I recently read that Ridley Scott is going to direct a film based on this book. So I read it. I think it has the bones of a good screenplay, with accelerations into high energy action sequences and decelerations into flashbacks and contemplative musings, but overall the story was a bit thin.
Heller has a nice style which tread into literary territory while staying grounded in popular writing. His protagonist, the widower Hig, is an appealing one, with a big heart — almost naively so. And the story reads more like a memoir than an adventure novel. We are handed plenty of passages about the inner emotional life of Hig, both from his past as well as present. But the challenge our author was not able to meet was to construct more of the context this individual was residing within. One doesn’t get a sense there’s any critique of disease control in modern society, or civilization’s tenuous existence, or a commentary the tension between humans’ base and higher abilities. These opportunities appeared to be passed over to where I wonder if the book really could only exist within this post-pandemic societal collapse context. I bet a period western might be able to be crafted just as easily, for example.
In most instances, the book is better than the movie. I’m eager to see the movie in mid-2026 to see if this plays out or if fortune will reverse the normal stereotype.
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#thedogstars #peterheller #sciencefiction #scifi #apocalypse #pandemic #cessna #airplane #colorodo #widower #ex_libris_jz
