The Waves Extinguish the Wind (Russian: Волны гасят ветер, romanized: Volny gasiat veter; also translated as The Time Wanderers) is a 1985 science fiction novel by Soviet writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, set in the Noon Universe.

The principal characters are Maxim Kammerer and Toivo Glumov, both working for an organization which investigates "Unexplained Events" (UEs).

Their investigation of a series of events leads them to believe that they are witnesses to a new action by the precursor civilization of the Wanderers.

They claim to have chosen this name for themselves as a derivative of the Russian word lyudi "humans", "people" with several semi-jocular allusions such as the popular Latin phrase Homo Ludens "the Playing Man" and an anagram of the Russian word nelyudi "inhuman people" (as they believe they are regarded by some "ordinary" humans).

The Ludens routinely conduct experiments on humans and alter their minds in order to further their own means.