Sylvain Neuvel has been on my must-read list since Sleeping Giants. With The Many, he once again delivers something bold and thought-provoking, though this time with a surprisingly lighter touch. It's more heartfelt than his previous works, even as it wrestles with weighty ideas. It has the warmth and emotional resonance of a sci-fi story by T.J. Klune or Fredrik Backman, showing that Neuvel can blend compassion with cosmic wonder.

The premise hooked me immediately. First contact that involves minds merging feels like both a philosophical thought experiment and a Twilight Zone episode. It reminded me of Andy Weir's short story The Egg in how it explores connection, empathy, and what it means to be human. The characters are written with such sincerity that you feel their confusion, fear, and hope as their world changes around them.

As the story unfolds, it becomes reminiscent of many things: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a zombie story without zombies, a meditation on shared consciousness. Does it go too far at times? Maybe. Did I love it? Absolutely. When the actual cause is revealed, it reframes everything that came before and poses a beautiful, unsettling question: could a utopia actually be possible under these circumstances?

Neuvel's affection for David Bowie is hard to miss; you half expect a character to start quoting "Ground Control to Major Tom" before the final chapter. That same Bowie spirit of curiosity, transformation, and hope permeates the book. Beneath the sci-fi weirdness lies a simple and powerful message: that even when faced with the unknown, we can choose empathy and connection.

Despite the alien premise, The Many ultimately asks us to do what we can, to make the one thing just a little bit better. And in today's world, that feels like exactly the story we need.

Sylvain Neuvel continues to delight and amaze. He’s the best sci-if writer alive today. The Many was unlike any of his other books but just as powerful and thought provoking, while also managing to be somewhat frightening and even a bit funny.

Sylvain is not new to me, with his very unique style and own way of telling a story. You know when you're reading one of his books. This book made me feel the way I did when I first saw "Sense8" on Netflix, and I never found anything that felt the same until this book. Let other readers tell you more about the book, but let me tell you why I liked it so much. I loved it because its different and no one has written anything like this before, and Neuvel has this thing where I hookes you in from the first page. You dont understand what is going on before slowly, and all at once - you know and understand everthing because Neuvel has put out little red herrings and such all over the place and you feel WOW this author understands me.
This is good, I might even say brilliant.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for almost letting me hope I could be more people at the same time.

The Many is a hilarious, interesting, and fast-paced story about a growing hive mind, leaving you with a heartfelt message that will resonate with you for weeks to come.

The first impression I got from this book was how clear the contrast between people's perspectives of themselves and other people's perspectives of them was as the POV changed. You're introduced to characters both by their acquaintances and by themselves, until they join the hive mind and then their understanding of the individual and the whole changes entirely.

I loved how quickly the book turns to chaos. Initially, I truly believed it would be an isolated incident, and I was curious to see how it changed the original three's lives, but as everything spiralled out of hand, seeing how things spread and how the plans and thought processes of the collective changed with new additions is a wild and entertaining ride!

Although the ending surprised me, the message that we are all interconnected with everything in the universe, even as individuals, and therefore we should all try to make one thing a tiny bit better, was the perfect way to tie up this standalone and leave a lasting impression. I will most definitely be picking up Sleeping Giants soon. Neuvel has certainly piqued my interest.

For one : I can't wait to get my physical copy and anotate it. I think there's so much to be studied and quoted in this book.
For two (lol) : this book is a zombie story without zombies and an alien story with very little aliens at the same time. This is sci-fi because of the "what ifs" and the rest is just our world if a IF coming from space changes how we think being Earthlings is. This is my type of sci-fi (thank you Sylvain Neuvel for doing it again!)
I was so excited about this upcoming story because I love Sylvain Neuvel's books and I wasn't disappointed. This is a fun story but also a very humane one. It touched upon so many subjects from racism to classism to eco-awareness in a very unexpected but not any-less fun way. I loved Layla's perspective and Sylvain Neuvel really is amazing at multiple-povs. It was such an intricate story and it worked for me !
However. I feel like it was a good thing the book was not any longer. There were moments when I felt like it was a little too wordy (long lists and comparison) without needing to (or at least I didn't understand why it was like that) and the rhythm was losing me sometimes. Thankfully there were many comedic moments that caught my attention again. I think it would've been better not to spell out the stories' lessons learned. I wish it was less telling and more showing.
I highly recommend giving it a go if you want to laugh and grow a certain sense of wanting community. This book really was a fun read for that !
Thank to Netgalley and Solaris Books for this ARC in exchanging for an honest review.