Sleeping Giants

One of the best audio books I've ever listened to

I think books that are written with a journal recording style make great audiobooks. What sets this apart is that they are audio journals, so are perfect for an audio book. Even the live action chapters are audio only. The acting is first rate and the story very engaging. Different actors playing the different parts makes this a real treat. I could have listened to this for hours and hours longer. The only audio book that comes close is The Martian. If you enjoyed that then you'll love this.

35 of 40 people found this review helpful

Starts well but loses its way

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes; to a point. The initial plot was intriguing and the narrative structure (interviews with participants) well used, but the plot got a lot weaker from about half way and I could have stopped listening then.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Dull. In fact there wasn't an ending as such.

What three words best describe the narrators’s voice?

Clear, good accents.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Excellent story, excellent performances!

I bought this off the back of the recent Alien Out of the Shadows (another excellent audiobook).

This however was something else, told in a very World War Z way of recounting files after the event. The story is intriguing and some characters whom I thought would inevitably be the bad guys... Actually I'll stop. Because I wouldn't want to spoil it.

I really think this has legs to be a great epic saga. I really hope the author follows this up soon and follows the characters, including the character who features in the epilogue, into whatever happens next!

Sorry this review is all over the place. I've literally just finished it and just thought it was brilliant!

The voice actors did extremely well, easily recognisable and distinct. I also hope they recruit the same folks for any sequels.

5/5. Great work all round!

15 of 18 people found this review helpful

Really great book with brilliant narration

This book is so wonderfully written and they style is so easy to follow, the character's and well rounded and interesting some you absolutely love and some you really hate. the narration is beautifully done they each are very memorable and don't blend together so it's easy to keep track of who is speaking at any given time. all in all I really enjoyed this book I've read it a couple times before I bought it on here but listening to it gave a whole new feeling it made everything far more intense. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone it's intelligent and well written as well and narrated and is such an interesting and brilliant concept.

26 of 32 people found this review helpful

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.

20 of 25 people found this review helpful

Unique

This is different from any SF I have read or heard before. Especially as the technique of giving us information by interviews et cetera. Overall story was great, and the use of different voices brilliant. Loved it.

16 of 20 people found this review helpful

A fabulous journey!

I was wary of this book - not sure why, but I wasn't keen on the idea of it being told by first-person interviews with the key characters.
Very glad to discover I was wrong - it's great, and such a clever way of telling the story.

This book took my imagination to places it just wouldn't ever have got to without it, and to me that's the mark of a great story. It's full of intrigue, a little peril, a lot of "wow", and some really great characters.

I loved this, it's a really interesting story that requires the listener to engage their brain, and left me with my brain firing off in all sorts of wonderful directions. Book two NOW!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Gets a little lost

The book really works well up until halfway and then it began to feel Sylvain just ran out of ideas or that every chapter from then on was written by someone new. Spoilers coming so be warned. The whole story lost its way as well as the main character. She wasn't a particularly good character anyway but as start the whole story with a flashback of her as a child you kind of hope she will be of some significance to the story. She isn't. Some of the other characters are really interesting and we'll acted (apart from one character whose accent is appalling) she sounded more Chinese than Bosnian/Greek. To conclude I loved the first half but the second half of the book is just feels aimless. You start to care less and less about everyone and want to see the robot in action, something sadly denied to us. Also the epilogue really doesn't add anything and seems like an after thought because she was supposed to be the main character.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Excellent!

I loved this unusual and riveting story. I normally avoid audiobooks with multiple readers but thoroughly enjoyed listening to all the voice actors reading this novel. The whole idea of there being multiple parts of a "robot" found scattered around the globe was fascinating and the characters involved were interesting. My only concern is the human attitude to unknown extraterrestrials as I prefer my aliens to be friendly and the humans to be less bellicose than is usual in books and films. Can't wait for Book 2.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Why is no one comparing this to anime?

The interesting writing style of this book (told through audio logs, recorded interviews) draws a lot of comparisons to books like World War Z and the Martian, but more importantly why is no one comparing the storyline to manga or anime?! Probably to not give too much away, but if I'd have known I would've picked this up a lot sooner.

Without giving spoilers (to those in the know) think somewhere between NGE and TTGL (at a stretch) in a serious western setting and you wouldn't be miles off. Absolutely loved the multi-cast performance and the surprising twists of the story, definitely at the top of my list for series to follow!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful