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Sleeping Giants (The Themis Files Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Sylvain Neuvel (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 8,995 ratings

Book 1 of 3: The Themis Files

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

See all formats and editions

A page-turning debut in the tradition of Michael Crichton, World War Z, and The Martian, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by an earthshaking mystery—and a fight to control a gargantuan power.

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square 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—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.

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 provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

Praise for Sleeping Giants

“As high-concept as it is, Sleeping Giants is a thriller through and through. . . . One of the most promising series kickoffs in recent memory, [and] a smart demonstration of how science fiction can honor its traditions and reverse-engineer them at the same time.”—NPR

“Neuvel weaves a complex tapestry with ancient machinery buried in the Earth, shadow governments, and geopolitical conflicts. But the most surprising thing about the book may just be how compelling the central characters are in the midst of these larger-than-life concepts. . . . I can’t stop thinking about it.”—Chicago Review of Books

“A remarkable debut . . . Reminiscent of Max Brooks’s World War Z, the story’s format effectively builds suspense.”—Library Journal (debut of the month)

“This stellar debut novel . . . masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, political thriller and apocalyptic fiction. . . . A page-turner of the highest order.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Don’t miss any of The Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel:
SLEEPING GIANTS | WAKING GODS | ONLY HUMAN

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Reminiscent of The Martian and World War Z, Sleeping Giants is a luminous conspiracy yarn that shoots for (and lands among) the stars.”—Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising

“As high-concept as it is, Sleeping Giants is a thriller through and through. . . . Not only is Sleeping Giants one of the most promising series kickoffs in recent memory, it’s a smart demonstration of how science fiction can honor its traditions and reverse-engineer them at the same time.”—NPR

“[Sylvain] Neuvel weaves a complex tapestry with ancient machinery buried in the Earth, shadow governments, and geopolitical conflicts. But the most surprising thing about the book may just be how compelling the central characters are in the midst of these larger-than-life concepts. . . . I can’t stop thinking about it.”—Chicago Review of Books

“First-time novelist Sylvain Neuvel does a bold, splashy cannonball off the high dive with Sleeping Giants. It bursts at the seams with big ideas and the questions they spawn—How much human life is worth sacrificing in the pursuit of scientific progress? Can humanity be trusted with weapons of ultimate destruction? And the biggest: Are we alone? But all that really matters is that this book is a sheer blast from start to finish. I haven’t had this much fun reading in ages.”—Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy

“A remarkable debut . . . Reminiscent of Max Brooks’s World War Z, the story’s format effectively builds suspense.”—Library Journal (debut of the month)

“This stellar debut novel . . . masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, political thriller and apocalyptic fiction. . . . A page-turner of the highest order.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[A] fascinating first novel . . . This intriguing tale is entirely worthy of an adult audience.”—Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Sylvain Neuvel is a linguist and translator based in Montreal. He is at work on an R2-D2 replica and his next novel.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PART ONE

Body Parts

File No. 003

Interview with Dr. Rose Franklin, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Enrico Fermi Institute

Location: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

—How big was the hand?

—6.9 meters, about twenty-three feet; though it seemed much larger for an eleven-year-old.

—What did you do after the incident?

—Nothing. We didn’t talk about it much after that. I went to school every day like any kid my age. No one in my family had ever been to college, so they insisted I keep going to school. I majored in physics.

I know what you’re going to say. I wish I could tell you I went into science because of the hand, but I was always good at it. My parents figured out I had a knack for it early on. I must have been four years old when I got my first science kit for Christmas. One of those electronics kits. You could make a telegraph, or things like that, by squeezing wires into little metal springs. I don’t think I would have done anything different had I listened to my father and stayed home that day.

Anyway, I graduated from college and I kept doing the only thing I knew how to do. I went to school. You should have seen my dad when we learned I was accepted at the University of Chicago. I’ve never seen anyone so proud in my life. He wouldn’t have been any happier had he won a million dollars. They hired me at the U of C after I finished my Ph.D.

—When did you find the hand again?

—I didn’t. I wasn’t looking for it. It took seventeen years, but I guess you could say it found me.

—What happened?

—To the hand? The military took over the site when it was discovered.

—When was that?

—When I fell in. It took about eight hours before the military stepped in. Colonel Hudson—I think that was his name—was put in charge of the project. He was from the area so he knew pretty much everyone. I don’t remember ever meeting him, but those who did had only good things to say about the man.

I read what little was left of his notes—most of it was redacted by the military. In the three years he spent in charge, his main focus had always been figuring out what those carvings meant. The hand itself, which is mostly referred to as “the artifact,” is mentioned in passing only a few times, evidence that whoever built that room must have had a complex enough religious system. I think he had a fairly precise notion of what he wanted this to be.

—What do you think that was?

—I have no idea. Hudson was career military. He wasn’t a physicist. He wasn’t an archaeologist. He had never studied anything resembling anthropology, linguistics, anything that would be remotely useful in this situation. Whatever preconceived notion he had, it must have come from popular culture, watching Indiana Jones or something. Fortunately for him, he had competent people surrounding him. Still, it must have been awkward, being in charge and having no idea what’s going on most of the time.

What’s fascinating is how much effort they put into disproving their own findings. Their first analysis indicated the room was built about three thousand years ago. That made little sense to them, so they tried carbon-dating organic material found on the hand. The tests showed it to be much older, somewhere between five thousand and six thousand years old.

—That was unexpected?

—You could say that. You have to understand that this flies in the face of everything we know about American civilizations. The oldest civilization we’re aware of was located in the Norte Chico region of Peru, and the hand appeared to be about a thousand years older. Even if it weren’t, it’s fairly obvious that no one carried a giant hand from South America all the way to South Dakota, and there were no civilizations as advanced in North America until much, much later.

In the end, Hudson’s team blamed the carbon dating on contamination from surrounding material. After a few years of sporadic research, the site was determined to be twelve hundred years old and classified as a worship temple for some offshoot of Mississippian civilization.

I went through the files a dozen times. There is absolutely nothing, no evidence whatsoever to support that theory, other than the fact that it makes more sense than anything the data would suggest. If I had to guess, I would say that Hudson saw no military interest whatsoever in all this. He probably resented seeing his career slowly wither in an underground research lab and was eager to come up with anything, however preposterous, just to get out of there.

—Did he?

—Get out? Yes. It took a little more than three years, but he finally got his wish. He had a stroke while walking his dog and slipped into a coma. He died a few weeks later.

—What happened to the project after he died?

—Nothing. Nothing happened. The hand and panels collected dust in a warehouse for fourteen years until the project was demilitarized. Then the University of Chicago took over the research with NSA funding and somehow I was put in charge of studying the hand I fell in when I was a child. I don’t really believe in fate, but somehow “small world” doesn’t begin to do this justice.

—Why would the NSA get involved in an archaeological project?

—I asked myself the same question. They fund all kinds of research, but this seems to fall outside their usual fields of interest. Maybe they were interested in the language for cryptology; maybe they had an interest in the material the hand is made of. In any case, they gave us a pretty big budget so I didn’t ask too many questions. I was given a small team to handle the hard science before we handed everything over to the anthropology department. The project was still classified as top secret and, just like my predecessor, I was moved into an underground lab. I believe you’ve read my report, so you know the rest.

—Yes, I have read it. You sent your report after only four months. Some might think it was a little hasty.

—It was a preliminary report, but yes. I don’t think it was premature. OK, maybe a little, but I had made significant discoveries and I didn’t think I could go much further with the data that I had, so why wait? There is enough in that underground room to keep us guessing for several lifetimes. I just don’t think we have the knowledge to get much more out of this without getting more data.

—Who is we?

—Us. Me. You. Mankind. Whatever. There are things in that lab that are just beyond our reach right now.

—Ok, so tell me about what you do understand. Tell me about the panels.

—It’s all in my report. There are sixteen of them, approximately ten feet by thirty-two feet each, less than an inch thick. All sixteen panels were made around the same period, approximately three thousand years ago. We . . .

—If I may. I take it you do not subscribe to the cross-contamination theory?

—As far as I’m concerned, there’s no real reason not to trust the carbon dating. And to be honest, how old these things are is the least of our problems. Did I mention the symbols have been glowing for the last seventeen years, with no apparent power source?

Each wall is made of four panels and has a dozen rows of eighteen to twenty symbols carved into it. Rows are divided into sequences of six or seven symbols. We counted fifteen distinct symbols in total. Most are used several times, some appear only once. Seven of them are curvy, with a dot in the center, seven are made of straight lines, and one is just a dot. They are simple in design but very elegant.

—Had the previous team been able to interpret any of the markings?

—Actually, one of the few sections of Hudson’s report left intact by the military was the linguistic analysis. They had compared the symbols to every known writing system, past or present, but found no interesting correlation. They assumed each sequence of symbols represented a proposition, like an English sentence, but with no frame of reference, they couldn’t even speculate as to their interpretation. Their work was thorough enough and documented at every step. I saw no reason to do the same thing twice and I declined the offer to add a linguist to the team. With nothing to compare this to, there was logically no way to arrive at any sort of meaning.

Perhaps I was biased—because I stumbled onto it—but I felt drawn to the hand. I couldn’t explain it, but every fiber of my being was telling me the hand was the important piece.

—Quite a contrast from your predecessor. So what can you tell me about it?

—Well, it’s absolutely stunning, but I assume you’re not that interested in aesthetics. It measures 22.6 feet in length from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. It seems to be solid, made of the same metallic material as the wall panels, but it’s at least two thousand years older. It is dark gray, with some bronze overtones, and it has subtle iridescent properties.

The hand is open, fingers close together, slightly bent, as if holding something very precious, or a handful of sand, trying not to spill it. There are grooves where human skin would normally fold, others that seem purely decorative. All are glowing the same bright turquoise, which brings out the iridescence in the metal. The hand looks strong, but . . . sophisticated is the only word that comes to mind. I think it’s a woman’s hand.

—I am more interested in facts at this point. What is this strong but sophisticated hand made of?

—It proved nearly impossible to cut or otherwise alter by conventional means. It took several attempts to remove even a small sample from one of the wall panels. Mass spectrography showed it to be an alloy of several heavy metals, mostly iridium, with about 10 percent iron and smaller concentrations of osmium, ruthenium, and other metals of the platinum group.

—It must be worth its weight in gold?

—It’s funny you should mention that. It doesn’t weigh as much as it should so I’d say it’s worth a lot more than its weight, in anything.

—How much does it weigh?

—Thirty-two metric tons . . . I know, it’s a respectable weight, but it’s inexplicably light given its composition. Iridium is one of the densest elements, arguably the densest, and even with some iron content, the hand should easily weigh ten times as much.

—How did you account for that?

—I didn’t. I still can’t. I couldn’t even speculate as to what type of process could be used to achieve this. In truth, the weight didn’t bother me nearly as much as the sheer amount of iridium I was looking at. Iridium is not only one of the densest things you can find, it’s also one of the rarest.

You see, metals of this group—platinum is one of them—love to bond with iron. That’s what most of the iridium on Earth did millions of years ago when the surface was still molten and, because it’s so heavy, it sunk to the core, thousands of miles deep. What little is left in the Earth’s crust is usually mixed with other metals and it takes a complex chemical process to separate them.

—How rare is it in comparison to other metals?

—It’s rare, very rare. Let’s put it this way, if you were to put together all the pure iridium produced on the entire planet in a year, you’d probably end up with no more than a couple metric tons. That’s about a large suitcaseful. It would take decades, using today’s technology, to scrounge up enough to build all this. It’s just too scarce on Earth and there simply aren’t enough chondrites lying around.

—You lost me.

—Sorry. Meteorites; stony ones. Iridium is so rare in Earth rocks that it is often undetectable. Most of the iridium we mine is extracted from fallen meteorites that didn’t completely burn up in the atmosphere. To build this room—and it seems safe to assume that this is not the only thing they would have built—you’d need to find it where there are a lot more than on the Earth’s surface.

—Journey to the center of the Earth?

—Jules Verne is one way to go. To get this type of metal in massive quantities, you’d either have to extract it thousands of miles deep or be able to mine in space. With all due respect to Mr. Verne, we haven’t come close to mining deep enough. The deepest mines we have would look like potholes next to what you’d need. Space seems much more feasible. There are private companies right now hoping to harvest water and precious minerals in space in the very near future, but all these projects are still in the early planning stages. Nonetheless, if you could harvest meteorites in space, you could get a lot more iridium, a whole lot more.

—What else can you tell me?

—That pretty much sums it up. After a few months of looking at this with every piece of equipment known to man, I felt we were getting nowhere. I knew we were asking the wrong questions, but I didn’t know the right ones. I submitted a preliminary report and asked for a leave of absence.

—Refresh my memory. What was the conclusion of that report?

—We didn’t build this.

—Interesting. What was their reaction?

—Request granted.

—That was it?

—Yes. I think they were hoping I wouldn’t come back. I never used the word “alien,” but that’s probably all they took out of my report.

—That is not what you meant?

—Not exactly. There might be a much more down-to-earth explanation, one I just didn’t think of. As a scientist, all I can say is that humans of today do not have the resources, the knowledge, or the technology to build something like this. It’s entirely possible that some ancient civilization’s understanding of metallurgy was better than ours, but there wouldn’t have been any more iridium around, whether it was five thousand, ten thousand, or twenty thousand years ago. So, to answer your question, no, I don’t believe humans built these things. You can draw whatever conclusion you want from that.

I’m not stupid; I knew I was probably putting an end to my career. I certainly annihilated any credibility I had with the NSA, but what was I going to do? Lie?

—What did you do after you submitted your report?

—I went home, to where it all began. I hadn’t gone home in nearly four years, not since my father died.

—Where is home?

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ZNE44FK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Del Rey (April 26, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 26, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4897 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0718181697

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Sylvain Neuvel

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Sylvain Neuvel dropped out of high school at age 15. Along the way, he has been a journalist, worked in soil decontamination, sold ice cream in California, and peddled furniture across Canada. He received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Chicago. He taught linguistics in India, and worked as a software engineer in Montreal. He is also a certified translator, though he wishes he were an astronaut. He likes to tinker, dabbles in robotics and is somewhat obsessed with Halloween. He absolutely loves toys; his girlfriend would have him believe that he has too many, so he writes about aliens and giant robots as a blatant excuse to build action figures (for his son, of course).

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Lauren Miller

Very Interesting and a Good Mystery

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Very Interesting and Enjoyable
Strange, but Interesting!
Well, I finally got around to finishing, Sleeping Giants!

Sylvain Neuvel has written an off beat science fiction story that is well founded in science, the man knows his stuff, but having said that I must say this novel isn’t for everyone.

The novel is written in a series of interviews and exchanges between the main characters and an unknown and unnamed narrator who has the benefit of knowing exactly why they have been recruited for a research study that has enormous consequences for the human population. However, he keeps this crucial information to himself. (Spoiler: there is someone else who pulls the strings, an unknown entity)

An enormous (giant) hand was found years before by a young girl who later becomes a scientist. She heads up the team. One is a linguist and the other is an army pilot. Through this series of interviews, we find out how they go about locating all the missing parts of this giant that are located beneath the earth all over the world.

The giant robot has the form of a woman, but with no eyes. This robot is 20 stories high by the time they connect all the parts. It has an energy source that is unknown to anyone on earth. It is also a weapon of mass destruction.

The team accidently engages the energy source and the result is that a whole lot of people in airplanes and part of the Denver Airport are instantly vaporized. Now comes the part, all through interview, where every nation on earth wants the robot, so the US decides its too dangerous for anyone nation and they drop it in a deep trench in the ocean.

However, one nation, Russia, finds a way to retrieve it and they are off and running again, except the controls and two control helmets will not work on anyone other an the two American researchers who first were part of the research.

There is a surprise ending, with an epilog alluding to the next book in the series.

All in all, well written and interesting, but this novel is not for everyone, though I did enjoy it because I like science, but it did lag in places. ***

Sylvain Neuvel has written an off beat science fiction story that is well founded in science, the man knows his stuff, but having said that I must say this novel isn’t for everyone.

The novel is written in a series of interviews and exchanges between the main characters and an unknown and unnamed narrator who has the benefit of knowing exactly why they have been recruited for a research study that has enormous consequences for the human population. However, he keeps this crucial information to himself. (Spoiler: there is someone else who pulls the strings, an unknown entity)

An enormous (giant) hand was found years before by a young girl who later becomes a scientist. She heads up the team. One is a linguist and the other is an army pilot. Through this series of interviews, we find out how they go about locating all the missing parts of this giant that are located beneath the earth all over the world.

The giant robot has the form of a woman, but with no eyes. This robot is 20 stories high by the time they connect all the parts. It has an energy source that is unknown to anyone on earth. It is also a weapon of mass destruction.

The team accidently engages the energy source and the result is that a whole lot of people in airplanes and part of the Denver Airport are instantly vaporized. Now comes the part, all through interview, where every nation on earth wants the robot, so the US decides its too dangerous for anyone nation and they drop it in a deep trench in the ocean.

However, one nation, Russia, finds a way to retrieve it and they are off and running again, except the controls and two control helmets will not work on anyone other an the two American researchers who first were part of the research.

Sylvain Neuvel has written an off beat science fiction story that is well founded in science, the man knows his stuff, but having said that I must say this novel isn’t for everyone. However, if you like science fiction, this is really good and a different take on a presentation.

The novel is written in a series of interviews and exchanges between the main characters and an unknown and unnamed narrator who has the benefit of knowing exactly why they have been recruited for a research study that has enormous consequences for the human population. However, he keeps this crucial information to himself. (Spoiler: there is someone else who pulls the strings, an unknown entity)

An enormous (giant) hand was found years before by a young girl who later becomes a scientist. She heads up the team. One is a linguist and the other is an army pilot. Through this series of interviews, we find out how they go about locating all the missing parts of this giant that are located beneath the earth all over the world.

The giant robot has the form of a woman, but with no eyes. This robot is 20 stories high by the time they connect all the parts. It has an energy source that is unknown to anyone on earth. It is also a weapon of mass destruction.

The team accidently engages the energy source and the result is that a whole lot of people in airplanes and part of the Denver Airport are instantly vaporized. Now comes the part, all through interview, where every nation on earth wants the robot, so the US decides its too dangerous for anyone nation and they drop it in a deep trench in the ocean.

However, one nation, Russia, finds a way to retrieve it and they are off and running again, except the controls and two control helmets will not work on anyone other an the two American researchers who first were part of the research.

There is a surprise ending, with an epilog alluding to the next book in the series.

All in all, well written and interesting, but this novel is not for everyone, though I did enjoy it because I like science, but it did lag in places. ***

4 people found this helpful

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Preston Leigh

Book Of The Year

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2016

Verified Purchase

On May 21, 2016, I went to Books-A-Million to return a book that I thought would be good, but a few chapters into it proved otherwise. I decided to look around and see what was out and new, see if anything would grab my attention. Since reading indie authors almost exclusively for about two years, I find it hard to go into a bookstore and find a book. Why pay nearly $30 for a new hardback or $17 for a paperback when I can get several books by good indie authors for the same price?

I started in the front of the store, where the new releases are, and began to look at the covers to see if anything grabbed me. (Yes I know they say not to judge a book by its cover but that is what gets people’s attention. If your cover doesn’t grab me in the store then I’m probably not going to read what your book is about.) After looking at the newest books, I continued to a table that displays books that have recently been released.

Then I saw the cover to Sleeping Giants. Ok, you have my attention, Sylvain Neuvel. I know almost all hardbacks have the story synopsis on the inside flap, but I wondered what was on the back.

This book has some great praises:

“This stellar debut novel . . . masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, political thriller and apocalyptic fiction . . . A page turner of the highest order” – Kirkus Reviews

“Reminiscent of The Martian and World War Z, Sleeping Giants is a luminous conspiracy yarn that shoots for (and lands among) the stars.” – Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising

“First-time novelist Sylvain Neuvel does a bold, splashy cannonball off the high dive with Sleeping Giants. It bursts at the seams with big ideas and the questions they spawn: How much human life is worth sacrificing in the pursuit of scientific progress? Can humanity be trusted with weapons of ultimate destruction? And the biggest: Are we alone? But all that really matters is that this book is a sheer blast from start to finish. I haven’t had this much fun reading in ages.” – Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and the bestselling Wayward Pines

After reading these quotes I had to know what this book was about, especially since Pierce Brown said it was “reminiscent of The Martian.” I opened the book to read the inside flap:

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square 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—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.

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 provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

I have to admit, I was interested in this book now. I continued to walk through the store to see if any other book would make me change my mind on Sleeping Giants . . . they didn’t. I knew I had to get this one.

I started to read it Saturday evening. Sylvain Neuvel writes in a way that really keeps your interest in the story. Saturday night I had to decide if I was going to stay up and read or if I would sleep. We had a 5 hour ride to make the next day, but this book had my attention. I finally decided that I would get some sleep.

Sunday I downloaded the Audible version of the book so I would have it to listen to on the way home. Once my wife fell asleep, I turned on the audiobook. I will talk more about that later.

I finished the book on the morning of Tuesday, May 24, 2016. That is the quickest I have read a novel in a while. I am a slow reader, but I could not put this book down. I was trying to find time to read what happened next. Video games didn’t matter; Netflix and Hulu didn’t matter, I just wanted to read the story.

From what I am reading online and from other reviews, Sleeping Giants is written like World War Z. The story is told mainly through interviews. There are a few other things like a news article, journal entries, or flight transmissions, but the majority (maybe 90-95%) of the story is told through an interview. The same character does the interviewing. We never learn who he is, what he really does, or who he really works for and that adds to the mystery of the book. I found myself asking, is he really a good guy, a bad guy, or a combination of both?

We learn about the other characters through the interviews. I cannot say that I really connected with many of them, I guess it is hard to when the story is told through an interview, but that did not detract from the story. You still come to care for characters and maybe hate a few.

The pacing of the story is great. Some chapters did end on a slight cliffhanger, but every chapter felt necessary and made me want to continue the story.

“Every major religion has to adjust to this revelation. Whatever god you believe in can’t just be about humans anymore. He, or she, has to be a god of the whole universe.”

This book needs to be read and/or listened to. The audiobook is amazing. This might be the best audiobook I have listened to. Each character in the story is voiced by a different actor/actress. To me it makes the story so easy to follow along with and works great with the format of the story. It brings a whole new level to this book. While I was driving, my wife stopped reading her book at times to listen to this audiobook as well. I highly recommend the audiobook.

***Just on a funny side note: I started listening to this while my wife was sleeping. At one point in the story a main female character screams. I had no idea this was going to happen and it scared my wife. She sat up wondering why a female was yelling when it was just us and our dogs in the car. I laughed so hard. She did too . . . later.***

I have read and watched some reviews for Sleeping Giants and I would like to address a few things that really bugged me:

One reviewer said that he wanted to see more killer robot action. Let me say this about the robot. This robot is not what you are probably picturing when you think robot. Yes this is a giant robot (200 feet tall). But this robot does not have a mind of its own. The robot has to be controlled. One of the really fun things about this book is the people learning how to control the robot and what the different buttons and things do. What do the different symbols mean? That is all part of the fun of the book. This robot cannot act on its own. So know that going into it.
This book is not The Martian. When someone compares a book to The Martian I automatically think of space. This book takes place on earth but asks, are we alone in the universe? I guess the other reason it is compared to The Martian is the fact that they use science and math in the book but it is easy to understand.
As I said earlier, the writing is compared to World War Z. Each chapter has a file number and is in interview format, you could call the style a dossier. If you don’t care for that type of format then you probably won’t like this book very much
Sleeping Giants is my pick for book of the year so far. I had been having a hard time finding a book that really grabbed me, until this one. Sleeping Giants grabbed me and didn’t let go until I finished it. I could not turn the pages fast enough. I could not read the words fast enough. I needed to know what happened and I needed to know now.

Once I finished the story I was left with a big smile on my face. This book is truly fun to read. I am not sure how many books will be in this series, The Themis Files, but book two, Waking Gods is scheduled for release on April 4, 2017. This is WILL BE a book that I preorder from Amazon and have it delivered to me the day it releases. I will also stop whatever book I am reading at the time to read it.

Sylvain Neuvel’s debut novel, Sleeping Giants, is an amazing read and I cannot recommend it enough. Neuvel shows that he has some major talent and I hope that he will continue to write more books. I cannot wait to read whatever he puts out next.

The movie rights for the story were bought by Sony before the book was released. As of the day I am writing this review, David Koepp (Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park, and War of the Worlds) is set to write the screenplay. Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Josh Bratman are set to produce.

Sleeping Giants is a joy to read and listen to. I hope at some point I am able to get my copy signed by the author. I have a feeling I will be reading this book more. It might even be one I read every year.

Before I give my rating I want to tell you how I came up with it. When I give you my rating, it is on a 10 point scale. Why is that, you might ask. Everyone else does 5 star ratings. In my head, the 10 point scale is like receiving a grade in school. If I give it 10/10 then that is like getting a 100%, 9.5/10 is like getting a 95%, and so on and so on. I do not hand out many 10/10 ratings. Why? For a book to get a 10 out of 10 it has to do a few things for me:

It really has to pull me into its world. I have to feel like I am part of the book. I have to feel like I am there as I am reading it.
I have to have the feeling that I cannot and do not want to put the book down. I have to want to read instead of watching my favorite show, eating food, or getting sleep. The book has to leave me with a feeling that it might be the most important thing at that moment.
It has to be a story that I would want to read at least once a year.
Since I have started posting my reviews on the blog I have given 10 stars to only three books and they are:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Empathy For Andrew by WJ Davies

I went back and forth on this book, to be honest. It is hard to feel like I am part of the world when the book is told through interviews. But in the end it meets all of the other criteria for a 10 Star rating and that is what it deserves. I am not going to punish the story because the writing format is different to me. This is a book that I will recommend to everyone and will probably read every year. This book truly is amazing.

Leighgenadry Rating: 10/10 Stars

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files) by Sylvain Neuvel
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (April 26, 2016)
Audiobook: 8 hours and 28 minutes

17 people found this helpful

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Gabri

GENIALE

Reviewed in Italy on January 1, 2022

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Assolutamente strafigo, non riuscivo a metterlo giù! Una genialata che rientra tra le migliore letture di quest'anno, plotwist a manetta e personaggi molto ben costruiti a cui mi sono perfino affezionata. Prodotto arrivato intatto, cinque stelle ampiamente meritate.

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Swords and Spectres

Absolutely loved it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2020

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This is easily the most enjoyable book I've picked up this year. Words I thought I'd not be saying due to the strange format of the novel. It's told entirely in the form of interviews and other report-style pieces and, despite that, I feel as though I am more attached to the characters in this than I have been to any other novel in lord knows how long.

Just by seeing the words 'told in the form of interviews' you'd not imagine there could be a great deal of emotion, excitement or, well, interest within these pages. There was so much. So, so much to love and enjoy within 'Sleeping Gods'.

I expected to enjoy it (having loved a podcast told via the medium of 'found footage' titled 'The White Vault') I felt as though I had a bit of experience with this medium. Still, I didn't expect to enjoy it anywhere near as much as I did.

In 'Sleeping Giants' Sylvain Neuvel gives us a cast of wonderfully different characters, each with their own motivations, personalities and flaws. He creates protagonists that are easy to get behind and relate to, just as well as he creates antagonists that are easy to hate.

Perhaps my favourite part of this novel, aside from the fact that it makes the Ancient Astronaut theory seriously cool, is the character of the interviewer. So much mystery surrounds this man and, with every interview given, you can't help but fall deeper into the pit of curiosity where he is concerned.

The skill at which the plot is woven is superb and the way in which the author brought things to a close at the end was fantastic. As I mentioned earlier, the primary plotline revolves around 'Ancient Astronaut' theory, this is the theory that advanced, space-faring beings have visited our planet in the past and, in some way, influenced our growth as a civilisation. If you've ever seen 'Ancient Aliens' or seen the gif of that guy with the overly-loud hairstyle saying 'it's aliens', then you should give this a try. Even if you hate the idea of ancient alien space travellers, this story is told in such an in-depth, enjoyable way that you won't be able to stop yourself from respecting the work put in.

The author also has a talent for throwing curve balls at you left, right and centre. Some of the things that happened left me shocked, happy, excited etc ... I don't often go beyond 'I enjoyed that' or 'that was pretty bad' where a range of emotions are concerned when reading.

I found this to be such an easy to read, easy to visualise page turner and can't wait to jump into the next in the series. I only hope I'm able to enjoy the rest of the series as much as I did 'Sleeping Giants'.

2 people found this helpful

Jason Kim

Draws you in

Reviewed in Canada on November 21, 2018

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This book had me from the second I started reading it .

It carries an original story that has you on the edge of your seat with a lovely cliff hanger at the end .

As i read this book, I couldn’t help but tell everyone about it . I’m hoping this will be made into a movie .

This book is a must read .

JAIRO GUS

Somos só nós no universo?

Reviewed in Brazil on March 10, 2018

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Intrigante história, envolvente. Escrita com riqueza de hipóteses sobre a existência de outras civilizações no universo! Levanta a dúvida no mínimo!

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Christian Alejandro Ruiz Ochoa

Lectura ligera

Reviewed in Mexico on July 18, 2017

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Es una buena idea y la lectura es bastante ligera. La historia se desarrolla bastante rápido. Sin embargo el formato en que está escrito (tipo entrevista) a mi en lo particular no me terminó de gustar. Aún así vale la pena leer si quieres una historia corta. Habrá que checar los siguientes libros para ver cómo continúa.

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