Another robot, bigger than Themis, appears out of the blue in London. She has suffered for it in the worst of ways and many have died or been irrevocably altered, especially its pilots, Vincent and Kara.Ī shock is coming. The question of whether this was the right thing to do continues to haunt Rose. But not just to rebuild it – to pilot it, to understand it. Over the years Rose, now grown and a scientist, led the project to rebuild the robot – Themis. This was the hand of a giant robot of alien origin, buried aeons ago, as were the robot’s other parts, which were scattered across the planet. Humanity now knew that it did not exist alone in the universe. When little Rose Franklin fell into a hole in the ground, right into the palm of an extraordinary, enormous metal hand, of unknown construction and astonishing age, the world changed forever. You most definitely need to have read Sleeping Giants first and this review assumes you’ve had the pleasure.

Waking Gods is the second novel in Sylvain Neuvel’s science fiction series, the Themis Files, and follows on a few years later from Sleeping Giants. He is at work on an R2-D2 replica and his next novel.Michael Joseph (UK) Del Rey (US) | 2017 | 334p | Review copy (US edn) | Buy the book: UK and US He is a linguist and translator based in Montreal.

Sylvain Neuvel is the author of Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods. SLEEPING GIANTS | WAKING GODS | ONLY HUMAN and maybe even the stars.ĭon’t miss any of The Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel: The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But the truth is closer than ever before when a second robot, more massive than the first, materializes and lashes out with deadly force. As an adult, she’s dedicated her brilliant scientific career to solving the mystery that began that fateful day: Why was a titanic robot of unknown origin buried in pieces around the world? Years of investigation have produced intriguing answers-and even more perplexing questions. “ Sleeping Giants may have debuted his thrilling saga, but Waking Gods proves that Neuvel’s scope is more daring than readers could have imagined.”- PasteĪs a child, Rose Franklin made an astonishing discovery: a giant metallic hand, buried deep within the earth. In the gripping sequel to Sleeping Giants, Sylvain Neuvel’s innovative series about human-alien contact takes another giant step forward.

Waking gods series