Rating: 
Summary: Another disappointing Hugo winner
Review: A mysterious planet of approximately the same mass as Earth appears from hyperspace within the orbit of our moon, tearing the satellite to pieces and inflicting tremendous damage on our planet through vastly increased tidal forces. When author Fritz Leiber keeps his focus on that basic premise, detailing the effects of the Wanderer's appearance and mankind's efforts to cope with it, this novel really flies, particularly in an early sequence wherein an astronaut barely escapes the shattering of the Moon and finds himself in orbit around the new planet. This is real action-packed sense-of-wonder science fiction from a grand master.
However, other factors act against the novel's success. There are far too many characters and many of them are handled in such sketchy fashion that not even Leiber seems interested in them. For example, the high jacking of an ocean-liner, which could have generated some genuine excitement, is instead summarized in flat declarative sentences in a couple of paragraphs. In addition, I don't want to give away the ultimate nature and purpose of the Wanderer, so suffice it to say that by the time one of our heroes became involved in a love affair with a green-furred cat woman from outer space, certain plot elements had turned decisively away from the hard-SF depiction of global tragedy that I had begun to enjoy. Finally, the dialogue and relationships among the characters has become terribly dated. I know that it's not fair to expect an author to anticipate what will make his story seem stale forty years later; nevertheless, it does remain a distraction and an obstacle to complete enjoyment.
Rating: 
Summary: My all time least favorite book
Review: I am on this ongoing quest to read all of the Hugo Award winners, and The Wanderer, unfortunately, was on the list. I can honestly say I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been on a plane through most of the middle of it, with nothing else to do but talk to the odd person who inevitably manages to sit next to you on a crowded flight.Do not read this book unless you, too, are on a plane. But what's a review if it just says, "This sucks"? So let me tell you what's bad about it (must stop self from saying "Everything...") The plot is totally ridiculous. A planet-sized object, inhabited by feline aliens who like to have sex with humans, which looks like a giant orange and blue yin-yang in the sky, suddenly materializes in earth orbit. Consequently, the world starts to peel apart at the seams. Lands flood, mountains tumble, people fall in love with the felines... you get the idea. I really am not kidding, though it sounds like I am... that is really the plot. Really. The characters are bad. Really bad. They aren't very smart, they have no motivation as far as I can see, and they don't ever surprise you. The science is dumb. At one point, a spaceship flies through the moon as it breaks in half. No kidding. There is no hidden meaning or literary allusion to this book. Was Fritz Leiber high when he wrote it? I think so. The only way I can recommend this book is by using that same human impulse that causes us to make a friend sniff sour milk after we ourselves have taken a whiff. "Go ahead, read it! Do it!"
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I had read one or two of his short stories previously and liked them immensely, but this was generally way too long and self-interested. It had it moments though.
Rating: 
Summary: A very well thought out catastrophe story.
Review: Suddenly, out of hyperspace, a planet sized space-warship appears and orbits the Earth as if it were a gigantic new moon. The moon disintegrates under the gravitational strain and the debris is consumed by the space-warship for fuel. On Earth the tides rise and fall disastrously, killing huge numbers of people. The space-warship's inhabitants try to alleviate the problem on Earth through the use of their advanced technology, and a speedy refuelling procedure, their haste further motivated by the imminent arrival of another, pursuing, space-warship. This is one of Fritz Leiber's lengthier titles, made so by his use of multiple viewpoint to tell how people around the world are experiencing the effects of the gigantic new satellite in orbit. I thought this worked well, in general, but there could have been a few of the characters edited out without loosing the effect, improving the pace of the book overall, and reducing its length significantly. By today's standards the prose style, with respect to a sci-fi story, may seem a little old fashioned in its highly omniscient third person delivery, but this book was first published in 1964 and reads more like a 1970's one at worst. Nevertheless it is better written than the majority of today's output, the exceptions being Iain M. Banks, and C.J. Cherryh, to name a couple. In the States this title is currently out of print, but is available by Gollancz as a new printing via Amazon uk.
Rating: 
Summary: action packed book on planet wide disaster
Review: The book is a many sided description of a geological distaster on planet wide scale. Without revealing to much: the plot is driven by the occurence of planet in orbit of Earth. It's not as much about the alien interaction (and certainly not about an alien invasion) as it is about the devastating geological effects that the gravity pull of this planet has on Earth. An on it's people. The book starts slowly, by introducing the 30-some protagonists (among them drunkards, scientists, UFO-believers, teenagers, would-be playwriters) all over Earth, living their very different things. But within 40 pages the action really gets to you. The value of having 30 correspondents with so varied a perspective around the world really adds to the experience. The book is action packed, and shows considerable insight in the human behavior in times of disaster. Most of the character's situations and reactions are so real, that you cannot stop considering what you would have done yourself if these things had happened to you. The importance of gravity to life on Earth becomes very clear to the reader. While reading the book you cannot escape marvelling about the wonderful, and fragile equilibrium that exists on this tiny planet. The book really gave me an acute feeling of cosmic scale, in which some minute change in the balance might trip the scale for us, and forever change everything we took for granted. Paul Leiber well deserved the Hugo Saward in 1965 for this book. It hasn't aged much. It only shows that it's from that time, by the somewhat oldfasioned modes of discourse and interaction, between the sexes and the races. But that soon blends in, as the context of the book. If there ever was a film scenario waiting to be found this is it. Especcially in our times, where the real spectacular views of this book can be generated by computer. Oh, I'ld love to see this on a large movie screen.
Rating:
Summary: Typically fine Leiber
Review: The Wanderer won a Hugo award for best novel. Although somewhat dated, it still stands the test of time. Leiber has worked a number of his favorite themes into this work, including the horror evoked in people trapped in life threatening events they are helpless to control, and the actions and reactions of people once these events are put in train. Like many of his works, The Wanderer emphasizes psychological and cultural issues far more than the scientific and melodramatic. This puts the novel head and shoulders above most end-of-the-world works. It demands the reader participate in the events, to understand or at least accept actions which seem repugnant outside the demands placed on the characters from the simple parameters set up in the story's framework. Overall, worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: A random jumble of storylines
Review: This book has some good moments, but they are scattered around haphazardly in a seemingly random jumbling of events. The arrival of the Wanderer, a planet-sized spaceship, wreaks havoc with the Earth - tides, earthquakes, etc. - and the book covers a range of stories of people all over the Earth affected by the Wanderer. While I usually don't mind several unrelated stories occuring simultaneously, several of the storylines in this book seem pointless. He tries to do too much with too few pages, and the result is that you don't care about most of the characters. Caring about the characters is of utmost importance in a disaster book (or movie), or you don't care if the people live or die. This can be alleviated (for me, at least) if there is some interesting scientific explanations of what is occuring, but there is little of that in this book. This could have been an interesting story, and in fact the last 50 pages or so are reasonably good. It doesn't make up for the first 250, though.
Rating:
Summary: A random jumble of storylines
Review: This book has some good moments, but they are scattered around haphazardly in a seemingly random jumbling of events. The arrival of the Wanderer, a planet-sized spaceship, wreaks havoc with the Earth - tides, earthquakes, etc. - and the book covers a range of stories of people all over the Earth affected by the Wanderer. While I usually don't mind several unrelated stories occuring simultaneously, several of the storylines in this book seem pointless. He tries to do too much with too few pages, and the result is that you don't care about most of the characters. Caring about the characters is of utmost importance in a disaster book (or movie), or you don't care if the people live or die. This can be alleviated (for me, at least) if there is some interesting scientific explanations of what is occuring, but there is little of that in this book. This could have been an interesting story, and in fact the last 50 pages or so are reasonably good. It doesn't make up for the first 250, though.
Rating:
Summary: Hugo Award Winner Which Unfortunately is Dated
Review: This book has won the Hugo award and may have had a tremendous impact when it first came out, unfortunately it is now greatly outdated. While some books hold up better over the course of time, this one did not. Looking purely at the science involved in the book I'll give Leiber credit for at least thinking of it. It's a nice premise to theorize the gravitational impact of what would happen to the Earth if a planet the same size as it called, "The Wander" suddenly appeared in space next to it. He does a decent job covering the effects this would cause to the Earth and the Moon with the changing of the tides, flooding, earth quakes, and volcanic activity, but I think he may have missed the effects that the gravitational pull of Earth would have had on "The Wander" as well. I also had trouble with several of the characters who seem right out of the 60's. In the 60's there must have been a great deal of mistrust between the populous and the government and several of the characters reflect this feeling in that, "The Man", or "The Fuzz" are out to get them. It also appeared that there had been no advances in science on the Earth since the 60's but yet we have a manned base on the Moon and have astronauts out by Mars. It just didn't add up.
Rating:
Summary: Hugo Award Winner Which Unfortunately is Dated
Review: This book has won the Hugo award and may have had a tremendous impact when it first came out, unfortunately it is now greatly outdated. While some books hold up better over the course of time, this one did not. Looking purely at the science involved in the book I'll give Leiber credit for at least thinking of it. It's a nice premise to theorize the gravitational impact of what would happen to the Earth if a planet the same size as it called, "The Wander" suddenly appeared in space next to it. He does a decent job covering the effects this would cause to the Earth and the Moon with the changing of the tides, flooding, earth quakes, and volcanic activity, but I think he may have missed the effects that the gravitational pull of Earth would have had on "The Wander" as well. I also had trouble with several of the characters who seem right out of the 60's. In the 60's there must have been a great deal of mistrust between the populous and the government and several of the characters reflect this feeling in that, "The Man", or "The Fuzz" are out to get them. It also appeared that there had been no advances in science on the Earth since the 60's but yet we have a manned base on the Moon and have astronauts out by Mars. It just didn't add up.
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