What is a good book for AW discussion? (Nominations pool)
By Gertie · 65 posts · 218 views

last updated Oct 18, 2025 05:31PM

* AW Book Club: what we've read
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last updated Dec 10, 2019 09:01AM

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What Members Thought

Aug 26, 2013 Annet rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: apocalyptic

Wow!!!! 4,5 stars. Review to follow, but 'd*mn', wow! Recommended, also as contender as book of the year 2013.... more to follow. Poetic, raw, sensitive, shocking, apocalyptic, can it be combined? yes..... ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Jun 07, 2019 Judy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, my-2019-books

I adored this story and the characters and was so sorry when it ended. Hig is a 40-something year old man who survived the nasty flu pandemic the killed nearly everyone else, including his wife. He lives with his dog at an abandoned airport where he has stockpiled fuel for his small airplane and enough weapons to allow him to fight off anyone wishing him harm. His neighbor Bangley is a tough humorless man who seems to not mind the lack of company the pandemic provided and prides himself on being ...more

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Jan 30, 2013 ambimb rated it it was amazing

Shelves: apocalypse

I realize I've set the bar pretty low by reading so much poppy, pulp trash for so long, but this book still stands out — above — most of the other post-apocalyptic novels I've been strangely unable to stop myself from reading. (Yes, "The Twelve" has literary qualities and ambitions, but its still much too reliant on its plotting and the cosmology of its vampires to make it much more than a really good thriller.) Dog Stars is not so concerned about how society ended, or even really precisely abou I realize I've set the bar pretty low by reading so much poppy, pulp trash for so long, but this book still stands out — above — most of the other post-apocalyptic novels I've been strangely unable to stop myself from reading. (Yes, "The Twelve" has literary qualities and ambitions, but its still much too reliant on its plotting and the cosmology of its vampires to make it much more than a really good thriller.) Dog Stars is not so concerned about how society ended, or even really precisely about how it continues (although, in a sense, that is exactly what it's about), but instead focuses on the losses and the grieving and the psychological battle of a survivor to be more than just a being that continues to live. The costs of survival are staggering, and so we follow Hig as he staggers, often literally, through some of the most beautiful yet desolate PA landscapes (both geographical and emotional) you may ever encounter.

Hig's narrative voice feels fresh to me, which was unexpected and welcome. When I started it I thought the pseudo-stream-of-consciousness was going to be tedious and that I might struggle getting through it, but not at all. Despite spending the whole novel in Hig's addled head, I was never bored and the action, his dogged determination to get more from what is left of life, pulled me right along.

Plus, I have to say, there are some nice turns of phrase and beautiful ideas and bits of language sprinkled throughout that make your reading a surprising treat. It's not overdone, not like Heller was trying to hard to be "literary." It's just well-done, which makes it great. Example, this oft-highlighted passage: "Grief is an element. It has it's own cycle like the carbon cycle, the nitrogen. It never diminishes not ever. It passes in and out of everything." 115.

Or this: "Nothing to lose is so empty, so light, that the sand you crumble to at last blows away in a gust, so insubstantial it's carried upwards to shirr into the sandstorm of the stars. That's where we all get to. The rest is just wearing thin waiting for wind." 197.

Even one of the sex scenes — in which Hig imagines himself and his partner disintegrating, blown apart, the remains of their bodies raining down on them like ash in the moments after climax — is well-done, and we all know that is no easy task.

And Jasper and Hig's love for him have got to be among the great man-loves-dog stories of all time.

Good stuff. Recommended. ...more

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Nov 07, 2013 Devin rated it really liked it

I kept waiting to see what kind of corner Peter Heller would paint himself into with this post-apocalyptic tale. It's never clear where, if anywhere, this particular story can go without violating some part of its vivid parts. A narrator who pushes onward as a pilot more than nine years after the world has succumbed to a pandemic. His dog. His gun-nut ally. The whispers of other survivors in Colorado. The ruthless beating back of scavengers. It's a grim tale and it stays grim. But it does seep i ...more

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