Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants is volledig geschreven aan de hand van interviews en logs. Hierdoor leest het boek heel vlot, maar komen sommige zaken toch wat geforceerd over. Toch slaagde de auteur er in elk personage een eigen stem te geven en medeleven op te roepen.
Het verhaal is heel interessant, mysterieus en goed opgebouwd. Benieuw naar waar dit gaat.

There are two ways to look at the quality of this book: standing on its own and as part of a larger whole. Far beyond whether you enjoy the books that the publishers liken it to – World War Z, the Martian, etc. – I think that the perspective you choose will ultimately decide whether you enjoy Sleeping Giants or not.

On its own, Sleeping Giants is a 3 or 3.5 star book. It's premise is fascinating, but the surface is barely scratched. Its interview-style format is engaging, but doesn't quite carry the backward-facing, “what was it all for?” gravitas and confusion that World War Z employed so beautifully (while using the same style). It's dialogue and characters are interesting and feel real (for the most part), but they don't carry the blend of intelligence, wit, and sarcasm that made The Martian's Mark Watney so appealing. Viewed in this light, Sleeping Giants is creative enough to be noticed and fresh enough to avoid feeling derivative, but ultimately comes across like a “half effort” that never quite finds its footing.

However, when viewed as part of a larger whole (read: when understood that it is intended to be part of a series), Sleeping Giants is easier to swallow. The idea that this book serves as a premise to a larger story is intriguing enough to continue on.

It pains me to put down this novel, as the synopsis and opening has incredible promise. However, I just simply don't have the drive to continue due to numerous issues, and I will tell you why. Where [b:Sleeping Giants 25733990 Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) Sylvain Neuvel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459785141s/25733990.jpg 42721200] struggles is in two things - characterization and infodumps. Each interview didn't feel like an interview - it felt like a exposition, like I'm being talked at rather than with. The flow of conversation was unrealistic, and the characters themselves are flat, with little to distinguish between them. For example, we are told (several times, in fact, sound familiar?) that one particular character is “combative” and has “a problem with authority”. In the next interview, she's making friends all over the facility and chumming it up with the interviewer/narrator. In yet another interview, she's torn up to pieces about an incident that occurs. No consistency. She felt labeled, as they all do, with one-hundred percent telling and absolutely zero showing.The narrator/interviewer is, for lack of a better term, annoying. At times, they speak more than the interviewees, which completely negates the entire point of interview-based storytelling. I think the interviewer's identity is a mystery to be solved in [b:Waking Gods 30134847 Waking Gods (Themis Files, #2) Sylvain Neuvel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462736382s/30134847.jpg 50566357] and [b:Only Human 35820656 Only Human (Themis Files, #3) Sylvain Neuvel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1502999023s/35820656.jpg 57322413], but the aggressive flexing, the excessive talking... Quite frankly, I don't care who it is, only that he/she needs to chill.I eventually gave up around p82, when discussion over the discoveries is glossed over and described without any real life credibility - they're discussing (or rather infodumping) a massive discovery, and it's like the character is talking about a car or a blender. I skipped forward, and found it only got worse. The ending seemed really good, but it wasn't enough for me to trudge through 238 more pages.No stars as I didn't finish, but I unofficially give a 2 star rating to [b:Sleeping Giants 25733990 Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) Sylvain Neuvel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459785141s/25733990.jpg 42721200] based on what I did read. Someday I may pick this book back up, as the sequels are well rated - but for now, I will have to DNF it. I am quite disappointed.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. A little girl named Rose is riding her new bike when she falls into a hole in the woods. She wakes up in a giant hand, the walls around her carved in symbols and glowing. Years later, She is put in charge of a mission to find other pieces belonging to the “giant”. Hoe old is it? Was it built by aliens? I was really excited by the description of this book, but for me, it didn't live up to my expectations. The only character in the book that I actually liked was Rose, beyond that, there was no character connection for me.

3.5 stars. The premise of this book pulled me in from the beginning and I was excited about the story and seeing what would unfold. I ended up having mixed feelings about the interview/journal method of storytelling as it seemed to make it more difficult to connect with the characters. I also wanted more exploration of the implications of the discoveries in the book and hopefully these will be fleshed out as the series continues. I would recommend this engaging read for people interested in science fiction who don't mind the narrative style or necessarily want lots of character development.

Thanks to Net Galley for a complimentary digital copy of Sleeping Giants.

Listened to it as audiobook

The audiobook form was absolutely perfect for this kind of story. Very dynamic and immersive. You may vividly see all the settings and fill in the missing info with just a bit of imagination. Hope that the next two books will not disappoint (btw you may actually read it as a standalone, even if it end with a bit of a cliffhanger)

Not your typical alien/robot story! Told entirely through a compilation of documents - interviews, journal entries, mission logs, etc. - the reader feels almost like a detective piecing together the events surrounding the discovery of stunningly advanced alien technology on Earth. While the format is refreshing and enjoyable, the large time gaps between some of the documents somewhat diminish the scope of the story. There are several strong female characters, and the storyline is engaging. A worthwhile read - I look forward to future installments!

I received this book free in a Goodreads giveaway but the review I'm giving is not influenced by that. I started this book unsure whether or not I would like it because of the “interview style” used throughout the novel. As I became more immersed in the story, however, that fell away and I was more interested in the characters and what was going on, than the style of writing.

Kara Resnick reminded me of Kara Thrace from Battlestar Galactica, and I can't help but wonder if the author didn't model her from that character. She was opinionated, feisty and confident; definitely my favourite character.

The story itself was interested and although it didn't always lead me where I wanted to go, it still managed to keep me engaged. If you are interested in Sci-Fi, or even the politics behind it all, I believe you will enjoy this book.

Оh, this was good!

This is an adult sci-fi that addresses one of my favorite subjects ever - finding mysterious things someone buried in the ground long ago.

It has multiple super interesting characters the majority of whom I alternately hated and loved (and one whom I hated passionately since the moment she showed up on page).
It has a very engaging plot packed with action, mystery and science.

But the most unique thing about this book is the format in which it's written - in the form of logs and conversation recordings. Basically, all dialogue.
How the author managed to create such a multilayered and engaging story with this format, I can't even begin to fathom.

I loved it all and I am so excited to continue with this series.

i always get excited when the formatting of a book is a little different. This reads like files, and while it does a fantastic job in formulating a seamless story, it still left me wanting more.

Some devastating things happen to the protagonists, yet I failed to feel the impact as I wasn't able to connect with the characters through their dialogue which failed to allow their personalities to seep through.

It's a wonderful work of fiction regardless.

It combined giant robots with alien civilisations and threw in government conspiracies and a touch of religion too. All this while simultaneously being limited by the format, which is quite impressive.

It is also a very visual novel so I was disappointed that there were no accompanying graphics. Though that's a personal qualm.

Let me preface this review by saying this: I am not exactly a science fiction girl. That doesn't mean I dislike it – it's just not something I read on a regular basis. So, when I saw this book in the lineup for Book of the Month a couple months ago, I thought “hey, maybe I should try something totally different!” The book sat on my shelf for a couple months while I made it through some book club reads and some others on my TBR. When I was looking for that always difficult-to-choose “what to read next,” I saw this and was overjoyed that I had something totally off my beaten path waiting for me. I was in the mood for something different, so I snatched it up and began reading.

The story begins with the finding of a mysterious, large metal hand in a hole, surrounded by panels with markings on them. These metal pieces have a mysterious bluish glow coming off of them. They're found by a young girl in the woods when she falls into the hole. Cue the excitement for all the crazy alien mystery coming up in this book, right?

I don't want to delve too much further into the plot, because heck, you might want to read it! For me, though, there was just way too much politics and not enough aliens. After getting super excited about this sci-fi novel, it just...wasn't sci-fi enough! The interview style writing was interesting, but I thought it didn't allow for the greatest storytelling. I just spent the whole time wanting something more to happen. Yes, there was drama. Yes, there were some small pieces of alien-type story pieces. A lot of it, though, was how the human world was dealing politically with this crazy alien robot weapon that could probably take out a whole country on its own.

Read my full review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/12/review-sleeping-giants/

Hovering around 3.75-4 stars.

This was a book where my star rating went up the more as I read the book. It started as a pretty “meh” 3 out of 5, but the score had risen by the time I reached the end.

It had an intriguing premise: a mysterious, giant hand is uncovered by a young girl in her backyard. As the years go on, the journey to find the other parts of whatever enormous robotic body it belonged to unfolds, along with the mission to find out what exactly it is and what it does. But it wasn't just the premise that caught my interest: the format did as well. Instead of traditional narrative prose, the book is told in epistolary format. It uses the form of documents and transcripts, but mostly interviews between characters to tell the story. For me, the epistolary format is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be a very intriguing way to tell a story and give it a certain kind of tone/atmosphere...but it's a common shortcoming that due to their nature, epistolary novels often suffer from a very bad case of “telling, not showing.” I've read books in this format that were just exposition dump after exposition dump, and it gets to be a drag to read.

This one was a pretty engaging read. I was pretty invested in the plot. I wanted to read on as the characters worked to untangle the mystery of the giant robotic hand and see what would happen. Also, with the interview format, I found the characters decently captivating, and the author did a good job giving the main characters their voices and showcasing their personality through their words only, which I consider pretty hard to do since you can't use described action to show what these characters are like. Certain developments in the plot got me hooked enough to want to keep going and events happening to characters took me for a surprise.

I have some complaints with the book: it does sort of fall into the exposition dump from time to time, but it is by no means bad, in my viewpoint. It also suffers from a common epistolary problem in that sometimes, characters say things in supposed “interviews” that don't sound natural, since you're supposed to believe that the characters are saying this out loud in a conversation (I cannot imagine anyone saying with any kind of natural tone a sentence like “he had leathery-esque skin” out loud to someone else). A big plot complaint is, without any spoilers, how we get the “explanation” for the giant robot body parts. It seemed to come absolutely out of nowhere with no build-up, no foreshadowing, just dump a random exposition character in there.

On that last note...to be fair, this is the first in a trilogy of books, and it may be meant to be explored in the later books. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and a pretty intriguing one...

All in all, a pretty good book that's held back by some flaws, but an enjoyable read with a unique format!

At some point months ago I listened to a book-related podcast that basically said, “Read this as soon as it's published.” And it grabs quickly too. A young girl rides her new bike into the woods and falls into a large hole in ground. She's found and is okay, but she's sitting in the palm of a giant metal hand that carbon dates as older than thousands of years. It's in a shaft surrounded by glowing runes of unknown origin. The story is largely told in a series of interviews. But don't let that put you off, it was a very fast read with several good surprises and was just plain wicked cool and lots of fun. First of a trilogy called The Themis Files.

I was really excited to read this and it started off really well. Then it got bogged down in politics and just kind of stalled for me. I had to push myself to get through it. Kara Resnick reminded me of Kara Thrace for sure, which was not a negative for me. I will read the sequel, but I'm really hoping for more about the mythology about where the robots have come from and why it is here now.