Lumbering

Would you try another book written by Sylvain Neuvel or narrated by the narrators?

No, at least not in this series. It was a very interesting experiment, I am glad they did it, and I hope other teams try similar things. But the story just isn't good enough in my opinion.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Most interesting: Very much the narration. It feels like a production in a way that World War Z didn't quite (to cite a book this one is often compared with).

Least interesting: The central idea. It's not giving too much away to say it features the discovery of a giant alien robot that kicks botty. It starts off interesting, but it doesn't really go anywhere with the idea. Then the story turns into a political thriller and eventually ends.

There are some plot twists that reignite interest, including one that made me think, "No, you just can't do that to someone!" The science is credible, and the implications are generally well explored.

But at the end of the day it's just an X-Filesish story about a big robot. And add me to the list of people who didn't like the ending - it was the opposite of surprising.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

As the story is told mainly in the form of interviews, I cannot imagine reading it as a straight book, although I believe it exists in that form.

Despite its success in this area, I have given 4 stars rather than five because the Nameless Bloke kept doing that tiresome thing a certain kind of cliched character does in thrillers - pretending to search for a euphemism. "That would be... unfortunate." Okay, so maybe it's the story's fault rather than the reader, but with the sort of power he wields he could surely arrange to have the dialogue... refined.

Do you think Sleeping Giants needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Well the "1" at the end of the title suggests it's the first book of a series, and it ends on an unresolved note. However, as I was tempted to give up on it, I am happy to have finished it.

Any additional comments?

I find it odd to consider what stood out in my mind. There's a scene in which an angry character is trying to make a serious point, but he's having trouble doing this because he can't remember the correct term for an inhabitant of Iceland - is it Icelander? Icelandic? It's exactly the sort of frustrating thing that happens in real life but rarely in fiction. In an otherwise very earnest work, it struck me as very funny.