Do you ever have those books where you just tear through them and then can’t remember what your life was like before having read it? Well that was how I felt last week after finishing Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel .My life was not forever changed, or made any different by reading the novel really, but there was something about it that felt inescapable and undoubtedly right. Now, that might seem like a rather odd thing to say about a book, but looking back, the thought of that story not being in my mind seems incredibly odd.
The novel, set up in the form of a series of interviews by one unnamed man with multiple people, traces the story of bits of a robotic giant being found all over the world and put together by a team of scientists, soldiers and government officials.
It is one of the first novels that I have read in this form, which is highly refreshing. The assumptions is that there is a classic form of literature which is the narrative version. What many people may not realise is that science fiction is actually a rather old genre. And as such, it too has developed tropes, which makes it very exciting to have a new versions of sci-fi literature.
And Sleeping Giants is incredibly exciting. But what makes it special is how the form of interviews is still able to maintain anticipation and surprise. Filled with wonderful cliffhangers and reveals the novel is filled with characters that you slowly come to care for even without any access to their narrative thought aside for their own words. It’s a very real way to get to know characters. One of my favourite things about literature is that it almost feels like magic in getting to know the inner workings of someone’s mind. But having that buffer of not having access to anyone’s thoughts, just like real life, was refreshing to read. And a great reminder of how complicated people’s intentions are without the advantage of knowing the characters thoughts, something often taken for granted in the literature world.
The world can often seem so simple in novels: going from point A to point C with the climactic point B in the middle. There is a straightforward plan that always includes the not so straight forward twist in the middle. That was not the case in Sleeping Giants. Perhaps due to the fact that it is quite hard to anticipate what direction a novel including giants will go. Whatever the reason, the novel made sure to entice all through. More so, it was riddled with complications of the very human sort which made it all the more wonderful to read. I could see myself in the characters but moreover, I found their frustrations palpable. Indeed, I found myself thoroughly irritated by some moments in the book alongside the characters because of how realistic it was.
The very original story line, character development and Neuvel’s incredible writing all lend to a wonderfully enjoyable book.
So to summarize my opinion:
What more could you possibly want? You have giants, and robots and even aliens, oh my! Well, to be fair, you never really meet any aliens, it’s only ever implied that there could be aliens but in someway that makes it even cooler. Not only does it leave you hooked for the second book in the Themis Files series (which, thank god there’s a second book) but also, it doesn’t feel as much of a cliche as some tropes from science fiction novels can be.
Read my review of the sequel Waking Gods!
~ S ~
Photo by Sora Sagano on Unsplash
