Scan barcode
moominsandmagic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
lesserjoke's review
2.0
This novel has a plot -- three astronauts train in a seventeen-month simulated flight to Mars and back while their families adjust to life without them and the concept of having to go through the same thing again if the crew is tapped for the eventual real journey -- but it doesn't ever bolster that with any particular stakes or urgency. There's instead a lot of personal introspection on everyone's part, some suggestions at character arcs that don't quite lead anywhere, and a scientifically-grounded yet ultimately uneventful look at how this sort of space travel might actually play out. A late worry from one of the voyagers that perhaps the simulation is fake and they've truly blasted off adds a hint of intrigue, but this too is dropped before reaching a resolution (in addition to being rather ludicrous on its face). Although each individual chapter of this book feels competently told, they're a bit boring overall, as is the larger story around them.
[Content warning for statutory rape, suicide attempt, sexism, and homophobia including slurs]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
[Content warning for statutory rape, suicide attempt, sexism, and homophobia including slurs]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
rolyatkcinmai's review
4.0
The Wanderers is like The Martian, but with three people and only during the training phase. It follows the three astronauts and some family members close to them through a very tough training period before the launch to Mars. I enjoyed it.
kristianawithak's review
4.0
I really liked the last half of this book and it makes me appreciate the first half. The format was a little unexpected, but I adapted to the shifts in perspectives pretty quickly.
I really liked theme or reality and what is real. I also appreciated the theme of being watched and how that alters how we act and react to events. The idea of being on display is prevalent in all the characters and their knowledge of being watched alters how they act. Helen's last chapter was poetic and beautiful. There were many really beautiful lines from all the characters. The last letters written by the characters were so insightful.
It's really not comparable to the Martian though. It's different and great without that particular comparison.
I really liked theme or reality and what is real. I also appreciated the theme of being watched and how that alters how we act and react to events. The idea of being on display is prevalent in all the characters and their knowledge of being watched alters how they act. Helen's last chapter was poetic and beautiful. There were many really beautiful lines from all the characters. The last letters written by the characters were so insightful.
It's really not comparable to the Martian though. It's different and great without that particular comparison.
kirstenrose22's review
1.0
DNF on page 102 - these characters all artificially control their emotions and lives to such a degree that I honestly expected them to turn out to be androids who were pretending to be human. There is so much distance that I can't connect with them at all..... and don't want to.
blairmahoney's review
5.0
A wonderful story about astronauts preparing for a mission to Mars and the effect on them and their families. Insightful and psychologically astute, this is just barely science fiction in that it only extrapolates very slightly into the future. The shifting viewpoints provide the perspectives of the three astronauts, three significant family members and one of the observation crew measuring the psychological effect of the demands of the mission.
jennyredgate's review against another edition
5.0
Nothing much to say other than that I raced through this and enjoyed it all. I don’t usually much enjoy books with so many different POVs, but this really worked for me. I also (surprisingly) liked the science-y/space aspects of the story
blumbo's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
b00kh0arder's review against another edition
5.0
What does it take to be an astronaut? Who are the sort of people that can endure the isolation, enormity and danger of space travel? And what about those closest to them? How do they cope with their loved ones’ prolonged absences, the knowledge that they could die out there in space? And when they come back safe and sound, how do they live with the comparisons? Helen Kane is a NASA astronaut now facing a desk job, too old to be still chasing her dreams but not yet ready for irrelevance; Sergei Kuznetsov is at a crossroads, soon to be divorced from his wife as his two
teenage sons are approaching adulthood, wondering if he is, after all, the weak man his father said he was; Yoshihiro ‘Yoshi’ Tanaka just wants to make his beloved wife – whom he feels is slowly drifting away from him – proud. They’re chosen by Prime Space – an aerospace conglomerate – to take part in one of the most ambitious and immersive training simulations ever devised, in
preparation for a manned mission to Mars.
Although The Wanderers features astronauts, simulations of – and lots of talk about – space travel and planet exploration (though there is a deliberate moment of ambiguity as to whether the simulation is merely a simulation) it’s more concerned with themes that are decidedly less futuristic: people and their inner workings. Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei, under the constant scrutiny of Prime Space’s team of "Obbers," must keep up the appearance of being in control in claustrophobic and increasingly challenging circumstances, and so an amusing dichotomy emerges. But this is also a book about the people they leave behind: Helen’s aspiring actress daughter Mireille, openly
emotive where her mother isn’t, their relationship equal parts love, pride, resentment and bafflement; Sergei’s sons Ilya, who is remarkably self-composed, and Dimitri, who is just beginning to acknowledge his sexuality and worrying how it will go over with his masculine father; Madoka, high flying employee at a robotics company and wife of Yoshi, who isn’t certain she’s happy with the persona life seems to have assigned her. They all see their identities as being so intertwined with that of their space-wandering love ones that they wrestle to reconcile this with their own individual identities (Mirelle, in particular, isdesperate to escape the comparisons with her mother she is sure everyone around her must be making).
A beautifully thought-provoking read with a deliciously dry sense of humour.
teenage sons are approaching adulthood, wondering if he is, after all, the weak man his father said he was; Yoshihiro ‘Yoshi’ Tanaka just wants to make his beloved wife – whom he feels is slowly drifting away from him – proud. They’re chosen by Prime Space – an aerospace conglomerate – to take part in one of the most ambitious and immersive training simulations ever devised, in
preparation for a manned mission to Mars.
Although The Wanderers features astronauts, simulations of – and lots of talk about – space travel and planet exploration (though there is a deliberate moment of ambiguity as to whether the simulation is merely a simulation) it’s more concerned with themes that are decidedly less futuristic: people and their inner workings. Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei, under the constant scrutiny of Prime Space’s team of "Obbers," must keep up the appearance of being in control in claustrophobic and increasingly challenging circumstances, and so an amusing dichotomy emerges. But this is also a book about the people they leave behind: Helen’s aspiring actress daughter Mireille, openly
emotive where her mother isn’t, their relationship equal parts love, pride, resentment and bafflement; Sergei’s sons Ilya, who is remarkably self-composed, and Dimitri, who is just beginning to acknowledge his sexuality and worrying how it will go over with his masculine father; Madoka, high flying employee at a robotics company and wife of Yoshi, who isn’t certain she’s happy with the persona life seems to have assigned her. They all see their identities as being so intertwined with that of their space-wandering love ones that they wrestle to reconcile this with their own individual identities (Mirelle, in particular, isdesperate to escape the comparisons with her mother she is sure everyone around her must be making).
A beautifully thought-provoking read with a deliciously dry sense of humour.
mairead_parade's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I prefer my audiobooks plotty, so this was not a great fit for me format-wise, but I still enjoyed it. I found it to be unexpected (even though I anticipated the “twist” to a degree) and appreciated the ways in which reality was questioned. The central question for all the characters is basically “what is the difference between pretending to do/experience/feel a thing and actually doing it” whether that be a marriage, an acting gig, conversing with another person, or a trip to Mars. It is really only incidentally sci-fi; other comparisons I’ve seen to Emily St John Mandel are more apt.