Forgot your password?

The Wanderer

by Fritz Leiber

Mass market paperback, 318 pages

English language

Published February 1964 by Ballantine Books.

OCLC Number:: 1705566
ASIN:: B002MBWAMG
Goodreads:: 131933911

View on OpenLibrary

(5 reviews)

It began so quietly... So quietly that nobody except a few frightened scientists even suspected what might be happening ...

Then suddenly one day, it was there. It came without malice, an elemental force, a climactic power greater than any the Earth had ever seen in its billions of years of evolution, a phenomenon which reduced this planet to the size of an anthill pushed out of the way by a bulldozer. Men called it the Wanderer.

Yet despite its vast impersonality, to each human being on Earth the Wanderer spelled something personal — after all, death is very personal indeed. And the Wanderer meant death for millions. But for others — many, many others — it was something else again.

To millions of humans running like ants over the shifting crust of the Earth, the Wanderer came as terror, to overset the certainties of science, to wreck the world, …

It began so quietly... So quietly that nobody except a few frightened scientists even suspected what might be happening ...

Then suddenly one day, it was there. It came without malice, an elemental force, a climactic power greater than any the Earth had ever seen in its billions of years of evolution, a phenomenon which reduced this planet to the size of an anthill pushed out of the way by a bulldozer. Men called it the Wanderer.

Yet despite its vast impersonality, to each human being on Earth the Wanderer spelled something personal — after all, death is very personal indeed. And the Wanderer meant death for millions. But for others — many, many others — it was something else again.

To millions of humans running like ants over the shifting crust of the Earth, the Wanderer came as terror, to overset the certainties of science, to wreck the world, but to open up the hearts and minds of mankind.

mad_frisbeterian reviewed The wanderer by Fritz Leiber

Review of 'The wanderer' on 'Storygraph'

1 star

I can't believe this painfully tedious book won the Hugo. Perhaps our Science Fiction sensibilities have just changed quite a bit since 1964. This book threatens to derail my plans to read every Hugo Best Novel winner; apparently the award has occasionally been an unreliable yardstick.

On second thought, it must have been a slow year; I have not read [b:Davy|920957|Davy|Edgar Pangborn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1231418156s/920957.jpg|1461307], [b:The Planet Buyer|4340514|The Planet Buyer|Cordwainer Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1315159018s/4340514.jpg|4388418], or [b:The Whole Man|872226|The Whole Man|John Brunner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330895316s/872226.jpg|857591], 1965's other contenders, so I can't say. But the previous year the nominees were [b:Cat's Cradle|135479|Cat's Cradle|Kurt Vonnegut|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327867150s/135479.jpg|1621115], [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389569143s/234225.jpg|3634639], [b:Glory Road|50856|Glory Road|Robert A. Heinlein|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389403992s/50856.jpg|1862679], [b:Way Station|190999|Way Station|Clifford D. Simak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1326490682s/190999.jpg|348798], and [b:Witch World|462448|Witch World (Witch World Series 1 Estcarp Cycle, #1)|Andre Norton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1419022971s/462448.jpg|1171819]. If you've been a science fiction fan for a while, at least one of those is probably a book you enjoyed. So I'm going to hope that the 1965 Hugo …

I can't believe this painfully tedious book won the Hugo. Perhaps our Science Fiction sensibilities have just changed quite a bit since 1964. This book threatens to derail my plans to read every Hugo Best Novel winner; apparently the award has occasionally been an unreliable yardstick.

On second thought, it must have been a slow year; I have not read [b:Davy|920957|Davy|Edgar Pangborn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1231418156s/920957.jpg|1461307], [b:The Planet Buyer|4340514|The Planet Buyer|Cordwainer Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1315159018s/4340514.jpg|4388418], or [b:The Whole Man|872226|The Whole Man|John Brunner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330895316s/872226.jpg|857591], 1965's other contenders, so I can't say. But the previous year the nominees were [b:Cat's Cradle|135479|Cat's Cradle|Kurt Vonnegut|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327867150s/135479.jpg|1621115], [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389569143s/234225.jpg|3634639], [b:Glory Road|50856|Glory Road|Robert A. Heinlein|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389403992s/50856.jpg|1862679], [b:Way Station|190999|Way Station|Clifford D. Simak|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1326490682s/190999.jpg|348798], and [b:Witch World|462448|Witch World (Witch World Series 1 Estcarp Cycle, #1)|Andre Norton|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1419022971s/462448.jpg|1171819]. If you've been a science fiction fan for a while, at least one of those is probably a book you enjoyed. So I'm going to hope that the 1965 Hugo committee all had the flu, or something, and carry on.

Martijn Faassen

rated it

Dec. 1, 2016

rated it

Jan. 17, 2024

rated it

Jan. 6, 2012

rated it

July 17, 2008

Subjects

Science Fiction

Error posting status