Hi everyone. I'm Rincey and this is Rincey
Reads. Today I'm going to be doing a book
review on Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel.
This is a pretty new release. I believe it
came out in May of 2016 and this is a science
fiction novel. The reason why I picked it
up is it was getting a pretty decent amount
of buzz. It was getting a lot of comparisons
to like The Martian and World War Z. I haven't
read World War Z, but I did read The Martian
and really enjoyed it. And so I was like,
OK, that seems like something that I would
be interested in. So I decided to pick it
up. In the beginning of this story, there
is young girl named Rose who was riding her
bike after she got it as like a birthday present
and she falls into this giant hole. But then
when she is discovered and saved by the firemen,
they realize that she has fallen into this
like gigantic metal hand that no one has ever
seen before and is like buried deep into the
earth. So it's some sort of like artifact.
But they're not really sure what it is, how
it got there, even what it's made of. Fast
forward a good 15 or 20 years and Rose is
now a world winning physicist who is now on
this case to try to figure out what this hand
was. And so her and like a team of people
basically go on this quest to figure out like
what this hand is made of, where did it come
from, why is it here, why did Rose happen
to stumble upon it or like how did she happen
to stumble upon it. I mean, obviously it was
an accident but like why was there a giant
hole in the ground with this hand in it. And
then the mystery sort of just moves forward
from there. The way that this book is set
up is its mainly written as a series of interviews.
You don't really know who's doing the interviewing,
which is part of the fun of the book, going
through and trying to see if you can ever
figure out who the person is asking all of
these questions. There are different people
being interviewed in every chapter. And some
of the chapters are actually reports. Like
an event happened and you see like the report
afterwards describing what actually happened.
So it's this really interesting way to set
up the story. Instead of like a typical prose
novel, it's just like a series of interviews,
and like a series of reports that you're reading
and you are trying to figure out what exactly
is happening. And obviously there are like
things to take into account like biases that
each individual has that's, you know, part
of the interview, as well as like things that
are hidden from certain reports and all of
this stuff. A really fun way to structure
a novel and the fact that it is written like
that makes it feel really, really fast paced.
This is a book that is just all plot. Like
there is very little character development
in my opinion. It's just supposed to be like
a fun romp of a ride, kind of like The Martian.
But I think The Martian had a little bit more
depth to it, which is why I probably liked
it more than I liked this one. But this one
is like the perfect, fun, fast book. Sabrina
at unmanginedmischief described this as being
like book candy, which is like the perfect
term for a book like this. However, I have
to say that book candy is not necessarily
my favorite thing. I like my books to have
a little bit more bite and a little bit more
depth to them. Even if they are fun reads
I like a little bit of character development.
Another thing that was really hard for me
is that by the end of the book I actually
started to get kind of exhausted with the
format of interview style. The person who
is doing the interviews in this book is one
of those people who like keeping secrets or
like only revealing certain information and
is asking certain questions to make the people
like reveal certain things. And after a while
I feel like that style just got really, really
exhausting. I don't know if it's because I
read this book so fast or I read it so continuously
that I was just like so worn out by the style
by the end of it. But I found myself like
towards the end just like skimming sections,
just trying to pick up on the questions that
seem like the most important and, you know,
were the most relevant to the plot. Cause
there's a lot of conversational pieces in
here that aren't 100% relevant to the story
but they're like necessary because that's
the way that conversations actually happen.
I feel like this book could've just been developed
a little bit more or it could've been expanded
a little bit more. I mean, it's a pretty short
book, it's not really that long, so I feel
like if it was expanded just a little bit
more, created a little bit more depth, and
maybe just add a little bit more prose in
there for my own brain in between some of
these interviews I probably would've made
this like a 3 and a half star, maybe 4 star
book. But because of the way that it was written,
I think it's only like a 2 and a half. I rated
it 3 stars on Goodreads but it's possibly
closer to a 2 and a half. Really it was just
because by the end I was just like worn out
and I could feel myself starting to care less
and less. This book is, I believe, supposed
to be part of a series. The way that it's
categorized on Goodreads, it has the like
series designation. So I'm assuming there
are more books going to be coming out that
take place in this world, which might help
significantly with like character development
and even just expanding a little bit. But
at the same time, if they're all written in
this style I don't know if I can handle it.
Sabrina, again, at unmangedmischief who's
review is the only one I actually watch, she
actually listened to this on audiobook and
she said that it was really fantastic on audio
because they get a full cast of characters.
I think that would've helped a lot more. I
kind of wish that I had listened to this on
audio over reading it. Because, again, I don't
know if it's just because my brain was getting
worn out from the style, but I feel like a
lot of the character interviews, the voices
all sound the same in terms of the way that
it's written. They all kind of speak kind
of similarly. A lot of times I had to flip
back to the first page of the chapter to make
sure I was thinking of the right character
in my head. And so sometimes I would get a
little bit confused and be like, wait, which
character am I reading about now? And sometimes
you can pick it up based on context clues
cause they all have very distinct things that
they are talking about. Like the way that
they're written isn't really that different,
they all kind of talk the same way. So yeah,
in the end, I gave this a 3 out of 5 stars,
although it's probably closer to a 2 and a
half out of 5 stars. Will I be picking up
the rest of the series? Maybe? Maybe I'll
try them on audio if they continue to be written
in this style. I think it's just like an OK
book. If you want something that's fun, fast
paced, this would be a really great book to
read for like a readathon because you get
through the book really, really quick. But
is it like the best book ever? Not really.
Is it as good as The Martian? Even that I
don't think really it is. So yeah, those are
my quick thoughts on Sleeping Giants. If you
read this book, feel free to leave a comment
down below letting me know what you guys thought
of it. Or if you have any questions about
the book, feel free to leave that down in
the comment section as well. So yeah, that's
all I have for now and thanks for watching.
