The Wanderer (Leiber novel)

The novel is set in a future a few decades after the mid-1960s, when it was written. The Space Race is still on-going, and while both the USA and the USSR have lunar bases, by Soviets have gained the lead by sending an expedition to Mars.

From the point of view of most of the population of the Earth, a new planet appears out of nowhere close to the Moon shortly after a total lunar eclipse. Within a few days the planet –referred to by everyone simply "The Wanderer"– apparently consumes the Moon. Its gravity causes mass death and destruction as it raises huge ocean waves and causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Flying saucers appear, apparently trying to mitigate some of the disastrous effects. Then, after a spectacular battle in space between the new planet and yet another which had appeared just as suddenly, the skies are empty again. Earth is left without its Moon.

The novel follows the lives of disparate people around the globe. There is a man attempting a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, a smuggler operating off the coast of Vietnam, two friends in England, a trio of drug addicts in New York City, and the military controllers of the USA Moon mission, deep in a bunker somewhere near Washington, D.C.

The main protagonists are three longtime friends. Paul Hagbolt is escorting Margo Gelhorn (and her cat, Miaow) to observe the lunar eclipse at an observatory in California. Their friend, and Margo's fiance, is Don Merriam, one of the American astronauts at the Moon base. Following on a whim a sign advertising a "flying saucer symposium", Paul and Margo fall in with a group of intellectuals, dreamers, charlatans and misfits. At that point events overtake them. The new planet appears and triggers an earthquake that buries their cars in a landslide. They must avoid tsunamis, more earthquakes, roving mobs and flying saucers to survive. On the Moon Don Merriam is the only astronaut to escape the destruction of the American moonbase. He tries to take off in one of the base's spaceships, only to fall through the Moon itself as it splits asunder under the influence of the new planet. His ship is eventually captured by its crew.

Events take a bizarre turn when the group of saucer enthusiasts is faced with a tsunami. A flying saucer appears, and a cat-like being uses some kind of gun to repel the waves. Then the being uses the same device to pull Paul, who is holding Miaow, into the saucer. At the same time the gun falls into the hands of the people on the ground.

In the saucer Paul meets a being calling itself Tigerishka. A large, female telepathic feline creature, she initially mistakes Miaow as the intelligent being whose thoughts she can hear, and Paul as a "monkey". Realizing her mistake, she regards Paul with contempt. Monkey-beings are not well regarded by her people. However she slowly warms to him, and explains why her planet had consumed the Moon.

Like many of the human characters, her people are intellectuals, dreamers, charlatans and misfits. They belong to a culture that spans the Universe, has achieved immortality, and can construct planets and traverse hyperspace. They can even create bodies for themselves that reflect the origins of their races, such as Tigerishka's cat-form. They are, however, fleeing their culture's police. The standard culture rejects nonconformists, and devotes itself to ensuring that intelligent life survives to the end of time, whereas Tigerishka's cohort wants to explore hyperspace and tinker with space, time and the Mind. Their flight has brought them to Earth orbit to refuel as huge amounts of matter must be converted to energy to power their hyperspace drive and their weapons: the Wanderer is running on empty.

As alien as Tigerishka is, Paul becomes besotted with her. Tigerishka eventually yields to his advances. At the same time, Don Merriam has been rescued with his ship by the Wanderer's other spaceships. He is reunited with Paul aboard Tigerishka's ship. Now they must testify in the Wanderer's trial, for the police have arrived. A second planet, "The Stranger", colored a dull gray where the Wanderer is bright purple and yellow, appears and threatens battle. Don and Paul give their testimony as to the good treatment they have seen, along with thousands of other humans appearing by some kind of holographic projection. However the trial goes badly. Paul and Don are evacuated in Don's ship, placed into position close to Earth by Tigerishka. Tigerishka takes Miaow with her back to her planet. Then the final battle takes place, and both planets disappear. In the final scene, Margo and her companions walk to Vandenberg Spaceport as Don's ship comes in to land.

P. Schuyler Miller described the book as a "thoroughly uncharacteristic" Leiber novel, saying that "the feel of what is happening . . . counts for more than the plot" and predicting that The Wanderer "would eventually be awarded 'classic' status".[3] Avram Davidson compared the novel unfavorably to Leiber's Conjure Wife, saying "The canvas is wide, the characters many, the charge scatters like buckshot, if you can imagine a buckshot cannon".[4]

James Nicoll has described the novel as "terrible", saying that although its premise — "hollow planets filled with catgirls who want to steal the moon" — may be "amazing or at least intriguing", the novel itself "falls well short of its potential"; he attributes its Hugo win to a weak slate of nominees, and to Leiber's "blatant and unabashed sucking up to SF fandom".[5]

The Wanderer is available in paperback under ISBN 0-575-07112-5 (Gollancz, 2000) as part of the SF Masterworks series.

• The Wanderer at the Library of Congress