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/

I loved [book:Sleeping Giants] more than words can say. I loved everything about it – the story and how it was told, the characters, the humor, the suspense, <i>the robot</i>. So when someone gave me a heads–up that [book:Waking Gods] was also available on Netgalley, I was there before the pixels faded. 

And … oh, okay, I gave this five stars as well, and I'm kind of surprised, to be honest. I'm not touching that; <I>Sleeping Giants</i> earned enough stars that it can lend <i>Waking Gods</i> one; I wouldn't have rated the latter less than four even at my harshest. But … I … didn't love it nearly as much as I did the former. 

The storytelling is still in the same format, through interviews and transcripts and so on. The characters are largely the same; a shocking reveal at the end of SG is fully explored in WG. And the inspiration for one character's name is revealed, and it made me happy. The humor is still the same –  

—Do you like squirrels? 
—I ask for your help in preventing a conflict of apocalyptic proportions and your answer is: "Do you like squirrels?" 
—Yes. I have a good squirrel story. 
—Of course. By all means 

– but now the suspense is ramped up, and there is an apocalyptic element introduced which … I don't know. That's part of why this wasn't as huge a success with me. Maybe it's because the curtain is pulled back and we see the wizard, so to speak… In <I>Sleeping Giants</i>, the setting was basically "twenty minutes into the future", almost completely familiar; in <I>Waking Gods</i> it felt less so, especially once destruction begins. I'm never going to enjoy seeing cities I'm fond of (in the abstract, at least) being leveled, or – to risk a spoiler – characters I'm fond of being wiped out. If the first book seemed to show that nobody was safe, this second book proved it. And the revelations about who was behind the robot(s) and their motivations were strangely anticlimactic. Like many a promising mystery novel, once the mystery is dispelled, so is a lot of the promise. In short, I wasn't happy once it all morphed into an almost standard sci-fi plot.

One topical comment (in two parts): where in SG it is noted in passing that the president is a woman (DAMMIT), another throwaway line mentions "His Majesty's Government". I just thought that was interesting. And given an imminent threat to America's participation in the U.N., and maybe to the U.N. as an entity, I wanted to save this quote: "This institution was founded in the wake of the most devastating war in human history, to promote peace by allowing nations to resolve their disputes here, in this room, and not on the battlefield. It was also created so that we could pool our knowledge and resources and achieve great things none of us could dream of achieving on our own." 

It's relevant. 

So – I didn't enjoy this as much. But the humor and intelligence of the writing was still strong. (<I>—Can you stop interrupting? It's a story. There's a fairy in it. No, I don't know what species of fairy.</i>) The geekery was still strong – as evidenced in the dedication and the revelation of who Vincent was named for, thus ensuring that I will never forget his name. It was, in the end, a satisfying story – and I don't feel that the losses suffered along the way were gratuitous, however much I hated them – but the place where it all ends up is not somewhere I want to be. I'm sure I'll read the third book whenever it comes along, out of loyalty and out of a desire to find out what the survivors do with this place. 

A couple more things I saved, and will want to save: 

<I>However, the French had long likened slow and clumsy work to that of a man wearing wooden shoes, or sabots, and Pouget, in his report, coined the term sabotage.

While I am reasonably confident you are not "the chosen one," you are without doubt one who has been chosen.</i>

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

This book had a different feel then Sleeping Giants for me but it was still very engaging. Some many gut wrenching moments. I love a book that can evoke so much emotion from me.

I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was fantastic. I'd read Sleeping Giants and compared it to The Martian or The Sparrow in the human/cosmic contrast way, but this goes in a different direction and asks "what if what left this here came back for it? Or just came back?" While the human race is fascinated by the possibilities of Themis, when another giant appears and is not under our control, those possibilities are turned back at us. 

The same oral history/found footage format from the first book continues in this, which provides a nice continuity. The same characters are here as well, there's some weird situation with Rose that I didn't entirely grasp but it wasn't enough to distract me from the story. A huge amount of explanation unfurls throughout the book, and I ended it IMMENSELY impatient for the next title in the series. Definitely one to recommend to people with short attention spans, people who are new to SF/Fantasy, and people who loved World War Z.

—Please. We are in the midst of a pivotal moment in our history, one that could signal a new era of discovery, or put an end to us all.
Picking up from the massive cliff hanger in Book One of The Themis Files, Waking Gods soars to new heights in its exploration of human nature and the possibility of alien life. Piloting Themis becomes routine but his use is anything but. The scientists and the government regularly clash over the treatment of Themis and his pilots- the government unable to resist the powerful possibilities and the scientists unable to forget the overarching implications. When a second robot appears in London, bigger, more urgent questions arise.

We assume we were supposed to find Themis, but say it wasn’t the case. Say they came here to get it back, destroy it, whatever. More to the point, there’s nothing you can put in front of that robot that would pose any serious threat to it, except maybe us. Do we really want to make first contact with an alien species by sending the only thing we have— which isn’t even ours— that it could see as a menace?
When the first attack concludes it becomes clear those who left Themis want something more. As more robots like Themis appear all over the world and more attacks occur, a pattern begins to emerge.

I am, however, absolutely convinced that their survival was not coincidental. These people were chosen, somehow, whether they are aware of it or not.
Brandishing weapons and the use of brute force have come up short in the fight to survive. Threatened with extermination, Rose and her crew must come together to save the world- if it isn't already too late.

—It is all about Rose, is it not?—Yes. That’s why I said it.—She fell on the hand when she was a child. She somehow ended up in charge of studying it. Now we are waiting for a war that we cannot win, and our best hope for survival lies with her.—Like you said, you’re really good at stating the obvious, but is there a point to all this?—Of course. Did you ever wonder why they chose to bring her back?
In the same style as Sleeping Giants, Neuvel exercises his impressive creative muscles to deliver a face-paced, enigmatic and intriguing adventure. Don't expect all the answers just yet- Waking Gods sets itself up perfectly for book three and the ending will leave you hanging in mid-air.

—They believe there is a purpose to life, and that no one should interfere with that purpose— that things should be the way they should be.

More than a year ago I stumbled upon the first book in the Themis files by Sylvain Neuvel: Sleeping Giants. The plot reminds one a bit of Pacific Rim, but the book fastly won me over with its twists, narrative structure and characters. I was very excited for the release of the next book in the series and apart from a few minor things I really enjoyed Waking Gods as well.

TIMEJUMP
Ten years have passed since the events in the first book. Themis has been established as a guardian symbol of earth and is known throughout the world, just like her pilots, Kara Resnik and Vincent Couture. The research of the robot hasn't progressed much though and Rose Franklin is having a kind of identity crisis because of the events in Sleeping Giants. The team is now working under the title Earth Defense Corps. At the beginning of the book an event occurs, which will put all the characters to the test: Another robot suddenly appears in the middle of London.

WHAT NOW?
From that moment on the only important question is how to react to this event. Is the second robot a danger, scout, ambassador or something entirely different? The fact that Kronos (as he is later called) is standing unnaturally still for weeks in Regent's Park makes the situation just more scary. Together with the characters one simply waits for something to happen and Sylvain Neuvel manages to completely engross the reader in the story. What developes from the situation with Kronos is another punch to the gut and not the last in Waking Gods.

TWISTS AND THEMES
I am fascinated how the story of Waking Gods is told again through log entries, transcripts, interviews and more just like Sleeping Giants, but even more by the way of how Neuvel just does things. There are twists and developments in both books so far which are hard to see happening beforehand and which leave you questioning how the hell the story shall progress after them. There are a few such twists in Waking Gods I noticed, especially in the character fates. About a few of them I do have mixed feelings... but they do make me terribly curious for the third book and what happens next!

“You were made for a particular purpose, but you can be anything you want. Anything, including that.” – p. 287

Generally I feel like Waking Gods is the bridge between the beginning of the series and whatever is coming now. The cards are being reshuffled and the ending of the book emplies that the story is actually just about to really start now. Still the second chapter of the Themis files deals with a lot of topics and themes again. Be it communication between different (power) instances of different countries, what makes a human human, parenthood as a concept and and and. The different perspectives of the main characters also gets supported by perspectives of other humans like eyewitnesses to certain events.

THE FILES
The first book was about getting the team and the robot together, the second book puts the order upset down and we see Themis the first time in real action. I am really excited to see what happens next in the Themis files and in what directions Neuvel will take the story. In a way it's also really refreshing to not know how many books the series is meant to have in the end - if Neuvel continues the way he did with Waking Gods I hope for a lot more books! I am already looking forward to see Themis and the others again next year in the next book and will surely read the first two installments again til then back to back!

This sequel takes place 9 years after the events of Sleeping Giants.  Kara, Rose and Vincent take Themis around the world as a representation of peace.  Then other Giants show up around the world and chaos ensues.  

The sequel is told through interviews, live "audio" feed, journals and news stories.  The action progresses quickly and we learn more about the race of aliens invading earth.  Being a middle book in a series, it gets dark, humanity is in real trouble.  

As with Sleeping Giants, I enjoyed the well done epistolary style of the book.   During interviews the characters do not recite entire conversations, they are completely organic.  The book is fast paced and exciting. I can't wait for the next book!

This story is a nonstop ride from the first page.  Neuvel has delivered a magnificient follow-up to Sleeping Giants.  This has to be one of the best book series in recent history.  This book can leave you in awe of its depth and wondering what may be out there to be discovered still.  The interaction between characters in this book make you feel like you are right there in the conversation.

A great follow-up to Sleeping Giants, this sequel really fleshes out the characters and adds more ominous layers to the original plot. A must read for fans of the first book, and I look forward to the forthcoming third book.

This is the second novel in the Themis Files series, and while I enjoy Sleeping Giants (book #1), Waking Gods takes it to another level. In order to get the biggest takeaway from the story, I think you should read Sleeping before Waking, but you could probably get away with just reading this one. 
Both stories are told using interviews, files, and records, so if you don't enjoy that type of nontraditional storytelling, it might not be your type of story, but I think that there is sufficient character development and world building (items that might be lacking in this type of presentation) that it only adds to the story. 

Overall, highly recommended. I can't wait to read more!

A satisfying follow-up to SLEEPING GIANTS.
 
If I grab a bunch of matter, anywhere, and I organize it in exactly the same way, I get … you. You, my friend, are a very complex, awe-inspiring configuration of matter. What you’re made of isn’t really important. Everything in the universe is made of the same thing. You’re a configuration. Your essence, as you call it, is information. It doesn’t matter where the material comes from. Do you think it matters when it comes from?

###

—Do you really wanna grow old with just grumpy old me?
—No offense, Kara, but I don’t think either of us will get to grow old, especially if we’re together. The only question is: Do I wanna die young with anyone else?

###

Now the world is ending and somehow I’ve managed to make that about me too.

###

— 4.5 stars —

It’s ten years after the events in SLEEPING GIANTS – Sylvain Neuvel’s AMAZING debut novel – give or take, and the aliens have finally returned to Earth to reclaim their war bot, Themis. Army pilot Kara Resnick and Canadian linguist Vincent Couture are still at Themis’s helm, but after the show of force in Korea, their role has been more benign: touring the world, speaking to schoolkids, and doing PR for the Earth Defense Corps. In between celeb sightings and autograph signings, the squints in the basement are still studying Themis, trying to figure out what else she can do, but their progress has more or less slowed. It doesn’t help that head scientist and the first person to discover Themis – or her hand, anyway – Rose Franklin hasn’t really had her head in the game. Not since she was brought back from the dead. 

When a second robot materializes in the heart of London, earth’s tenuous peace is disrupted in a matter of hours, with some pushing for a first strike and others wanting to approach their alien overlords/benefactors in the spirit of love and cooperation. Considering the synopsis, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that things go sideways but fast. Themis can maybe take on one robot, but thirteen? Who are Themis’s creators, and what do they want from us? And how do Rose and Eva factor into their plans? Perhaps most importantly, what does it take to get someone to kick mad scientist/medical rapist Alyssa Papantoniou in her stupid smug face? 

However you felt about SLEEPING GIANTS is a pretty good indication of your likely reaction to WAKING GODS, for the latter is a natural and harmonious extension of the former; these books are cut from the same cloth. From the narrative format – the story is presented as a series of documents, collectively called the Themis Files, including interviews, journal entries, news reports, and transmission transcripts – to the cheeky sense of humor (Mr. Burns and the anonymous, Cigarette Smoking Man-esque interviewer both grew on me in leaps and bound) the vibe is really quite similar. 

Many of the characters you loved/hated/loved to hate turn up again in the sequel, if only for a brief cameo; and Neuvel also introduces us to some new players that are more or less guaranteed to steal our hearts and imaginations. There is one character death – I won’t say who! – that I’m still rather pissed about, but them’s the breaks. I’m inclined to call foul when a woman’s sacrificed to advance the story line, but in this case it doesn’t feel like she was fridged, so there’s that at least.

While Goodreads currently only lists two books in the series, WAKING GODS ends on a serious cliffhanger note, so I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of the Themis Files. And, just as with the original – I’m already jonesing for the sequel. 

** Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. **

*4.5 stars, rounded up. The second book in the Themis Files sci-fi series is terrific. Neuvel continues the 'recorded files' format he used in Sleeping Giants but writes most entries with much more detail. Very satisfying! He even revels a little bit about the unnamed interrogator who was so intriguing in book one.

Getting the giant robot named Themis up and running attracts the attention of the alien race who left it behind on earth thousands of years ago. Another even larger robot suddenly appears in London. Why is it there? What can humankind do to defend itself if it attacks? Can the much smaller Themis, run by Kara and Vincent, defeat it? The answer to that question is soon learned and then many more robots arrive, scattered in heavily-populated cities around the world. Could this be the end for humanity? 

I found this story to be very exciting with interesting characters and an intriguing ending that simultaneously satisfies but teases the reader enough to want to know what happens next. Can't wait to find out! Write quickly, Sylvain! (Oh, and please stop using 'wanna' and 'gonna'--it makes intelligent people sound ignorant, not hip, and drives ME nuts.)

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this new book.

“I came to realize that good and evil were out of my reach, that time was the only thing I had any control over. I could buy time, create intervals. I could not truly make the world a better place, but I could make part of it a better place for a short while.”
Waking Gods bolsters and expands upon the Sleeping Giants storyline by adding high levels of adrenaline and excitement in this highly anticipated follow-up. Ten years have passed since the end of Sleeping Giants when Rose and team completed the reconstruction of the metal giant they named Themis after the ancient Greek Titan-goddess. They were beginning to slowly piece together information surrounding the mystery of her origins and are only briefly grasping her full technological capabilities when another metal giant appears in the center of London. It stands immobile for weeks, but without provocation, it attacks one-day leaving thousands dead, but some miraculously survived. More giants appear around the globe and Rose and team are given the impossible task of determining how to stop these attacks and to find out the reason behind them before Earth’s population is exterminated.

No sophomore slump to be had here. Listening to Waking Gods felt akin to being on a high-speed roller coaster: you’re buckled in, the ride is moving, and the time to change your mind has long since passed. But damn, is it a crazy good time.

Waking Gods continues with the same interview style of storytelling, with a few new characters/voices to acquaint ourselves with. The plot was incredibly fast paced and read much like an action movie would just minus the visuals. Incredibly similar to The War of the Worlds in regards to the severity and devastation of the attacks but much less straightforward in terms of the reasoning behind the attacks themselves (and far more fascinatingly scientific.) Neuvel imbues his alien invasion with a history and purpose essentially giving the human race a chance at survival. He also manages to add a level of humor (there’s something unequivocally humorous about two individuals trying to manhandle a giant robot, albeit clunkily, into battle) that somehow manages to meld harmoniously with such a somber narrative. There are twists and turns aplenty, one particular scene made me loudly gasp and another where my face started leaking, and the ending will leave you thunderstruck. Neuvel’s endings, while definitely worthy of the term ‘cliffhanger’, never feel cheap but rather an apt ending that will lead to a brilliant beginning of the next, and possibly last, installment.

This is the second book in the Themis Files series. I really enjoyed the first and this follow-up is definitely a great read. If you liked the first, I think you’ll be glad you read the second.

This is a story about human-alien contact. In the previous book, the story was laid out but there were many additional questions left at the end. This book did a great job of filling in some of those blanks as well as giving the reader additional information that makes the overall arc of the story that much better. 

This book has a little bit of everything – action, drama, love, and even humor! I love the way the novel is formatted in transcripts and interviews. Such a unique way to tell the story and add to its depth. 

I think this will be a hit with all the fans of Sleeping Giants but I encourage those of you who haven’t read the series to consider giving it a chance. I’m not much of a sci-fi fan generally, but this is that and so much more! It really exceeded my expectations and I think it’s just a great series regardless of genre. I highly recommend it! I don’t think you’ll be sorry if you pick it up!

If you're a sci-fi fan and haven't read this highly imaginative series yet - it's your loss.  Although this book didn't captivate me quite as much as the first, it's still an engaging read and a worthy followup.

This book takes place nine years after Sleeping Giants and reacquaints the reader with returning characters and their activities during this time, and introduces a couple of new integral characters.  Where the first book is all about discoveries and learning what Themis is capable of, Waking Gods is more action-oriented, with the opportunity to use Themis for her intended purpose.  That being said, don't assume that's all this book is about - there are some shocking twists and surprises that left my mouth gaping.

I didn't settle in with this book until about 25% mark - it moved at a slower pace, but quickly picked up after that.  Like the first book, Waking Gods is told in interviews, journal entries, transcripts, and news articles - a format that is done very well.

With the ending, I'm assuming there will be at least one more book in this series - and I'll be eagerly anticipating its release.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.