Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) in Beyond Reality

Mar 29, 2016 Banner rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

This is written in a style that has gotten popular lately, the publisher refers to this as being in the tradition of World War Z and The Martian. The story is told mainly with a series of interviews (an occasional news article or memo ).

While this did "work" ok, it begin to feel a bit contrived with the overuse of the interview devise. One thing this does, is create a feeling of something bigger than is immediately apparent (the world has obviously survived and someone thinks this event importa ...more

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Oct 23, 2016 Kerry rated it it was ok

Shelves: library, sf, 5-out-of-10, 2016

Oh, this book was such a disappointment.

I was fascinated by the premise when I first heard about it, but then I saw reviews from people I trust who felt let down by the book. I decided to request it from the library rather than paying for it.

Having read it, quickly with some skimming, I'm glad it didn't cost me anything (except time) and I have to completely agree with those reviewers.

There's a really good idea here and a cool mystery and I'd like to know more about what's going on and I'm even Oh, this book was such a disappointment.

I was fascinated by the premise when I first heard about it, but then I saw reviews from people I trust who felt let down by the book. I decided to request it from the library rather than paying for it.

Having read it, quickly with some skimming, I'm glad it didn't cost me anything (except time) and I have to completely agree with those reviewers.

There's a really good idea here and a cool mystery and I'd like to know more about what's going on and I'm even interested in finding out what happens next.

But the book itself, it's just not good. Reading it is a frustrating rather than an enjoyable experience. It's just flat. There's no depth to it, the characters are never really people and lots of hints are given about cool things and never explained or given any depth. It's all a surface show. It's just an idea with stick figures running around trying to make it more that that and failing.

It's pretty much fully told in interviews, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. So is World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and I really enjoyed reading that. Twice. Once as a book and once as an audiobook.

Here, it takes away all personal connection. The story is totally passive, with no active voice or sense of immediacy at all. We know nothing about the nameless interviewer except that he's a manipulative bastard. We get hints there might be something in his past, but nothing is delivered. He isn't even a person, just bold letters on a page - and those bold letters are really annoying if his text is longer than a couple of lines because my eyes aren't programmed to be able to scan that and absorb the meaning easily. There's a reason we use bold text for emphasis, not for storytelling. The other characters do feel like people, but only paper thin ones.

All in all, it's just terribly, terribly disappointing. Because the idea is still a good one. It could have been brilliant and it totally wasn't. I find that I still want to know what happens next, because that idea is still captivating. But I don't want to have to read through lots and lots of flat text to find out.

Right now, I'm a sad reader. ...more

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Mar 06, 2016 Chessa rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf_fantasy, debut

Holy catfish! That was a fun and exciting read - quite the page-turner! If I hadn't had a weekend with almost no downtime I think I would have finished this in a day or two, tops.

A girl falls into a hole and lands - on a giant robot hand. And it goes from there.

So many questions! So much to look forward to in the next installment of the series. Who is the blasted interviewer? Or Mr. Burns? OMG, that epilogue tho!!!!!

Very excited to see where this one goes. :D ...more

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