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A review by nakedsushi
The Wanderers by Meg Howrey
5.0
In the beginning of this pandemic, I made a comment to someone about how it's going to be like being in individual spaceships going somewhere far away. You're isolated in your home. You can only interact with people not in your spaceship virtually. The world and time moves on, but you feel like you're standing still. And yet, you emerge from your spaceship eventually and you're not the same person as you were going in.
This is one of those books where you come out slightly changed after reading it. Some of my favorite science fiction, under all the spaceships, aliens, and other planets, are really about people. What drives them? How do they react to other people? What are they thinking? A lot of navel gazing, but removed from typical Earthly-annoyances like fixing leaky sprinklers and sitting in traffic.
In The Wanderers, it's the cast of people and their internal monologue that's the star of the book. The premise of it is that they aren't even in space. A trio of astronauts get picked for a simulated trip to Mars so that they can prepare for a real trip to Mars and this book is about the simulation.
I have to admit that the writing took a bit to get used to. It's somewhat removed and has an anthropological tone, but it worked once I got into it. It's also an interesting experience to be reading this while in the middle of playing Returnal. No spoilers on the game or the book, but there are some similarities that are hard to miss.
I can see some readers coming to this expecting a lot of action or tension like The Martian, but no, this is a completely different beast.
This is one of those books where you come out slightly changed after reading it. Some of my favorite science fiction, under all the spaceships, aliens, and other planets, are really about people. What drives them? How do they react to other people? What are they thinking? A lot of navel gazing, but removed from typical Earthly-annoyances like fixing leaky sprinklers and sitting in traffic.
In The Wanderers, it's the cast of people and their internal monologue that's the star of the book. The premise of it is that they aren't even in space. A trio of astronauts get picked for a simulated trip to Mars so that they can prepare for a real trip to Mars and this book is about the simulation.
I have to admit that the writing took a bit to get used to. It's somewhat removed and has an anthropological tone, but it worked once I got into it. It's also an interesting experience to be reading this while in the middle of playing Returnal. No spoilers on the game or the book, but there are some similarities that are hard to miss.
I can see some readers coming to this expecting a lot of action or tension like The Martian, but no, this is a completely different beast.