Sleeping giants

by Sylvain Neuvel

304 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 2016

ISBN:: 978-1-101-88669-4
OCLC Number:: 910979593

(9 reviews)

"17 years ago: A girl in South Dakota falls through the earth, then wakes up dozens of feet below ground on the palm of what seems to be a giant metal hand. Today: She is a top-level physicist leading a team of people to understand exactly what that hand is, where it came from, and what it portends for humanity. A swift and spellbinding tale told almost exclusively through transcriptions of interviews conducted by a mysterious and unnamed character, this is a unique debut that describes a hunt for truth, power, and giant body parts"--

1 edition

infryq reviewed Sleeping giants by Sylvain Neuvel (Themis files -- book one)

A grimdark AART

4 stars

This was indeed a grimdark version of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It pairs well with Three Body Problem (either the books or the Netflix series) and rhymes a bit with Foundation and Pacific Rim (the 2013 movie).

Execution is an interesting take on the epistolary; the book is entirely made up of interview notes and other transcripts with no real other narrative text. It works great in a full-cast audio recording but I have no idea if it would be easier or harder in a visual text medium.

Content notes: People die, sometimes violently, and it’s pretty horrible. Some light body horror. Also the main instigator is a manipulative sociopath, and a lot of people have a Bad Time because of it. A nicely crafted Bad Time! but a Bad Time regardless.