Book Review: The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian J. Walker

The Last Dog on Earth by Adrian J. Walker

Paperback, 448 pages

Published March 2019 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Look if you had told me the pitch for this book, or giving me the cross "It's like A Dog's Purpose meets The Road," I likely would have passed as that sounds kinda dumb. In the end, I am glad I read this book which I did base entirely on the strength of the author's last book "End of the World Running Club," which I learned about the same way most did on its way to becoming an international bestseller. I heard about it in a Stephen King tweet.

Running club was a powerful novel that hit a couple of my sweet spots. End of the World novels are my absolute favorite subgenre of fiction that crosses science and horror fiction at times. I don't entirely now why the darkest of dark stories set in the most awful of times appeal to me but they do.

I am also a dog person. I love dogs, certainly more than people. I miss my doggie Barney all day long when I am away from him and I am far more likely to say hi to a dog than I am a person by a long shot. So in some senses, this book was somewhat calibrated to hit me emotionally. That said there was one major road block for me but we'll chat about that later.

It is the story of a London writer named Reg and his dog Lineker who survive a small nuke attack on London that is never really explained. I actually like that the details of the disaster were kinda unimportant. They have been surviving for three years in solitude in a London high rise when they find mute survivor named Ashley. Reg doesn't want to help her at first but of course, events send them in a different direction. This becomes a tale of survival and one that packs quite a few emotional touches that are predictable but well executed. I am not going to spoil the end but if you were wanting to go in 100% cold this is a good place to stop.

Reg and Lineker both grow attached to the young girl they rescue, and of course the dog and his person get separated, nothing about this story is surprising, but I will Walker makes it all work. I felt Reg's pain at losing his dog, I felt Lineker's pain at losing his people and I felt both their concerns for Ashely the young girl. Walker shows again that he can make the post-apocalypse environment one you can emotionally invest in. This is the best strength of this book.

There is however a huge Elephant in this room we have to talk about. It ultimately is the reason you will either be able to be in or out on The Last Dog on Earth. My wife Cari has the hardest time with a suspension of disbelief and normally I get annoyed with her about that. Anything in space or giant monsters she just has no interest in. Normally I have a very healthy relationship with fantasy and almost nothing is a no-go for me. This novel tested my suspension of disbelief when a good part of the narrative is told the first person through the dog's eyes.

I already am not a huge fan of the first-person narrative as it takes me out of the story and often causes me to look to close at the prose. Why is this character writing this story? Why would they say this or that? Why be nervous I mean this character is clearly around to write this story down? In this novel, the POV switches back and forth between Reg and his dog telling the story. Reg's part is a journal and for the most part, I was able to get past the first person and just sink into the narrative. All the reg parts worked for me.

Now all the Lineker parts really tested me. There were several funny parts, and Walker does fun stuff with dog humor. It is quite a tonal shift from the Reg chapters. Lineker does have a really good arc. Walker did as good a job as he could do with these chapters. I just spent too much time nitpicking if a dog would be thinking about this or that, would a dog know these words? any words? OK, this is user error on the reader. So the real question is this - Is the first-person narrative by a dog a deal breaker?

Over all I enjoyed this book, I got major feels in certain moments but I could have easily skipped the Dog POV and maybe it would have been a better experience for me. That said I think Walker delivered on his concept. Thumbs up on this book.