I READ A BOOK: The Wanderers by Meg Howrey

Before I started reading this book, I heard it compared to The Martian by Andy Weir. Aside from the whole Mars/astronaut thing, the comparison doesn't exist.

The basic plot: What happens when three astronauts are picked to live in a house ... just kidding (that's a Real World reference from the 90s if anyone is out there reading this hello is this thing on).

Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei are hand-selected by a corporation for its our first trip to Mars. Before sending this crew up though, they run them through a realistic simulation to understand potential mechanical or crew issues. The perspective shifts from each of the astronauts, their families and a seemingly young but intuitive psychologist.

The astronauts seem to skirt about what they really want to say because they don't want to say anything that might ruin their chances for Mars or annoy their other counterparts.




If you go into this book expecting a lot of action, you're going to be disappointed. The Wanderers is definitely an evocative character study. There is a slight payoff at the end of the book which shows us the astronauts are more intuitive than we were led to believe.

The story just swam directly under the surface for me, I never got to see deeper under the surface, and I never got that refreshing gulp of air.

Let me know your thoughts if you've read it!

THE WANDERERS by Meg Howrey