SLEEPING GIANTS
by Sylvain Neuvel
Del Ray
April 26, 2016
From Goodreads:
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?
Now I understand why people were telling me so emphatically to read this book. Holy crap! I didn’t have any expectations going into it; I didn’t even know what it was about. I decided to read it based on recommendations and in the hopes that those recommendations would stop being shouted at me.
Without any expectations, I didn’t have any clue how awesome the story was, I wasn’t prepared for the format to be done so well, and (in my case) I wasn’t ready for the incredible performances by the voice actors on the audiobook.
Let’s talk about that format for a moment. Not completely new, but still unique, it’s done in the style of interviews. Very similar to World War Z, but not quite as advanced as The Illuminae Files. Each chapter was a one-on-one conversation, though in a few exceptions there was the odd audio journal entry. The interviews were all run by the same guy, who I guess is just known as The Interviewer??
For me, this guy was the book. He was clever, and sarcastic. Always ready with a quick comeback and always ready with a plan B. Or plan C. Or plan triple-Z alpha. Within a single chapter/interview, The Interviewer could make you love him and hate him, all while you’re laughing and stressing out about the unfolding circumstances around the team.
All the characters were really great, though The Interviewer outshines them all. And the dude who voiced him in the audiobook made him that much better. In fact, I wonder if that character would have had the same impact on me if it wasn’t for that voice actor. He was just great.
This was one of those audiobooks with a full cast. In the case of a normal novel, I don’t like a full cast. It’s seems jarring and halted when the narrator is speaking and then a different person suddenly reads a line of dialogue. But the format of this book not only allowed for a full cast, it encourages and embraces it. There’s a scene where one of the characters gets hurt, and screams. It was so unexpected and well done that chills ran down my spine!
Can’t recommend this book enough, and honestly, I might even recommend people check out the audiobook first… What do you think? Has anyone read the book AND listened to the audiobook? Preferences?