When I was looking for that always difficult-to-choose “what to read next,” I saw this and was overjoyed that I had something totally off my beaten path waiting for me. So, when I saw this book in the lineup for Book of the Month a couple months ago, I thought “hey, maybe I should try something totally different!” The book sat on my shelf for a couple months while I made it through some book club reads and some others on my TBR. That doesn’t mean I dislike it – it’s just not something I read on a regular basis. His dialogue is crisp, efficient, compelling, nervy and full of nuance and subtle humor - and it shoulders the story with effortless grace.Įach transcription is conducted by a cryptic, unnamed figure who doesn't seem to belong to either the government or the private sector.Let me preface this review by saying this: I am not exactly a science fiction girl. The interviews make up the bulk of the book, and that's where Neuvel shines brightest. Neuvel avoids conventional narrative altogether in its place he uses a combination of journal entries, mission logs, official reports, news articles and interview transcripts. Like Max Brooks' World War Z, Sleeping Giants is built like an oral history. As high-concept as it is, 'Sleeping Giants' is a thriller through and through. Neuvel doesn't shy away from wide-angle ideas and weighty ethical dilemmas, but he doesn't dwell too long on them either. The cause of her crash soon reveals itself: another piece of the giant robot has appeared.
It's a mystery beyond human comprehension - that is, until Kara Resnik, an Army helicopter pilot, crashes while running a covert operation over Syria. Its composition is nearly impossible, metallurgically speaking, and it weighs one-tenth of what it should. The story fast-forwards 17 years Rose is now a physicist tasked with investigating exactly what the hand is made of. What seems at first like a retelling of The Iron Giant quickly morphs into something more complex. And in Neuvel's capable hands, so is the reader. But one thing is clear: Rose is in for a ride. No one can figure out how this giant, disembodied hand came to be buried beneath the Black Hills, or what the strange, glowing symbols on the walls surrounding the hand are supposed to mean. She's found soon after - sitting on top of a mechanical hand that's over 20 feet long from wrist to fingertip.
His debut novel, Sleeping Giants, begins when 11-year-old Rose Franklin falls into a hole that has opened up near her home in South Dakota.
What Sylvain Neuvel does with that setup, though, is nothing short of masterful. How?Ī kid who finds something incredible in her backyard: It's not quite the most original setup imaginable for a science fiction story. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Sleeping Giants Author Sylvain Neuvel
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