When I heard The Dog Stars was going to be Ridley Scott’s new film, it moved up to the top of my reading list. I almost wish it hadn’t. I didn’t not like it, but the event that occurs on third into the book kicked my ass, so much that I almost decided not to continue it.

But, I’d signed up for the whole ride. It’s not a horrible story by any definition. It’s an award winning piece of fiction, but that one event…

Told in the first person, in a delivery that took me a while to find my rhythm with, we join Hig, his dog Jasper, and Bangley. They live at an airport in Colorado. The world has moved on. A pandemic has wiped out millions, and society no longer exists.

At this tiny airport, they’ve struggled to simply survive. Fending off the occasional interloper. Hig can fly. He has a Cessna. He’s worried about fuel, but he flies the perimeter, and Bangley, a survivalist gun-nut, keeps them safe.

Hig fishes, hunts, and tries to do more than survive. He wants to thrive. But after a heartbreaking moment, Hig’s world falls apart, and he struggles with his literal place in the world.

Intent on tracking down a radio message from a distant airport, Hig sets off on a flight he might not return from.

Heller tells an emotional tale, examining the brutal existence and loneliness that would plague survivors, the day to day boredom infected by moments of sheer terror as the people who were th most common day to day folk are now considered an enemy first.

Hig is put through the wringer emotionally, and by extension so is the reader. We get glimpses back to how things were, the beauty of the everyday, things we take for granted, and how it could all be gone, unexpectedly.

It’s not a hopeful, positive tale. It’s realistic, dramatic, and a rough ride for the characters. Even by the story’s end when things are slowly coming together, you know it won’t last. The world is moving on, and while there may be hints of hope for the Earth, humanity is on the way out.

It’s not a joyous read, but it is a good one. The brutal moment hit, and it hit hard, having dealt with something similar in my recent past. It made the story hard to get through, but I’m glad I read it.