The wanderers /

Three astronauts Helen Kane, Yoshihiro Tanaka, and Sergei Kuznetsov have been chosen to be the first to travel to Mars. To prepare them, the international organization Prime Space has devised a 17-month simulation so realistic that the boundary between real and unreal is pushed to the limit. The astronauts are monitored during the simulation and know that they are under intense scrutiny. As well, their families are part of the journey, and their strained relationships are examined with humor and compassion. Each astronaut will hide things from monitors and from each other. In a journey of 50 million miles, how long can they hide from themselves? The Wanderers (a reference to the planets) confronts ageless questions of why humans explore, what they are looking for, and what happens when they find it. Evoking the authenticity of Neal Stephenson's Seveneves (2015) with the literary sensitivity of Ann Patchett, Howrey has made the mission-to-Mars motif an exquisite exploration of human space, inner and outer.--Vicha, Don Copyright 2017 Booklist

Three astronauts and those who know them best explore the limits of truth and love in Howrey's (Blind Sight) genre-bending novel. Helen Kane, Sergei Kuznetsov, and Yoshihiro Tanaka are the perfect crew for the first mission to Mars: elite explorers and engineers, they're more at home in microgravity than with their families. But even years of training can't fully prepare them for Eidolon, a highly-engineered 17-month-long simulation. Beyond the physical and emotional stress for the crew members, their prolonged isolation will also test their families. The story's multiple points of view don't confuse the intensely introspective narrative; instead they create perspective and distance-three planetary bodies and their satellites observing themselves, and each other. The voices are distinct, each member reviewing and acting on his or her own emotional telemetry with equal parts brilliance and blunder, and the stakes are high, with any heartbeat capable of tipping the scales against the crew's survival. But the longer the mission runs, the longer the three are kept in isolation, the more they question the stories they choose to tell their handlers, their families, each other, and themselves-and the more they question the stories they are being told. With these believably fragile and idealistic characters at the helm, Howrey's insightful novel will take readers to a place where they too can "lift their heads and wonder." Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM Partners. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Helen Kane leaves NASA to participate in the Prime Space company's Martian voyage simulation, code-named Eidolon. The crew also includes cosmonaut Sergei Kuznetsov and Japanese astronaut Yoshihiro Tanaka with mutual compatibility and mission suitability determined and assured by Prime Space's extensive testing and sophisticated algorithms. The trio's family members are subject to communication blackouts and the pressures of being related to one of the few human space travelers. Helen's grown daughter, massage therapist/aspiring actress Mireille, deals with a mother whose first love seems to be her work; Sergei's 16-year-old son Dmitri struggles with his sexuality; Yoshi's wife Madoka works with robots. Howrey (Blind Sight; as Magnus Flyte, City of Dark Magic) presents an extraordinarily empathetic and well-realized look at the astronauts and their families as they progress through the Eidolon mission. Compelling and timely, these parallel tales of exploration, both through the galaxy and within, should win over a wide variety of readers. VERDICT Combine this human-focused title with Andy Weir's technical masterpiece The Martian to give readers the most complete picture of Mars missions that they could glean from just two fictional works! This title has abundant crossover appeal to the sf, contemporary fiction, and even the older YA crowd. [See "Editors' Picks," p. 25.]--Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Three astronauts and their families must endure the effects of a pioneering deep-space mission.Prime Space Systems Laboratory is a company of the future. It's put together a dream team of three astronauts to undertake a manned mission to Mars, but first, they'll need to undergo a 17-month simulation in the Utah desert, an operation known as Eidolon. Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei are idealexperienced engineers, they have each been to space before, and together they form a trio capable of withstanding both the physical and emotional pressures of an isolating experience like Eidolon. But Howrey (The Cranes Dance, 2012, etc.) chooses to tell their story from more than just the three astronauts' perspectives; we also learn how Helen's actress daughter, Sergei's sexually confused teenage son, Yoshi's restless wife, and one of the Prime Space employees charged with observing the astronauts deal with the extremity of the circumstances. Howrey has created quite a platform for plot theatricsand the book is not without a few blockbuster momentsbut her real interest is psychological. This is why, though the novel juggles seven narrators, it is so consistently engrossing. Consider the wit and precision of this portrait of Helen: "Awareness of imminent possible death is not without beneficial properties. Risk of annihilation can be a key ingredient, like baking soda. A teaspoon or so is sufficient to make all the other components rise up in glory, but without it? No cake." Although the contours of a space drama may seem familiar to a 21st-century readership, Howrey, through the poetry of her writing and the richness of her characters, makes it all seem new. A lyrical and subtle space opera. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.