Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) by Sylvain Neuvel Series: Themis Files #1
Published by Del Rey on April 26th 2016
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 304
Format: eBook, Kindle Book
Source: Amazon Kindle
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?
An inventive debut in the tradition of World War Z and The Martian, told in interviews, journal entries, transcripts, and news articles, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by a quest for truth—and a fight for control of earthshaking power.
It all started when the little girl fell through earth. In his debut novel, Sleeping Giants, Sylvain Neuvel brings to us a very compelling and thrilling Sci-Fi novel. It’s also the beginning of a very promising series, Themis Files.
When the little girl Rose fell into what looked like a giant metal hand, no one could tell what that thing was. Almost seventeen years later, it seems like the hand could find its way to Rose. Rose has grown up to be a scientist specialized in physics. One way or the other, a project to unleash what the giant hand could be has found its way to her. She is now leading a highly qualified team to find the origins of the giant hand.
The research is held in top secrecy. The results of the research imply something major. Could the hand be only a part of something bigger? As more results are unleashed, there seems to be other similar objects buried deep underground. The question is who had buried them and for what reason. Moreover, as the technology involved in such thing is way beyond the human kind knowledge, could this thing belong to aliens?
With the progress of the research project, the continuous discoveries lead to political chaos. Science is no longer the mere player in this puzzle. As tension arises, we witness the struggle of powers and conflicts of interests pressing for more compromises. But at what cost would such compromises be?
The story is told through a series of interviews and reports. It’s like a series of coded project files. Well, that was new, and good as well. It was like revising the project files to know how things had turned up, with each report or interview telling us something new. Also, leading all those interviews was our anonymous yet very powerful man, Mr. Anonymous as I called him. Well, this Mr. Anonymous seemed to be very powerful and manipulative at the same time. He controlled everything and everyone. While each one on this project knew only one side of the truth, Mr. Anonymous had a master plan in mind with all the necessary contingency plans. He controlled and manipulated everyone to fulfill this plan. You could never tell for sure who his allies were.
Well, this was a very fast paced book. I am not usually a science fiction reader. So I am very cautious when selecting a science fiction book to read. Well, after reading this book I think I’ve been missing a lot. I really loved this book. The concept of facing such a threat in itself was very thrilling. There was also a myth side to the story which was also interesting. In one word, this book was simply beautiful.
I can’t believe this is the author’s debut novel. Sylvain Neuvel has a very creative mind which is something I’m sure of. He has the intense spirit of a boy captured in a very thrilling star wars game. I am lucky enough I didn’t have to wait as I am currently reading Waking Gods, the next installment in this series.
About Sylvain Neuvel
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).