Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book.This book's energy felt like the martian. I was hoping it would take me on the same type of journey but this book was meandering. It just didn't take me anywhere.

I’ve spent nearly a year trying to fill the void that the cancellation of Away left. The Wanderers by Meg Howrey helped. “A brilliantly inventive novel about three astronauts training for the first-ever mission to Mars, an experience that will push the boundary between real and unreal, test their relationships, and leave each of them—and their families—changed forever.” The novel is a quiet, contemplative character study. It’s filled with beautiful writing, and I’d highly recommend it for the right reader. Just don’t start reading it expecting The Martian.

A novel with ever-shifting perspectives and a bit of epistolary stuff thrown in, about a group of astronauts participating in a simulation of a voyage to Mars, and their families. Really absorbing and thought-provoking about family and the human condition. Slightly less sciencey than expected.

This is probably one of the most dull books I've read in a while. It's hard to explain why without spoilers, but I also don't recommend this unless you like lengthy psychological examinations of polite and respectful astronauts. Spoiler: nothing happens. I kept waiting for the plot twist, the climax, but the author just let it slip away into this confusing "I have no idea what's going on anymore" way. Also, the astronauts' counterparts are more interesting than themselves. I'd totally read a book about Mireille's rollercoaster of a life. 2 stars because I actually read the whole thing and had minor connections to minor characters, but overall I didn't really care or have any feelings towards them.

I love space and astronauts and everything promised here but this was boring and slow and not much happened. Everything took way too long to get going and it was a slog to read.

A Book Without An Ending

2.5 out of 5 stars

I wrote and re-wrote a description of the book numerous times.  Each time I gave too much away.  I came up with: basically, some people with things to prove, join up for the MarsNOW program to train to go to Mars.  They are put into a "simulation" to make sure they can make it there and back - along the way - things go wrong and not only are they not sure if they are in a simulation, but they find new things out about each other and themselves.

I really wanted to like The Wanderers - there was something about it that could have bumped it into a better review - but then there were other parts that just kept it going down and down. This might be one of the first reviews I've ever half-spoiled.  About halfway through the book I tweeted:

I want to look up spoilers and reviews for the book I'm currently listening to but I'm holding out. I have an idea of what I THINK is happening, but I want to know what's right. Apparently, my wife has rubbed off on me (she does this during every movie ever) pic.twitter.com/GBqJAClGuk

— Brian's Book Blog (@brians_books) March 21, 2018


"I wanted to look up spoilers and reviews for the book I'm currently reading but I'm holding out.  I have an idea of what I THINK is happening, but I want to know what's right..." - Apparently, even if I'd looked it up I wouldn't have found anything out.  I'm pretty sure that's what Howrey wanted with The Wanderers but man did it annoy the heck out of me. 

There is no real "ending" to this book.  Sure, it ends and the characters are safe and sound - but you don't actually know if they went to Mars or not. (Spoiler - I'm pretty sure they did).  But not actually knowing bugs me more than I thought it would.  I don't like the "American Ending" to movies or books. Everything does not need to end happily-ever-after. But give me what the heck happened. 

I know that some people will say that a 2.5 is generous for a book that bugged me as much as The Wanderers did - but I finished it with the hopes I would learn more.  Sure, I was let down, but the fact that Howrey was able to write a book that I HAD to know the ending of is worth something, right? 

Overall, The Wanderers was a middle-of-the-road Sci-Fi drama that was more focused on the psychology of "is this a test?" and "are they watching us" than an actual Martian-like book. I'm disappointed, the story could have been so good but just fell short for me.

I see this book compared to Andy Weir's "The Martian" everywhere, and I think it suffers from the comparison. While both are books about the nuts and bolts of space travel, "The Martian" is very much plot-driven, while this is character-driven almost to a fault. Because of this, I don't think the two books necessarily have the same audience -- except for me, of course.

When I read "The Martian," in the midst of all the hype, I enjoyed it but was a little disappointed that Mark Watney didn't grow much as a character. I thought if we were going to spend all that time inside his head, we would get a narrative with a little more psychological acuity. Instead of being similar to "The Martian," it's almost as if "The Wanderers" took that one piece that was missing from that book and filled in that gap.

And it does that beautifully. This is not a book about space travel (both figuratively and literally -- it takes place during a space travel simulation meant to prepare the chosen astronauts for a Mars mission), but is instead a deep character study of three astronauts and their families. And this is fitting, since the whole point of the simulation is to examine their psychological fitness for a Mars mission. While the stories of the astronauts' family members and the mission control team felt somewhat superfluous to me, I was riveted by the examination of the astronaut's psyches. There is a moment when it seems like the book is going to veer into plot twist territory, and I was a little disappointed that it didn't go that route. But at the same time, I know this isn't really that kind of book.

This is literary fiction with a realistic science fiction setting, not traditional, plot-driven sci-fi. But if you are a reader like me who gets frustrated by the lack of character development in traditional sci-fi and by the lack of plot in traditional literary fiction, this might be just the right fit.

This book is the story of three astronauts chosen to go on a simulation trip to Mars, in preparation for a real trip in the future. It is also, though, the story of the family members left behind during the simulation, and their relationships with the astronauts. Each chapter is written from a different character's view point, and while in some books this is distracting, Howrey manages to perfect the art of it. Each character is distinct, their growth and changes during the 18 months very much their own.

I am typically not a fan of books where the ending is not...a complete ending, but in this particular book it felt like it was the only way to end the book. I found myself, towards the end, fearing the moment when all the answers to questions would come...and that sort of goes against what the rest of the book depicts.

I haven't read the Martian, but this was an exceptional read about three cosmonauts training for their mission to Mars. The story weaves in the viewpoint of their families at home, telling their background, and their current story while on the training mission. Surprising and entertaining.

G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Wanderers. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

What does it take to become the first humans to walk on Mars? Helen Kane, Yoshihiro Tanaka, and Sergei Kuznetsov are the team that hope to find out. The frontrunner in aerospace technology, Prime Space, has handpicked the trio to participate in a realistic simulation of a trip to Mars. As reality blurs and the simulation becomes more lifelike, will the three astronauts be able to keep their outward appearances in check, as to not raise any red flags to their employers? Will their absence from their families create needless strife and issues for their loved ones?

The Wanderers is a novel with very little by way of plot and too much by way of character description. The inclusion of the family members and their lives outside of the simulation did not seem to have a place in this book, as it was disconnected from the main story. The book revolves around Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei, as they navigate their close quarters and challenging environment. The author attempts to show how reality blurs for the astronauts, but the book never came together for me. By the end, I was just reading in the hopes of a tremendous conclusion. The Wanderers fizzled out, leaving me with the feeling that the author missed a great opportunity regarding the plot. Because of these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend this book to other readers.

Meg Howrey has written a book about space travel without alien raiders. Instead she has crafted a deep character study of three astronauts and the people they leave behind. The novel begins with Helen Kane an astronaut, retired from active duty after twenty-one years at NASA. She's interviewing at "Prime Space" a private company, which hopes to send a crew to Mars. We see her in her interview mode preparing to give the CEO "PIG: Polite, Interested, Good humored." She gets the job, of course, and then we meet her daughter, Mireille. "A terrible thing has happened to Mireille: she has been selected as the spa employee of the month." But Mireille longs to be a successful actress. Helen will share a long isolation simulation with two other astronauts, Sergei, a Russian astronaut, who leaves behind his two sons, and Yoshi who adores his wife, without realizing the difficulty she has relating to other living beings. I won't tell you more, because THE WANDERERS is a space you will want to explore yourself.

3.5 Stars. Three astronauts embark on a seventeen-month training simulation in preparation for a real trip to Mars. During the hyper-realistic simulation, Prime Space will be studying the astronauts' behavior and monitoring their communications with their families to see how they hold up on such a long mission. The goal is "not asking them to deal with the environment [Prime Space has] created for them, but creating the right environment for them to deal with whatever they encounter." The most unexamined territory is not within the simulation but within themselves. The Wanderers is a character-driven novel that explores the nature of humanity and our relationships with each other.

I was eager to read this book because it was described as "The Martian meets Station Eleven." That's not really what it is (and I don't think they're making that comparison anymore), but I was lucky that it ended up being another type of book that I like: introspection in space (in a way)! Like much literary fiction set in space, most of the book actually takes place in the characters' heads. It's more like Good Morning, Midnight or Spaceman of Bohemia, because it's a journey of self-discovery rather than a grand space adventure. It might be telling that it sometimes reminded me more of my nonfiction reading: Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe* and The Traveler's Guide to Space: For One-Way Settlers and Round-Trip Tourists. Another reason I was interested in this book was because I'm always fascinated by the experiences of participants in real-life Mars simulations. It definitely satisfied me on that account! The author was inspired by the Mars 500 mission in Moscow. There's also the HI-SEAS project in Hawaii; the fourth crew disembarked in August 2016 and the fifth crew's mission should be ending soon.

The chapters alternate between seven characters. The three astronauts chosen for the mission were selected to perfectly complement each other, "a kind of dream team, a trio whose individual temperaments, skills, and experience would combine in such a way as to be able to withstand the most challenging and dangerous expedition in the history of humankind." The astronauts are never content to stand still and are always wanting to push the limits of exploration.They love their families, but they can't resist the call to the unknown.

The Astronauts
• Helen (53yo, USA) is experienced, tenacious, and reserved. She's driven by a fear of being left behind. The end of her career coming up, but she isn't ready to hang up her helmet just yet: "She is too young to watch herself be surpassed, and too old to be this hungry. She thinks she is too young to give up her dreams, and too old to want them this much. But she is both too young and too old, possibly, to change herself. And how many years left on Earth?" One of the most tragic things about Helen is that another person decided how her daughter would see her. Eventually, it would become how she saw herself.
• Sergei (45yo, Russia) is straightforward and pessimistic, with some antisocial tendencies. He presents himself like the man he wishes he was and is motivated by the urge to prove his father wrong.
• Yoshi (37yo, Japan) is thoughtful, professional, and likable. He's the most adaptable and easygoing of the group, but he's also prone to bouts of melancholy.

The effects of isolation and confinement on the astronauts is what I came for, but it was their relationships with their families that ended up being the most intriguing. The Prime team is aware that the astronauts are very careful about how they present themselves, so they believe the family members might provide them with better insight. Yoshi's wife Madoka observes that the tightly controlled conditions of the simulation are actually less extreme than everyday life on Earth. The astronauts have each other, but the family members are all dealing with some form of isolation as they deal with being left behind.

Prime Space team & the Families:
• Luke is a member of the observation team. The "Obbers" monitor the astronauts for signs of psychological distress.
• Mireille is Helen's daughter. She's vulnerable and emotional, which she channels into her acting. Her whole life has been overshadowed by her mother's career. She resents mother for repeatedly putting her career first. She doesn't want her mother's story to define her life and she wishes that she didn't need to be loved so much. Her nickname is Meeps, which made me feel irrationally irritated!
• Madoka is Yoshi's eccentric wife and a sales operative for a company that manufactures robotic caregivers. Over the years, she has become a "kind of ancillary tool to the Voyages of Yoshi." Her marriage to Yoshi looks strong to the outside world, but it's actually hollow at the core. She's relieved when he goes away for long periods of time because it's exhausting to keep up the pretense of being Yoshi's "awesome" wife.
• Dimitri is Sergei's sixteen-year-old son. He feels inadequate next to his father and brother. He's gay but isn't ready to admit it to himself or anyone else.

There's so much value in getting the family members' perspectives, but there was too much activity on Earth.Madoka's story is the most refined, so she was my favorite. One thing I really liked about the astronaut chapters was their interactions with each other. The family members operated more like independent satellites. I know that's the point, but it made those chapters less interesting for me. My favorite section involving the families was the prelaunch dinner when Madoka and Mireille both engaged in a bit of play acting.

My reading experience mirrored some of the characters' experiences. This book really messed with my own sense of a reality! I felt awed by the enormity of space when I read Good, Morning Midnight, even though it was fiction. The characters were actually experiencing outer space, so I felt like I was too. The characters in The Wanderers were in a simulation, so that altered my experience. BUT THEN, paranoia sets in. One of the astronauts sees a glitch that makes them suspect they might actually be in space. With a real launch and a simulated launch occuring at the same time it was always a possibility, but that was the first real clue that something shady might be going on. A switch flipped in me; should I have been reading it differently the whole time? The glitch isn't the point; it's how the astronauts, and perhaps the reader, react to it.

The word planet comes from the ancient Greek word for wanderer. The planets "move in relation to each other and the stars, but they don't wander all over." You can't see all of a planet or moon at once, and in some cases, you'll never see all their faces. Similarly, the characters are only partially visible to each other. Everyone in this book is putting up a facade, concealing parts of themselves from each other, and even from themselves. Being the person they think they're supposed to be prevents their relationships from being as fulfilling as they could be. The avoidance of feeling or causing pain puts a wall between these characters.

To some extent, all of these characters live in self-created artificial environments. So between the simulation and the characters' facades, what's real? It's complicated! I'm reminded of Madoka reflecting on the contradictions in her marriage. She acknowledges that the outside perception of her marriage as solid has some truth to it, but the hollow reality of her marriage is also true. At one point, Helen becomes so used to her altered self in the outside simulations that her real self looks fake. Some of the characters realize that they've spent much of their lives reacting to situations that they've dreamed up; both Yoshi and Mireille mention being affected by conversations and situations that only occurred in their heads. Regardless of what's actually happened, all the emotions and reactions awakened by their experiences are very real. On a personal level, the events of this book reminded me of dreams. Every once in a while, I'll wake up irritated with my husband because of something he did in my dream. It's completely irrational, but it felt so real at the time! And like Mireille, I've sometimes worked myself up over an argument that I've acted out in my head.

You don't have to travel to space to experience the unknown. In their isolation, these characters are forced to confront long-buried demons. They can no longer avoid seeing the obvious in order to protect themselves. Helen insists on not changing or feeling too much on the simulation so that she can feel or change more during the real trip to Mars, but the change is unavoidable. As much as they fight it, they'll all be irrevocably altered by their experience. The Wanderers is a quiet novel without much of a plot, but it provides many thought-provoking ideas to explore.

OTHER:
* "For a mistake that measured 1/50th the width of a human hair, a two billion-dollar telescope was almost lost." - More details about this incident is available here (#4 on the list). Mike Massimino talks about another incident with the Hubble Telescope in his book Spaceman, which is one of my favorite memoirs ever. His thoughts during the stressful situation made me laugh, even though I know it wasn't very funny at the time: "This would be my legacy. My children and grandchildren would read in their classrooms: We might have known if there was life on other planets, but Gabby and Daniel’s dad broke the Hubble."
* The Madoka/robotic caretaker sections reminded me of two excellent short stories I read recently. They are both available online: Tongtong's Summer by Xia Jia (included in Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation compiled by Ken Liu) and Saying Goodbye to Yang (included in Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein)

An interesting--if somewhat meandering--book. Just ran out of time to get it on the usual site for review.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I will admit that the marketing that I heard with comparisons to The Martian and Station Eleven made me interested in reading this book. After finishing the book, I can see the comparison to Station Eleven as it was more slow and character driven but definitely not The Martian.

The Wanderers is not a science fiction book at all but more like a character study in the impact of a 17 month simulation of a mission to Mars to the astronauts chosen, their family and members of the support crew on Earth. Prime Space, a private aerospace company along the lines of SpaceX, is getting ready to send a crew of people to Mars. Before going, they are testing the impact of the long journey in tight quarters with a small group of three astronauts. Prime is testing several different technical scenarios to see how the crew handles the pressure of space travel.

The story is told from the point of view of each of the three astronauts and various family members. The book started very slow for me but eventually started picking up enough for me to get interested. It is a "boring" book in the sense that very little happens since the crew is on Earth in a highly controlled simulation. The "action" is the inner monologue of the characters as they think about family "back on Earth" and how much they are putting up an act to Prime and the other crew members in order to be the best astronauts for the real Mars mission. It was well written but not what I was expecting based on the marketing for the book. Still recommend though.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei are astronauts who have been chosen for Prime’s goal of sending humans to Mars. The three will go through a 17-month simulation, and if that goes well, they will take an actual 4 year voyage to Mars. The books alternates between their points of view, as well as Helen’s daughter, Yoshi’s wife, Sergei’s son, and a Prime employee.

I felt that this book tried to cover too much territory by taking on so many viewpoints. I would have enjoyed a book focusing solely on the simulation, and I think the family member’s stories could make good books on their own, but with 7 different viewpoints, I felt like we didn’t go deep enough into any of them to feel invested in what was happening. The one plot point that caught my attention was left completely at loose ends at the conclusion of the book. It wasn’t a bad story, but it was one I had to push myself to read.

I found this book to be quite interesting and good even though it was not a genre I would usually read. Thought it portrayed a realistic picture of very long space travel and its problem sfor humans

As I read this book, it struck me as a mashup between "Westworld" (the tv show) and "The Martian" (the movie), with more just a soupçon of [book:1984|5470]. The premise (three people participating in a test in Utah for an actual Mars landing) was troubling, and then I had serious questions, such as

-would these people would give up twice the number of years for a trip that they might not even take?
-would their families agree to the scrutiny and scripting during the test?
-would decent human beings even impose those burdens on their families?

It might have helped if I had connected with any of the characters. I came closest to connecting - or, being interested in - the wife of the Japanese astronaut, mostly because she was given the richest inner life. However, the book is not about her.

Disappointing.

I received this book as an ARC fromNetGalley, and this is an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review the book. The writing style is enjoyable, and the characters all very interesting. It would have been more enjoyable with a faster pace or more conflict in the beginning.

Unique and engrossing novel, albeit a tad too technical at times. The Wanderers explores the psychological, physical, and interpersonal trials of space exploration. Touching on individual character's fears and feelings, such as issues of identity, regret, loss, and ultimately self-discovery.

This was a slow character study about 3 astronauts on a simulated mission to Mars and members of their families. Literally nothing happens - all 17 months (!) of the mission are simulation and the astronauts never actually leave earth. Still, the quiet musings of everyone were interesting enough, though not revelatory. I think the publisher did themselves a disservice by saying that the novel is a combination of The Martian and Station Eleven. The novel suffers in these comparisons and left me (and apparently many other readers) feeling disappointed in ways we all might not have were these comparisons not made.