Review: Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel

Summary

As a child, Rose Franklin made an astonishing discovery: a giant metallic hand, buried deep within the earth. 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. But the truth is closer than ever before when a second robot, more massive than the first, materializes and lashes out with deadly force.

Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth . . . and maybe even the stars.

My thoughts

Sleeping Giants was one of my favorite releases of 2016 and one of my most recommended books of that year. Needless to say, I was pretty hyped up for its sequels and I’m more than happy that Waking Giants kept true to what made me love the first book and did not disappoint but exceeded my expectations.

Sleeping Giants left us hanging on a cliff, leaving question marks floating above my head for the past year and I was glad to see we finally got some answers. More answers than I expected, to be honest. The biggest and most troubling question was answered and while I thought the characters made it seem more complicated than it actually is, I loved what it entailed. It definitely made for very interesting changes not just in group dynamics but especially for one character and their personal struggles. We get to know a lot more about some characters with quite a few surprises here and there.

Action wise, Waking Gods stepped up a level and once again did not only remind me of my absolute favorite movie, but featured Pacific Rim level of epic when it comes to the its action plot lines. I’m still highly impressed how Neuvel keeps me at the edge of my seat during those scenes by telling his story through documents which are mostly interviews. It takes some skill to turn something that is usually considered downright boring into such an engaging book.

Sleeping Giants shocked me most with its characters and some of their very questionable motives and doings, and I was glad, as weird as that sounds, that Waking Gods was just as messed up. At first I thought Waking Giants would lack in that department, but I was soon proven otherwise and once again shuddered at how far some people are willing to go, seeming just too real and therefor making for such a mind blowing book.

If one thing once again proves how epic this series is, it’s Waking Giants plot twist. I can’t say that I saw this one coming. It was such a tiny detail that was suddenly revealed but it changed SO MUCH. It made me want to reread both the first and the second book immediately because it shed a completely different light on events.

I might have been sad that it was already over again once I reached the end of the book, but Waking Giants features the first ever cliffhanger I was happy about. Waiting still isn’t fun but knowing that the one thing I really wanted to see in these books is going to happen, dampens the pain of that. I can’t wait to see where these metal giants take us in the next book.