The Wanderers is- for a book that was billed to me as being about space and the future- the least science fiction like novel about space. When reading the general premise of the book, that might surprise you. The novel takes place in the near future and focuses on three astronauts who are living in a simulated mission to Mars. The story jumps around from chapter to chapter focusing on the three astronauts and some of the people closest to them. While the novel sounds like a promising backdrop for some excitement in space, that never really seems to happen. There are a few moments here and there, but nothing too interesting seems to happen. In fact, perhaps the greatest problem with this novel is that nothing apparently happens. Characters literally profess to have changed, but beyond insisting that they are transformed, there is no evidence in their actions or thoughts.

Amongst the supporting cast is a band of relatively dull and at its worst, completely unimportant characters. Madoka, the wife of one of the astronauts, is a brilliant but bored woman who contemplates the same problem for the entire novel. Mireille, the daughter of another astronaut, is a struggling actress whose insufferable nature is never entirely justified. However, Madoka and Mireille are at least tied to the emotional core of the story. One of the observers for the mission, Luke, is inexplicably given chapters of time in the story to do… nothing? Cutting his chapters from the book would have made absolutely no material difference to the story, which is a telling sign that Luke’s inclusion in the story is pointless.

The saving grace of the supporting characters is the story of Dimitri, a young man trying to understand his place in the world. Dimitri’s story is the only one with a sense of actual momentum and the only story in the entire book that suggests he becomes a changed person. The reader is perhaps left to guess at what the change might be, but at least something happens to him.

There is, to be clear, nothing wrong with a story about characters and their thoughts. The human condition is a big, bold topic that every eager writer is keen to tackle. A novel set in space that inspects the nature of our relationships and the (in this case very large) spaces between them is an interesting idea. The Wanderers gamely attempts to look at these things, but the larger problem with its plot is that it introduces an tantalizing thread, something that could actually shake up the story, only to leave it behind. It is difficult to understate the degree to which this was a major disappointment. Why bother introducing a major story element and then essentially abandon it for the rest of the novel? Perhaps most frustratingly is that it’s referenced offhand by a minor character in the last few pages of the book.

It is hopefully clear at this point that my feelings on this book are largely negative. The cast of characters had the potential to be interesting, but the glacial pace at which nothing happened left me wishing for something else. The something else that is promised in a major plot twist is completely abandoned. In the end, the characters are as they were in the opening pages of the book. Space is a big place, surely there’s room and time enough for something to happen.