January 2021 Book Club: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi
Content: Strong Language, Off page sex

 

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped 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 - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

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 relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy this book when it got chosen as our book club read, but I ended up liking it. The premise is rather interesting and in some ways it reminded me of the movie Arrival. I must add here that while I liked the book overall, there were some things that kept me from loving it. One is the lack of likable people. I did like Rose, and Kara was ok, but mostly everyone else was either not a great person, or just downright horrible. I liked the interviewer to a point, but he was one of those characters with a lot of gray areas that manipulates people. 

The book is told in interview style which is not a good way to get to know characters, but it kind of worked in this case and didn't bother me too much. I did feel like there was not enough plot development in this book. It was a lot of set up that leads to things to come. By the end we still are mostly left in the dark about what the giant robots are, who the aliens are that the technology came from, and who the interviewer is and what his motivations are. I want to call the robots mechs because that's basically what they are, giant mechs piloted by people or aliens.

This is a trilogy, with some novellas thrown in between as well, and I considered reading the second book, but decided against it. I just didn't like it enough to continue.

Our archaeological dig cake with robot parts in it (Yes that's a Fortnite character. It was the best we could do at the last minute in the Walmart toy department.):