What’s it about?
Rose fell down a hole, and was caught by a hand. Seventeen years later, she finds the body that hand belongs to. That’s when it all begins. Where did it come from? Who made it? What in the world does it DO?
Finding out the answers to these questions could change the world. Finding out the answers to these questions could also doom it. But no good scientist can just stop trying to figure out the way the something works.
Told via a series of interview transcripts, news articles and journal entries, Sleeping Giants is a mash of sci-fi and political thriller.-Goodreads Synopsis
My Review of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
When I saw the blurb for Sleeping Giants, I was hooked. I loved World War Z and The Martian (my review)! I needed to read this book. So as soon as I cleared my bookshelf of other obligations, I settled right down to enjoy myself.
Sleeping Giants is a rather good book, especially for a debut novel. It is not, however, a fantastic book. I truly do not believe that this story benefited from being told via this style of narrative, especially with the emphasis on the interviews. Perhaps if there’d been more written from the main character’s viewpoints via their journal entries, it would have made it more engaging. Unfortunately, the almost robotic tone of the interviewer/man behind the curtain combined with the fact that it was almost impossible to connect with/root for any of the characters left my reception of this novel distinctly lackluster.
The pacing held steady for the most part. There was, for the fact that most of the story takes place in labs, not a ton of info-dumps or ‘science stuff’ as some people complained about with The Martian. It was easy to follow and the premise was interesting. It has all the qualities of a solid 4 star book, but lacks the literary magic to turn into a 5 star book like those it was written in the style of. Perhaps, as this is part of a series, now that the author has gotten a bit of experience under his belt, The Themis Files #2 will be a truly fantastic book. The capability is certainly there. It just isn’t realized in Sleeping Giants.
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Title: Sleeping Giants | Series: Themis Files #1 | Author: Sylvain Neuvel (Site) | Publisher: Del Ray (Site) | Pub Date: 2016-4-26 | Pages: 320 | ISBN13: 9781101886694 | Genre: Science Fiction | Language: English | Triggers: None | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Date Read: 2015-9-1 | Source: Received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
