Sleeping Giants

Neuvel, Sylvain. Sleeping Giants. New York: Del Ray. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

-- How big was the hand? 

-- 6.9 meters, about twenty-three feet; though it seemed much larger for an eleven-year-old. 

Description:

In Sylvain Neuvel's gripping science fiction novel Sleeping Giants, a gigantic hand is discovered buried in the woods by a young girl. She had fallen into a hole that had suddenly opened up around her, finding herself in a deep excavation with smooth walls covered in unreadable hieroglyphics. And at the bottom of this "room" was the colossal hand.

Years later that same girl, now a researcher, leads a team to uncover the mystery of the hand. She realizes it is only one piece of a figure whose parts have been hidden underground - six thousand years ago by someone/something? But for what purpose?

Slowly, methodically, a huge, 20-story robotic figure begins to take shape. The team now must figure out if the figure, once assembled, can actually be made to move and what its capabilities are.

But the huge costs, the efforts to keep this find secret from the rest of the world, and the implications of a gigantic robot left by unknown beings slowly begin to exert pressure on the team and their relationships with the robot and each other. Even if the goals of fully assembling the figure and making it move are accomplished, what use will such advanced technology, probably some form of weapon, be to our embattled world? But the team continues the project because, as Oppenheimer wrote about the atomic bomb project:

If you are a scientist you believe that it is good to find out how the world works; that it is good to find out what the realities are; that it is good to turn over to mankind at large the greatest possible power to control the world and to deal with it according to its lights and its values.

Narrated through interviews conducted by a mysterious man of incredible influence and power, each character reveals his or her role and interpretation on the events as they unfold. This dramatic narration technique give the novel a crispness. The interviewer keeps the subjects on point and relating simply the facts. Occasionally, emotion and personality come through in the file transcripts that reveal possible causes behind several unexpected occurrences. 

Two personal criteria for me in stamping a book as "the best" are that 1) there is an unexpected twist on the very last page, sometimes even the last paragraph; and 2) you are overcome with an unquenchable urge to start re-reading the book as soon as you've finished that last twisty page. Sleeping Giants fulfills both criteria for me.

Neuvel promises Sleeping Giants to be the first in a trilogy, so I'm drooling in anticipation of the next two books to come. Can I wait a year? The robot lay underground for six thousand years, so maybe I could try to make it through the coming twelve months before the next in the trilogy is published. But please, Sylvain, hurry up with the next book!

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Barry, Maxx. Machine Man

After an accident that crushes his leg, an engineer designs a prostethic leg that is superior to the original. Soon he is designing (and wearing) other body parts he designs to improve his original body - but with unexpected psysical and cultural results. (previously reviewed here)