#themis files

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 14b

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1) by Sylvain Neuvel

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onFeb 13, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * * *

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand's code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

Date added: 2018

Goodreads: 3.82

Storygraph: 3.82

PRO:

I don't read as much sci-fi as I'd like

Seems to be doing interesting things with format

Entire series is available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

CON:

I don't tend to like sci-fi as much

It has a decent avg rating but I feel like I've heard a lot of people feeling meh about it?

[avatarofthetired]

Anyone who likes silly goofy lingustixs things PLEASE tell me you have read Themis Files and have an idea on how the language of the Ekts is working because I know its structured “backwards” with a vowel consonant consonant type pattern and I know what a handful of the words mean through context and I THINK it’s related to like Hungarian maybe?? Idk how conlangs work tho

[write-the-stars]

My book just called out my soccer team???? HELLO????? Hey, if you’re an Arsenal fan reading Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel, prepare for about idk a third or so into the book when a London radio broadcaster says about a ruckus outside “Probably blighted Arsenal fans upset over that humiliating defeat,” like, EXCUSE ME????? That is *uncalled for*!!!!!!!!! And it *completely* blindsided me, my god. There is no escape, huh.

[whatcha-reading-today]

Sleeping Giants | Sylvian Neuvel

I found the entire series at a Goodwill and bought it for $3 based entirely on the fact that I liked Neuvel's previous book The Test. The fact that this is a Iron Giant-esque, military story, told entirely through interviews (EPISOLARY HELL YEAH!) made it so easy to read and such a quick read. Loved it, high recommend the whole series and the free short stories available from Neuvel's website.

Read in 2023/2024

Format: physical copies of main books, mini chapters e-books from Neuval's website

[peppermints-and-lemon-zest]

Hey guys have you ever heard of the Themis Files books by a canadian named Sylvain Neuvel? Yeah I just think theyre neat and I have absolutely no deep emotional connection with all the characters and am bursting inside to share in detail everything about every single one of them that I love so much hahahahahahahahahahahah :3

[permanent0midnight]

Shelfconfidence BPC | January | Day 15: this book belongs to...

...my sister. good thing we have a similar taste

[lastseenleaving]

// Favourite SFF covers: Themis Files - Sylvain Neuvel

[whilereadingandwalking]

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel was really fun. I'm a sucker for well-done SFF done through interviews / journals. I really liked Rose Franklin and many of the other protagonists, especially Vincent and Kara. I found the first half of the novel particularly enjoyable: scientists begin with a single, gigantic, glowing hand, that defies all carbon dating and measurement systems. From there, they're set to unravel a mystery that has huge implications for global politics and the state of our universe. The second half is a bit more embroiled in politics, but I still enjoyed the novel and how it works with science, discovery, and practicality. 

I found some things too neat, but at least the interview / phone recordings were consistent with reality, a huge pet peeve of mine when it comes to these types of novels (looking at you, The Martian). I didn't mind the mysterious, brutal main character behind the interviews who seems to run the show. I did, however, mind the old man with no eyebrows who appears from the woodwork to bestow information through fables. I found him a bit too easy of an info dump, and would have preferred he was instead a man who had discovered an ancient fable, or a conspiracy theorist, or something. 

That said, I'm leaving many of my judgments up in the air as I look to the next book in the series. I'm hopeful that many of the things I was less satisfied with will resolve in the two sequels, although I wonder if the mysteries presented will continue to feel as strongly compelling as they did in this first volume. We'll see!