'The Dog Stars' by Peter Heller

The Dog Stars, Peter Heller (3.5)

As post apocalyptic dystopian novels go, this book lies on the more thoughtful, humanistic side (versus the zombie roaming side).  Don’t get me wrong; when a disease kills off the majority of people and climate change leaves much of the area uninhabitable, one has to fend off intruders who are likely to be after anything you’ve gathered to survive.  But this story spends most of its energy on the thoughts and internal struggles of Hig, a man who has lost his family but has managed to stay alive, largely due to a partnership with an old military trained survivalist.  Not a lot is said of how they got to this point; the main theme is why do you want to continue? Hig struggles with this as he flies his plane over the areas surrounding their compound, looking for possible intruders so that his partner can be warned and shoot them before asking questions. His mind knows it’s necessary, but his heart wants to believe there others are out there who also want to work together and regain their humanity. Mr. Heller writes thoughtfully about this process.