Book Description
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?
My Review
I just finished reading Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1) by Sylvain Neuvel, and all I can say is WOW! This book is an amazing piece of science fiction.
The format of the story is unusual. It’s told in a series of interviews, reports, and journal entries. One of the most common pieces of advice writers receive is “show, don’t tell.” Generally when a story is told rather than shown, it distances the reader and can make the book less engaging. This is one book that proves that theory wrong. Because of the format, many of the events are told to the reader (think eyewitness account), rather than shown in “real time.” That bucking of convention didn’t detract from the story at all. It sucked me in and didn’t let me go until I finished the last page.
If you like books with mysterious giant artifacts discovered on Earth, lots of intrigue, the occasional nod to conspiracy theories, and shadow governments, this book is for you. If you don’t, why not?
Just kidding. I skipped over this book two or three times before giving it a try, and I’m so glad I took that chance. You will be too.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find the next book in the series…
