My Review
Hig is a pilot who lives in a small Colorado airport hanger. He has a dog, Jasper, and a neighbor, Bangley. Jasper is old and Bangley is a heavily armed cynic. The three are the only living beings in a radius of about 10 miles. This is due to a flu epidemic followed by a blood disease. The few people that do approach the well-guarded hanger are shot to be safe because most of the humans that Hig and Bangley have encountered were not very nice. The two men depend on each other for survival even though they have very different world views. The world is changed, though, now that most people are dead.
Hig is the narrator of the story and he spends much of his time talking about the past. He is lonely and doesn’t really know how to feel about Bangley, who has saved his life many times. There is a compound of Mennonites who suffer from the blood disease about 10 miles from the hanger. Hig flies patrols to watch for any trouble over a 30 mile radius. It is on these runs that he occasionally visits the compound to bring supplies. Bangley doesn’t trust the Mennonites.
On one of Higs’ runs he received a radio transmission that inspired hope. Three years later he is motivated to investigate even if it means he won’t make it back to the hanger.
One of the things that I like about this book is that the writing is concise; there are no wasted words. That makes it move quickly. I also enjoy the viewpoint of Hig; he is more of a soft touch than Bangley.
An excerpt:
“Bangley a long time ago gave me a bulletproof, one of the vests in his arsenal. He has all kinds of shit. He said it’ll stop any handgun, an arrow, but with a rifle it depends, I better be lucky. I thought about that . We’re supposed to be the only two living souls but the families in at least hundreds of square miles, the only survivors, I better be lucky.”
But the pair are good for each other’s survival. And Hig, later, learns the value of their friendship.
The author, Peter Heller, has a long resume of adventure travel stories and contributions to Outdoor Magazine. He has written a handful of books. Constantin Films (of Resident Evil fame) has acquired the film rights. You can find a YouTube trailer here. Don’t get too excited about the all-star cast; it was using film clips from several other movies. So far, there is no info yet regarding the movie.
