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The dog stars
Peter Heller
2012 · Science fiction
How it reads
The dog stars is science fiction (post-apocalyptic literary science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in the future, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are survival, friendship and loss and grief. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- science fiction
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- wilderness or sea
- Setting: time
- future
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- survival, friendship, loss and grief
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- SpinRobert Charles WilsonShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the WorldHaruki MurakamiShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
- I Who Have Never Known MenJacqueline HarpmanShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, set in wilderness or sea
The KingdomsNatasha PulleyShares: science fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary WritersVictor LaValleShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, bittersweet ending
Future Home of the Living GodLouise ErdrichShares: science fiction, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace, future setting
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