Sleeping Giants

"So, what's that simple truth I've been hiding from? It's not that I'm building a weapon. It's not even that it'll kill people. That's just a matter of time. What I've been trying so hard to deny is that I'm loving every minute of it. As much as I'd like to be principled enough to walk away from this, I'm having the time of my life. I'm a scientist, and this is what I breath for. If I can learn to live with that, I might be able to sleep again."- Sylvain Neuvel, Sleeping Giants

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What would you do if you were out for a walk in the woods, and suddenly you fell fifty feet into a massive hole in the ground with glowing carvings and landed in what appeared to be a giant hand of unknown origin? Not sure what I would do, probably cry, take my fifteen minutes of fame and move on. Rose Franklin grows up, studies physics, and gets her Ph.D, and then studies the very thing she discovered many years previously as a child.

If you took an episode of The X Files, then crossed it with the novel World War Z, you would get Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. When I picked up this book, I didn't fully realize it was a book telling a story through a series of interviews and case files. Normally that kind of format might turn me off, but the story seemed compelling enough (plus I'm a big X-Files fan, and it seemed very X-Files-y), so I gave it a try and was rewarded with a unique story telling experience that was super enjoyable. New lesson, never judge a book by its format.

Neuvel manages to make a compilation of interviews between an un-named person and various characters, journal entries, and military files, interesting and engaging, and even makes us laugh and gives us surprising and unexpected moments. We follow the anonymous man as he interviews different people involved in a top secret mission to discover all of the pieces of what appears to be a giant robot of some sort, created or placed on earth thousands of years ago. (I'll be honest, it kind of reminded me of the Power Ranger Zords.) I discovered that this type of story telling is unique due to the fact that it has to convey the personalities of these characters strictly through conversation. It has to make you interested enough to want to read these interviews, but also give you enough context clues to understand the unfolding story. Nuvel was creative in his ability to accomplish this and created conversations between the characters that painted a vivid enough picture for the reader to understand the situations and events. The reader doesn't get to be inside these character's heads, you can only understand the personalities of the characters by the way they react to the anonymous man's questions and retorts, as well as their reactions to the events that surround this task that they've been hand picked to do. Actually, the more I think about it, it's kind of like real life, you only get to know people through their words and actions, conversations with them, and not being inside their heads. Makes so much sense now... Plus there are some journal entries throughout the book that give us a different point of view...ANYWAYS moving on.

You have a hard-headed and fiery military pilot, Kara Resnic, and her sidekick (and obviously head-over-heels for her) Ryan Mitchell. Scientist, leader, and "team mother", Dr. Rose Franklin, and linguist loner, too smart for his own good, Vincent Couture, that make up the core of the team. They are together thrust into this onerous responsibility that will change the way humanity sees themselves here on earth, and in the universe. Resnic and Mitchell are tasked with getting the robot moving, and figuring out the mechanics. Dr. Franklin is trying to discover more about the object itself and where it comes from, and what it is made of. And Couture is given the challenge of figuring out the strange language that is found on the panels discovered with the first hand. You get to see all of their different reactions to the major things that are asked of them. They never give up trying to learn, even when tragedy hits their team many times throughout their quest. It was quite fun reading their interviews and seeing just how a team of various talents and personalties make sense of their discovery and reveal it to the rest of the world.

The interviewer is an appealing character to me, because at first he annoyed me, but then I began to see his necessity and actually kind of like him. He seemed so impersonal and uncaring. Too focused on the task, and not enough consideration for the people involved and the dangers they faced. Too arrogant and flippant, and really, a know-it-all. When it came down to it, however, he was just the kind of person they needed to keep the team centered. The challenge that was set before them, to collect these massive pieces of a giant robot they knew nothing about, where it came from or what it even did, was all too important to let petty human grievances and emotions get in the way of making history. He was a constant reminder of just what they were all there for. You also come to see that he does genuinely care about his team, but that what they were working on was so much bigger (figuratively and literally) than all of them. He has to make the hard decisions that seem cold and inhumane, but they must be made in consideration of the greater good.

This does lead me to think about, and what the story seems to get at, is how far do we need to go for the greater good before it is no longer leading to a greater good? We always have choices, but what do we do when we've made the wrong ones? What happens when the wrong choices lead to more catastrophic consequences than we realize? These characters are sacrificing their lives to figure out the story behind this robot, and how it works and what it does in hopes that it can lead to a greater understanding of our universe, and also use its technologies to better humanity. As with every great discovery that humanity has made in hopes for a better future, comes the corrupted who want to use it for less than savory means. Leave it to humanity to take something cool and badass, and ruin it for everyone by trying to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. The team changes throughout the story, unexpected, and admittedly expected challenges come their way, and they are left to reassess what it is they are actually trying to accomplish with this massive giant alien robot. Meanwhile, mystery interviewer guy seems even more mysterious when he seems to always have a plan b...then c, then d, and so on.

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My Initial, brief reactions for each section of the book:

PART ONE: BODY PARTS

Assembling the team, and assembling the robot. Oh I like her, tell 'em how it is girl! OMG okay I guess this is what we have to do for SCIENCE.

PART TWO: BREAK A LEG

An ironic title for my first WTF moment. This is getting cool. Also, that sexual tension escalated quickly...

PART THREE: HEADHUNTING

Wait, no, you're not actually doing that. You can't do that, can you?! Gahhh NOPE. Wait, not her, nooo!

PART FOUR: BODY BLOW

OOO so it is aliens?! Ohh suck it up, we need you!...wait, but not that crazy chick again!

PART FIVE: UP IN ARMS

Giant robot sheild. North Korea. Almost WWIII. Secret underground facility in Puerto Rico. Crazy, creepy science experiments. Escape from almost certain torture and death. This book has it all!

So those are my reactions. If you want your own, go read the book! This story kept me engaged by making crazy leaps that made me GAL (gasp out loud, that's a thing right...), that also weren't all that outrageous considering a seven story tall alien robot is involved. You'd be reading one interview, and things seem to be going okay, progress is being made, and everyone is working together. Then WOAH, someone's dead, or someone's trying to get the team to march into North Korea, in the robot, to intimidate the pants off of them! The story also builds in a way that makes me feel that I am right with these characters as they make these new discoveries, and that I have just as much invested in finding out what this bad boy can do. It plays on our humanity, and our curiosity. Our intelligence, and our inevitable ability to eff everything up. Through this alien robot we learn what makes us human, and what brings us together. It is no longer country versus country, but Earth versus the universe. It makes you think about how discovering alien life would affect us on earth, and how we would react. Would we work together, or tear each other apart? Maybe it's time we learn that the only thing we need to have in common in order to work together is our humanity and common home, Earth.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was different and unique, and a story that really gave you entertainment but also something to think about. The last chapter gave us another WOAH moment, and I'm very much looking forward to book two in the Themis Files, Waking Gods. I give Sleeping Giants 4.5/5!