Peter Heller's bestselling 2012 debut novel The Dog Stars is making its way to the screen. The film adaptation is set to premiere on August 28 starring Jacob Elordi as Hig, a lonely pilot seeking meaning and connection in a post-apocalyptic world. Renowned director Sir Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, The Martian) is at the helm.
In The Dog Stars, Hig is the survivor of a pandemic that took his wife and everyone around them. He ekes out a tense but sometimes peaceful existence in what used to be Colorado, along with his dog, Jasper, and a surly ex-military man named Bangley. Hig flies an old plane, surveying the land and hoping something more exists beyond their corner of the world. Heller succeeded in writing a lyrical, character-driven story that is also action-packed, simultaneously bleak and hopeful. Readers looking for similarly reflective, emotional stories of survival, adventure and hope have some great books to discover.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel follows multiple timelines and survivors in a post-apocalyptic North America. Both of these books explore what helps us find meaning in hard times such as art, nature and human connection. It was also adapted into a well-received limited series.
Do you like murder mysteries? In Ben Winters' The Last Policeman, a rookie detective investigates a suspicious suicide while the end of the world is imminent, and no one seems to care. Both of these stories follow ordinary men trying to make the best of things in extraordinary circumstances.
If Jasper, Hig's canine companion, was your favorite part of The Dog Stars, The Council of Animals should be your next read. After humanity created and largely succumbed to "the Calamity," a group of animals meet up to vote on how the remaining human survivors should be dealt with. This is a thought-provoking, offbeat fable of the apocalypse.
Another tale for animal lovers is A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher. When one of his beloved dogs is stolen, teenager Griz and his remaining dog set out on a harrowing adventure to bring her back. Their journey takes them from their isolated Scottish island to more perilous places in a post-apocalyptic mainland England. As in The Dog Stars, the human-animal relationships are an important part of the well-drawn characters within the unputdownable story.
Apocalyptic fiction can be a dark genre, but all of these reads balance the bleakness with humanity and hope. Will The Dog Stars movie do the same? What are your favorite stories about post-apocalypse living or pandemic survival?
Add a comment to: Books for Fans of The Dog Stars