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Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1)
Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1)
Sylvain Neuvel | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (20 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sleeping Giants is the first book in a new sci-fi series that is told epistolary-style, mostly in interviews and journal entries, with various other reports and articles thrown in for good measure. The basic synopsis is giant alien body parts were strewn across the globe millennia ago and (supposed to be) discreet teams go look for them while our "A-Team" -- as it were -- figures out how it works.

I found the book to be swift, fun, and easy to read, except for a couple of sections that made my eyes cross at trying to visualize the science and math. Readers who are more adept at math would most likely find it easier to grasp. There is also plenty of humor right up my alley, dry oftentimes, with a side of sarcasm. The first character we are introduced to is Rose Franklin, a physicist and the head of the project, who also was the first to stumble upon a body part, quite literally, as a child. I had a hard time getting a feel for her personality as she often is describing or explaining things about the alien robot. The others are Kara Resnik, a helicoptor pilot for the U.S. Army, Ryan Mitchell, also a pilot of the Army, Vincent Couture, a linguist of a sort, Alyssa Papantoniou, a geneticist, and an unnamed interviewer who I dubbed The Handler. Kara is one of the best characters as she really comes to life in the text. She provides most of the sarcasm and is prickly to boot. So I won't give anything away, I enjoyed the different personalities as they came together and interact, although it's not the usual sort of interactions since the story isn't traditionally told. However, by far, my favorite character is The Handler as he is dry and witty in a very subtle way. Nothing personal is mentioned about him, or at least not much, but his exchanges with everyone are highly enjoyable and amusing.

I don't have anything really bad to say about Sleeping Giants, but it did have a slightly slow start as it was more info-dumpy than I'd like, and I thought there was a little too much personal relationship issues brought into it. Those are only little nit-picky things, and on the whole, I don't mind them. During my reading I couldn't help but think numerous times that this would make an awesome tv series, it's just ripe with imagery that would totally work in that medium. In fact, it reminded me of Stargate SG-1 on occasion. I'm a bit put out that I want to read the next book immediately and the first hasn't even come out yet. If you're into sci-fi with a bit of a humor and mystery, I'd definitely recommend giving it a read.
  
Guess Who
Guess Who
Chris McGeorge | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Thriller
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Book Review by Cari Mayhew.

One murder; one room; 5 suspects. Now there’s a promising description for an intense read!

The story begins when central character, Morgan Shephard wakes up handcuffed in what appears to be a hotel room in London. Morgan is a resident detective for a daytime reality TV programme. With him there’s a lawyer, an actress, a teenager, a coffee shop worker, and a hotel cleaner. They find a dead body in the bath - the body of Morgan’s therapist. A message from a masked man appears on the TV screen explaining that Morgan has 3 hours to identify the murderer or the hotel will be blown up.

The characters find that they cannot escape the room. Morgan runs quick interviews with the suspects and finds that they all have links to the victim, but not as strong as his own. Before the 3 hours is up, while Morgan is searching the air ducts, the one suspect accuses another and proceeds to stab him to death. Morgan becomes fairly sure that he knows who murdered his therapist and calls the name out moments before the 3 hours are up. Then nothing happens so he calls out the names of all the suspects. An explosion is then heard by all, but everything remains as it was – there was no explosion. They then discover that they are not at all where they thought they were.

The chapters on Morgan’s current settings are spliced with chapters from other points in Morgan’s life with special emphasis on his solving of a murder which made him famous at age 11, and the reader discovers who has had the longest vendetta against Morgan, and the chapters slowly spell out why.

But this does little to address the reasoning behind the presence of the others in the room, until a further 2 vendettas are revealed.

I enjoyed the book and the story behind the masked man’s murderous hatred, but what I didn’t like was that the general premise of the book wasn’t lived up to. The 3 hours before the “explosion” was up at the 50% mark of the book, and the 5 suspects in the room all have incredibly weak links to the murder victim. I also think that more story could have been made around the lawyer whose big case Morgan was somehow embroiled in which was to take to trial that very day.

I found elements of the book too unrealistic, with extensive effort to bring the plotting to fruition, 1 completely needless and unnecessary victim, and an actual willing murder victim. Also Morgan’s drink and drug dependency did nothing to aid the story telling.

Although I was hoping for more from the book, the plot was indeed intense and I did have a good read.