The Dog Stars

By: Peter Heller

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

A riveting, powerful novel about a pilot living in a world filled with loss - and what he is willing to risk to rediscover, against all odds, connection, love, and grace.

Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, his only neighbor a gun-toting misanthrope. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and to pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life - something like his old life - exists beyond the airport.

Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return - not enough fuel to get him home - following the trail of the static-broken voice on the radio. But what he encounters and what he must face - in the people he meets, and in himself - is both better and worse than anything he could have hoped for.

Narrated by a man who is part warrior and part dreamer, a hunter with a great shot and a heart that refuses to harden, The Dog Stars is both savagely funny and achingly sad, a breathtaking story about what it means to be human.

©2012 Peter Heller (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Richly evocative yet streamlined journal entries propel the high-stakes plot while simultaneously illuminating Hig's nuanced states of mind as isolation and constant vigilance exact their toll, along with his sorrow for the dying world.... Heller's surprising and irresistible blend of suspense, romance, social insight, and humor creates a cunning form of cognitive dissonance neatly pegged by Hig as an apocalyptic parody of Norman Rockwell...a novel, that is, of spiky pleasure and signal resonance." ( Booklist)

"In the tradition of postapocalyptic literary fiction such as Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Jim Crace's The Pesthouse, this hypervisceral first novel by adventure writer Heller ( Kook) takes place nine years after a superflu has killed off much of mankind.... With its evocative descriptions of hunting, fishing, and flying, this novel, perhaps the world's most poetic survival guide, reads as if Billy Collins had novelized one of George Romero's zombie flicks. From start to finish, Heller carries the reader aloft on graceful prose, intense action, and deeply felt emotion." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Leave it to Peter Heller to imagine a post-apocalyptic world that contains as much loveliness as it does devastation. His likable hero, Hig, flies around what was once Colorado in his 1956 Cessna, chasing all the same things we chase in these pre-annihilation days: love, friendship, the solace of the natural world, the chance to perform some small kindness, and a good dog for a co-pilot. The Dog Stars is a wholly compelling and deeply engaging debut." (Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted)

Wonderful "read"

Where does The Dog Stars rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In the top 20%

What did you like best about this story?

Love stories about survival after the near end of the world - this one delved deeply into the human emotional side

Which character – as performed by Mark Deakins – was your favorite?

The protagonist

Who was the most memorable character of The Dog Stars and why?

The protagonist - his self reflection and evolution as a survivor

Any additional comments?

The author should pay more attention to having an editor review the manuscript for logical errors - any character this clever would not have made some of the mistakes in the book

Remarkable story telling

I really liked this book from the start! Very copmpelling story line and characters. I have read and thourougly enjoyed another Peter Heller book, "The River ".

Pleasantly Surprised

I got this title due to an interview with Peter Heller that I heard on the radio. I've always had a soft spot for "End of the World as We know it" stories. I read "Earth Abides many years ago and many times since and love it. "Dahlgren" by Delaney, while freaky as all get out, kept me riveted even though I didn't understand half of it. And of course, there's "The Change" series by S.M. Stirling. If you're looking for something along any of these stories lines, forget it. The plot is pretty basic but it's the presentation of the characters and setting the I found remarkable. Heller's love for poetry saturates his writing. It's like he can't help it. The book reads like one big poem with lots of stream of consciousness thrown in. Don't let that turn you off though. Mark Deakins, the reader, goes through this book so smoothly that it took me a while to realize exactly what Heller was trying, and succeeding, to do. The book is entirely written in the first person from the viewpoint of the main character named Higg. Heller conveys Higg's thoughts, feelings, emotions and motivations beautifully without being overly verbose. Like poetry, it is language stripped down to it's barest essentials but with full meaning. No small feat.
It may be that this could be a difficult book to read. I'm glad that I listened to it on an audio book.

Beautifully written

This is a beautifully written story. You very much get inside the character's head. The very brief "love scene" is important to the story and so beautifully written out. Not crude or graphic in the least. I would absolutely read something written by this author again.

Great story and the aviation details were accurate

I'm a big fan of the post-apocalyptic genera and I work in the aviation industry. The characters fit well into the story and acted like you would expect. The drama was great and the situations were beliveable and exciting. But, what I found most pleasing was that the author is obviously an aviator. All to often aviation is used in a story by someone without all of (or many of the wrong) facts and it kills the book for me. The aviation details in this book are, for the most part, spot on. That might not mean much to most people, but it made the book all the more fun for me.

good story ..

leaves you wanting more, takes you to the point of hope and leaves you to answer what if's

Great book and narration.

I loved this book and narrator. It was a very humanly emotional story with some really tense moments and action.

Overall PERFECT

The book itself was deep emotionally and descriptive geographically. Every scene was laid out to give you a perfect picture. The narrator was great too. The characters inflections were just enough to sound right without going over the top. I really enjoyed it!

A great love story to humanity and a dog

What an absolute blast to enjoy. loved it the whole way through. would recommend to anyone looking for a good post-apocalyptic story. The narrator did a wonderful job, very easy to understand and follow along with.

great performance, ok story

some beautiful parts but personally didn't connect to most of it. the descriptions are too long for me... but I kept going till the end. great performance.