Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

Deadwood, USA. A girl sneaks out just before dark to ride her new bike. Suddenly, the ground disappears beneath her. Waking up at the bottom of a deep pit, she sees an emergency rescue team above her. 

The people looking down see something far stranger..

That girl grows up to be Dr Rose Franklin, a brilliant scientist and the leading world expert on what she discovered. An enormous, ornate hand made of an exceptionally rare metal, which predates all human civilization on the continent. 

An object whose origins and purpose are perhaps the greatest mystery humanity has ever faced. Solving the secret of where it came from – and how many more parts might be out there – could change life as we know it.

But what if we were meant to find it? And what happens when this vast, global puzzle is complete?

Review

    ★★★★

SF is not a new genre for me however that is not to say that I have read almost everything there’s to read. That would be stupid to say and think. However for some reason, I never got into the alien thing as much as I wanted. There’s a reason for that, I think. It was mostly because there’s never a completely unique way of approaching aliens. I don’t mean that in a bad way, there’s tons of books where it really works.

When I first heard of Sleeping Giants, I was intrigued but I was also a bit scared to read it? I just didn’t want to be disappointed by the book, you know? At that time, I had been disappointed far too many times by the aliens genre in general. However, I am really glad that I got around to reading it. Sure, it may not be a complete mind-blowing book for you but for me, I read it at a really good time.

The format was a bit unusual for me but I quickly got used to it. The matter itself was so wonderfully woven together that I was constantly at the edge of my seat, wanting to know what happened next.

The plot itself really reels you in and the way it’s presented makes you always wonder about the characters. There was always that wish to read one more chapter to know what was happening and how it was unfolding. I am really glad that I finally read it because it’s pretty mind blowing. It was sometimes a bit frustrating to read about things after they had happened, it’s probably because I am so used to reading all the action bits but in its own way, this way works too.

If I had to pick one thing I didn’t love about the book, it would have to be the way characters are presented in the book. I mean, I completely understand that the format didn’t allow for the characters to grow in the traditional way but sometimes that left me unsatisfied? That’s the only reason I didn’t give the entire five stars, it’s four and a half for me.

Overall, it’s a really good book if you have the patience to get used to the format, its rewarding in its own way. The robot, the discovery, the global politics and the characters’ choices…everything kinda works wonderfully for me.

I can’t wait to read the next book, and there’s another coming out soon, right? It was just the thing I needed to read, I didn’t know it at the time but boy, am I glad that I decided on this one.