Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1) by Sylvain Neuvel

OH MY GOODNESS! WHY DIDN’T I READ THIS SOONER??

Blurb: A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved – the object’s origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history’s most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

Genre: Science Fiction

Page Count: 320

Published: April 26th 2016 by Del Rey

Source: Library

CW: mild descriptions of death, mild description of sex (consensual), very mild descriptions of violence

There I was searching for a fiction book that other readers just loved as audio books. One of the first I came across was Sleeping Giants. And am I so glad that I decided to pick this series up! Finally! I shelved this book on my TBR about two weeks before it came out. I guess one upside is that I get to listen to the whole trilogy back to back.

“Generally speaking, people tend not to question what they’ve been told was true. Scientists are no different; they’ve just been told a lot more things.”

The first thing that I want to talk about is Neuvel’s writing and how he structured the novel. Since I read/ listened to this as an audio book, I can’t tell you how well he did in developing the characters and their voices on paper. Though I can take a guess and say he did a remarkable job! As did the voice actors and production team in bring this story to life. Each character was completely unique and well developed, even though we only really get snippets from their perspectives.

“I think people are scared, and dumb, and selfish on their own, but put enough of them together and they’ll be half-decent”

I loved the format of the book where everything we learn is through military documents, recordings of meetings or phone calls, voice diaries, etc. I both read and listened to the Illuminae Files, so I know that I enjoy this type of format in both media types. But it just really works in an audio book … I always can’t wait to have to drive somewhere or do mindless tasks for work because I knew I got to put this on.

The plot was on the darker side though very engaging, well written, and action packed. And very fast paced. Which I was totally okay with. Neuvel took this slightly weird yet intriguing idea and ran with it. And made it work! Even though the readers clearly don’t get to ‘see’ all of the files related to the project, we still get a full picture of what’s going on. It was really easy for to me feel and imagine the tension, the hurt, the sadness, the incredulity of the situation(s). I definitely was walking right next to each of them! I don’t think I have a favorite character, although I found the narrator/ top secret engorgement type person to be really intriguing. Multiple times I found myself going between disliking him and liking him.

“I wish I knew where this journey will take us, but I don’t. All I know is that this is bigger than me, my self-doubt, or any crisis of conscience. I now truly realize how profoundly insignificant I am compared to all this. Why does that make me feel so much better?”

I honestly can’t think of anything that I found wrong or annoying about this debut from Sylvain Neuvel!

Have you read Sleeping Giants? Let me know your thoughts in a comment! Or if you have plans to read it soon!