For the last few years I have found myself periodically seeking out the Amazon recommendations and internet lists of post-apocalyptic fiction - there is plenty in the genre that I am happy to skip over, but I continue to comb thru the lists because I have come to value, and maybe even crave, striped down post-apocalyptic worlds where the authors have discarded everything unnecessary and are left with only what they need for the story. The first half of Peter Heller's The Dog Stars is a perfect example - a handful of people, a dog, a few landscapes, and a plane are about it for the first half... Heller takes these elements and produces an almost meditative exploration of the absolutely beautiful/gut wrenching/terrible/hopeful/lonely survival of the main character - simply amazing. The second half is good - not brilliant like the first half - but I certainly enjoyed reading to end.
Rating: 4 of 5 First Read Date: August 2012
CM