Sleeping Giants

Sylvain Neuvel

Apr 2016 · The Themis Files Book 1 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Various

About this audiobook

An electrifying debut in the tradition of Michael Crichton, World War Z, and The Martian, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by an earthshaking mystery—and a fight to control a gargantuan power.
 
A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square 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—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.
 
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 provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?


Cast of Narrators:
Andy Secombe
Eric Meyers
Laurel Lefkow
Charlie Anson
Liza Ross
William Hope
Christoper Ragland
Katharine Mangold
Adna Sablyich

Ratings and reviews

Intriguing premise but not for the impatient. It's somewhat cerebral. Also, it's written in the sloppy style of many authors who can't see the end from the beginning. That being said, the characters are believable and interesting as are the events. Ultimately, in a year or two, I expect to have forgotten this one.

Wrote a 1 star review a few hours ago, seems to have disappeared... It's a poorly executed Max Brooks copycat. Don't waste your time and money.

It has promises, mystery, secrets, a shady person pulling all the strings and an excellent voice actor to play him. 3 stars because all of that dies in the next book.

About the author

Sylvain Neuvel is a linguist and translator based in Montreal. He is at work on an R2-D2 replica and his next novel.