This sequel to Sleeping Giants ramped up the story and the stakes. Themis is not alone, and once again our diverse cast needs to determine what is happening and how to fix it. The book is written primarily using interviews, and although it was interesting in printed form, I suspect it would be fantastic in audio format (and I hear it is). One thing I liked is that the events weren't random - they made sense (eventually). Although things wrapped up nicely, the last sentence makes me think we are not done with the story.

Like its predecessor, Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods is marked by an interesting style, where debriefings, news reports, and journal entries are pieced together to tell the story. The second book of the Themis Files has a markedly different tone than the first: while Sleeping Giants was somewhat contemplative and slow-moving, things really get going in Waking Gods. Despite the difference in tone, I don't think you can really enjoy Waking Gods to the full without reading its predecessor, as the story isn't dragged down by too much exposition of what happened before. The story picks up a few years after the first book, and all of the characters from the first story are back in force, along with a few new perspectives. I was a little disappointed in one of them, as their introduction makes another character's demise painfully obvious rather than a surprising twist or "anyone can die" vibe. However, I did like the new characters and I was happy to see the return of some of my favourites, such as the fiery Kara.

The plot and tone reminded me quite a bit of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. As with Welles’ famous story, the reader spends most of the story frustrated, helpless, and adrift, unable to determine what will happen next or why. Despite the crazy events, I think Neuven is quite successful in creating what I'd call, for want of a better term, a tone of realism. Part of achieving this is having atrocities and events can happen without any explanation or any leading plot arc. For me, this made it quite difficult to actually push my way through the book. I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did. As the story moves towards the climax, everything clicks into place with a reasonably satisfying and quite creative solution. As with the previous book, there’s a bit of a hook or cliffhanger for the next story arc, and I’ll be very interested to see where the story goes next.

If you haven’t read the first book in the Themis Files, and you’re a sci-fi fan, then you need to. I had been waiting so anxiously for the follow up to the first book, but was also apprehensive being that so many 2nd books in a series struggle to continue with the story created in the 1st book. That was not the case here. I was immediately hooked into this world again and was so fascinated by the technology and alien themes. I really don’t feel like I can add details without giving things away, so I’ll just say that it was awesome, and really hope the author is going to make this a trilogy! I was also super excited to get to know who the mysterious narrator was, but it was at a cost. This is easily turning into one of my favorite series’ of all time, and one I will most definitely re-read in the future.

ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another fun novel. Love the format of this novel with different documents and interviews. I read part of the book and listened to part of it. The audio is really fantastic. Looking forward to more!

When I began to read Sleeping Giants (First book in this series), I loved the story from the begining.
In the first place to began with interviews was enjoyable and I thought it was a nice way to know characters and my favorites was always Kara's interviews (Every time I read her interviews she make me want to say "Yeah, thats my girl" :)) She is lovely for me. But when all story told that way, It was becoming disturbing for me.

But I liked our mission man (Just don't like to call him nameless man).If this is made to movie (I would love to see it.) I feel like every time after he talks with Mr. Burns he will look us (and will think what the hell he (Mr. Burns) was telling :))

I was unconfortable with the way story told until I finished first book which make us shocked in the end. After that I didn't care about the way story is told so I was excited to began second book " Waking of Goods" which didn't dissapoint me and on the contrary it was better what I expected.

As I go on reading story was making me add more questions for me to ask and that made me worried how will end ( even though this book had a lot of good comments). I was remembering "Lost" series case so felt like to say " Just don't make me feel the same way when I wached Lost last episode (Even though I enjoyed how series gone on in the begining, I was thinking I would rather not to wach at all in the end). But when I finished the book I was feeling happy and satisfied with what I get ^_^.

The ending is making you want to story keep going on (and make you feel like it is going on in your head) Even though that, I was satisfied with it just ending like that too.

Well this is how I feel about story. About characters I didn't love all of them (but I can't think story with any of them missing). Kara and Our mission man was my favorites :)) I didn't like him much but he did make story more enjoyable.

I can higly recommend this book anyone who love fiction. I believe this book won't dissappoint you (so don't miss it ^_^)

Thanks, netgalley and the publisher, giving me a free copy of this e-book in exchange for a review.

I loved the book! I devoured both the first and second book of this series within a day. Enough science fiction to be fun, enough drama to keep me interested, enough heart to convince me to care about the characters, and enough philosophical quandaries to leave me in anticipation of the next part of the story. I absolutely recommend this series to anyone wondering what it means to be human and what it should ultimately mean for our species in the grand scheme of the universe.

The follow up to last year’s Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods is even more exciting and action packed than its predecessor. At least until every interesting POV character dies, then things kind of stall in a not-so-spectacular manner. Set ten years after the events of the first novel, Waking Gods answers some lingering questions and explores the unthinkable: a global alien attack

Pure enjoyment. This series remains so smart/sad/funny, and the characters (old and new) keep me engaged as much as the action-packed story.

A wild and crazy follow-up to Neuvel's thrilling debut Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods ramps up the tension, the action, and the stakes as humanity finds themselves facing down their first direct alien contact - and the fact that the aliens might not be peaceful at all. Neuvel's addictive and twisty writing is at its best in Waking Gods, weaving a web of conspiracy, danger, and dire stakes around his fascinating characters, and it leaves off on such a cliffhanger that I actually screamed when I finished it. I can't wait for the next book!

Stylistic experiment doesn't work

Writers not uncommonly set themselves to compose in the style of another writer. I have known situations (more often in the UK) where this can actually be a mildly competitive sport.

Sylvain Neuvel has undertaken to write this series as dispatches, files, and interviews, rather than in normal prose. I find the result less than impressive. The style lacks the immediacy of prose, reports are by necessity written after an event so the reader receives cues about the timeline that detract from suspense, and interviews, however informative, are not dialogue.

This is an interesting exercise but the resulting books do not work as novels.

I received a review copy of "Waking Gods: Book 2 of The Themis Files" by Sylvain Neuvel (Random House – Ballantine) through NetGalley.com.

VERDICT: How similar or different are we from aliens? This novel proposes an answer with dreadful consequences.

I really enjoyed Sleeping Giants last year, the first book in the Themis series, so I eagerly seized the opportunity to read Waking Gods, the 2nd volume.
Waking Gods adopts the same unusual and attractive format and structure as Sleeping Giants, each chapter being presented like a document, whether an interview, or a log, or a diary. Note also the cool titles and covers! I enjoy how the titles evolve with the plot, and I’m really curious to know what the next title will be!
There are again interesting international dynamics. These can be essential in a time of crises.
One important difference between both volumes: the shift at one point for the mysterious interviewer, but I won’t give spoilers.
The book opens up with Eva, a young girl having strange dreams or rather visions. What’s her connection? How important is she to the story? I liked her character and the reason she’s there.
The book takes place about ten years after the previous one: we now know what this giant metallic hand was: a body part of a huge robot, that humans finally put together and learned to operate. But why was it on earth?
Now even more mysterious, more huge robots show up in London and then in all major cities of the world. Are they related to Themis? Were they made and sent by the same people? Why for?
The plot raises interesting questions about origin, destiny and mission of life.
But with all that’s going on in our world today, I realize this was actually not the best timing for me to read a book where millions are killed all over the world.
Also I thought the genetic element at the center of the story was a bit convoluted and it didn’t really work well for me. Plus, I thought there were too many technical details about genetics.
The very last line of the book promises interesting premises for book three, but depending on the mood, I may or may not try it.

I sort of want to caps lock this review because I feel like I’m shouting about how great the series is every time I talk to anyone about it. Waking Gods continues the story of how humans might cope were we to find a massive robot built by an alien race buried in the Earth. (Spoiler: not super well.) Our cast of characters is back and face a new challenge when new robots arrive on the planet and don’t seem to want to move unless we try to attack, in which case they annihilate us. The mystery of why they’re here, who created them, and what might come next deepens, and the more we learn, the more questions that need to be answered.

The thing I really enjoy about the series is that we get multiple narrators helping to tell the story through a series of saved files, so we’re able to jump perspective, time, and format with relative ease and it doesn’t end up being confusing. I’ve listened to both books now on audio, and I really recommend it. There is a whole cast reading for the various characters, and it really lends a cinematic quality to the reading experience. I found myself looking for any excuse to turn the audiobook back on, which is what I really look for in a listening experience.

I’d describe the book as being a true science fiction story, written for literary fiction readers. The story has some great sci-fi elements and pulls those off really well, but the real hook is the character develop and the human reaction to the unknown. We action is taking place on Earth, and we don’t get any more information about the alien race than what the humans are able to figure out.

[I also reviewed this book on Litsy.]

A great follow up to Sleeping Giants! I love all the characters, and I’m fascinated by the structure of these books. They are told in “files” (not chapters) which consist mainly of interviews by a nameless interviewer who seems to have endless resources at his disposal, and our other characters, as well as research logs, personal journal entries, and the occasional military mission report and news report transcripts. It may seem a little choppy at first, but draws you in quickly. I'm not generally a sci-fi kind of girl, but this series is one of my new favorites and I would recommend them to anyone!

I think I should have read the first one first, although repeated visits to Amazon and my library website helped catch me up.

The first book in the series was left on a cliffhanger and I was worried that this sequel wouldn't live up to the expectations but it did that and even managed to leave me wanting more. The transcript format can be challenging to read but this time it was easier. I was already familiar with the characters. I wanted to know where the story was going. It was hard to put down. I look forward to the next book in the series and any other writings by this author.

This 5 star rating applies across the board - not just within the genre for me.
The crazy thing is, I'm NOT A SCI-FI GAL....

This book and its prequel astounded me - I read them back to back and I almost wished I had waited until the third volume was out so that I could jump right back in and continue the story!

It is always very interesting to me when a book that is very clearly in one genre manages to appeal to the interests of readers who don't normally prefer that genre- this sort of reminds me of how much I can love Michael Crichton (or Stephen King for that matter, even though I'm not really a horror gal either). What makes these special though is the attention to "scientific" detail "fact" that allows the reader to really feel grounded in a firm reality no matter how far-fetched or elaborate the fantasy. (Let's say one of those rare times when I don't mind that I don't have the skills to fact-check this stuff... ) I found myself trying to describe the plot to my boyfriend as I was reading, and every time ended up saying some variation of "This sounds insane, I KNOW but it's REALLY good!" So there's a testament to the power of a good book to whisk you away.

Neuvel's characters are fully formed, quite colorful people and all of them are highly unusual. Even as I got to know them throughout the two books, they continued to surprise me to the very end.

If you haven't read the first, grab 'em both and pop 'em into your bag for your commute, a trip to the beach, or just a cozy night at home with some take-out.

Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine (Del Ray), NetGalley and Sylvain Neuvel for the eARC!

I must start out this review by saying that Sylvain Neuvel’s publisher, Del Rey, sent me an advanced reader’s copy of the book and the audiobook. In no way will this influence my review, as you will read.

As you have probably have heard me mention several times, Sleeping Giants is my Book Of The Year for 2016. I could not recommend that book enough. In short, that book really stuck with me and it is easily one of my Top 5 Books Of All Time.

Needless to say, my expectations for Wakings Gods were set very very. . .very high. How high? I expected Waking Gods to be my Book Of The Year for 2017 and the final, yet to be named, Book 3 to be my Book Of The Year for 2018. I know, really high expectations. But based on the storyline and the style of writing with Sleeping Giants, that did not seem unrealistic of me.

One of the things that really caught my eye with Sleeping Giants was the cover. There was the square cutout on the dust jacket with art printed on the actual hardback book. I am so happy they did that again with Waking Gods, but instead of a square cutout they did a triangle one. The color scheme is different, Waking Gods having a yellow theme to it while Sleeping Giants was turquoise. The artwork below the dust jacket is beautiful. I do wish they would have put more artwork on the back of the actual book, just like for Sleeping Giants, but they did not. There are stars there, but no robot artwork.

Unfortunately, I do not believe that Waking Gods will be my Book Of The Year for 2017. Don’t get me wrong: it is a very good story. But it didn’t wow me like Sleeping Giants did.

Waking Gods does not pick up right where Sleeping Giants ended. It actually starts nine years after the events of Sleeping Giants, but most of the book takes place ten years after Sleeping Giants.

Waking Gods suffers from what I am going to call the Ernest Cline syndrome. Ernest Cline made a huge splash with Ready Player One and the bar he set with that book was very high. Many people, including myself, expected another book of that caliber. Some will argue he succeeded and others will say he failed with his next book Armada. Sleeping Giants was Sylvain Neuvel’s debut and he made a huge splash with it. The movie rights were actually bought before the story rights were picked up. But how do you follow up a story like that? How can you meet the expectations you set with book one? It is a monumental and scary task.

Waking Gods is told in the same format as Sleeping Giants, mainly interviews and transcripts. One thing Neuvel did more this time was having more than the two people speaking in a chapter, but he does a great job of making it easy to following along with who is speaking.

This format is what really makes this series stand out among all the other stories out there. Before Sleeping Giants, I had never read anything like this. I know there are other books out there that might be written in the same format, but I had not read them and this style was new to me. It was exciting. Fun. I could not stop reading. For about thirty-six hours I ate, slept, and drank Sleeping Giants.

The audiobook for Waking Gods is amazing. I’d venture to say that it is actually better than the audiobook of Sleeping Giants. There are parts of the story when characters are talking to each other through a walkie-talkie (do people still say that or do they just say radio?). During these parts in the audio version, there is an added effect so the person sounds like they are talking through a walkie-talkie.

As I read and listened to the story, I realized that I prefered to listen to Waking Gods. It is a good story, it just isn’t great. I didn’t always feel like I needed to read what was coming next. I didn’t always feel like I needed to find reasons to read or to take reading breaks at work while other people took smoke breaks. There were times when I actually decided that playing a game on the Playstation sounded more fun. Now there were times I needed to know what happened next, but more times than not, I was ok if I could only read one chapter during the day.

There are some moments that did make me drop my jaw and want to throw the book. Not because it was bad, but because Neuvel did something that I didn’t think he would do. I wish I could mention them but they would be major spoilers.

That is one thing that I have enjoyed with this series so far: it is not predictable. Neuvel has always done a great job with the twists in his stories. There are two major instances during Waking Gods where this happened, and I actually emailed him about them. One of them was explained a little later in the book, but they were major enough that I needed to let him know what I thought.

Waking Gods at times felt too long. I don’t know why, but it kind of felt like it could have been a novella instead of a novel.

Overall, if you enjoyed Sleeping Giants and want to know where the story is going next, pick up Waking Gods. Don’t do what I did, don’t set the bar so high that no matter what Neuvel wrote, it wouldn’t be good enough. The story is good and I believe it is setting up an explosive end to the series. I have no idea where he is going to go with the story. Book 3 will definitely be a surprise to me and I can’t wait to read it when it comes out in 2018.

Just about a year ago, I was reading Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel – it was a fantastic debut and I know other science fiction fans will be excited to hear that a second book in the Themis Files series, WAKING GODS, has been released recently. The sequel begins almost a decade later, but the adventure and suspense are just as strong; that is, non-stop and a bit darker. Giant alien robots are invading the Earth and physicist Rose Franklin along with other human members of the Earth Defense Corps must figure out how to stop the destruction, first in London and then around the globe.

I am linking to an interview with author Sylvain Neuvel in which she talks about some of her motivations in writing this story, but there's not much point in sharing more details of the new novel – go grab a copy and start reading. WAKING GODS received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus which says, "Pure, unadulterated literary escapism featuring giant killer robots and the looming end of humankind. In a word: unputdownable." Enjoy.

Links in post:
Previous Post: http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2016/05/sleeping-giants-by-sylvain-neuvel.html
Author Interview: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/author-interviews/sylvain-neuvel/