When I compare this novel to the first one in the series, I have to admit that it wasn't as good. That being said, this novel was really really cool and it took the story in a direction I wasn't expecting. The author did a good job of resolving a lot of questions from the first book in this one, and that felt sooooo satisfying to me; I hate unanswered questions! He also left me with a lot more questions, which I HOPE will be answered in another book! There were a couple new characters introduced, and they were nice additions to the story. There was also the brief return of other characters into the plot line, and this was done in a very nice, cohesive way. I'm going to give a mini-spoiler here: some characters die. Their deaths made me really really sad, especially because I really liked them. However, I'm curious to see how this series will move in the next installment (which I hope will be released soon)! This novel had a lot of action, a lot of science, and enough confusion to keep the reader intrigued and perplexed, in the best way possible. I'm really in love with the author's writing style, as the novel continues to be written in interview, letter, and email format; it just makes for such an interesting read. If you liked the first book, you are going to have a great time with this one. And if you like science fiction, and alien robots, then you need to get this series on your must-read list!

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel is the highly recommended second book in the Themis Files Series which began with Sleeping Giants. It is important to read these books in the order in which they were written.

In the prologue we hear from a new character named Eva Reyes: "They keep telling me it’s normal to have bad dreams. But I know they’re not dreams. I have them when I’m awake now. I saw it again today at school, and I started screaming. It’s the same one I’ve been having for months. Everyone’s dead. There are thousands of them, dead on the streets, a whole city filled with corpses. I see my parents lying in blood inside our house. I haven’t told them that part. Today there was something new. I saw a robot, like Themis, a big metal woman falling into the clouds."

The Earth Defense Corps members, including physicist Rose Franklin, are still studying the advanced technology found in the giant robot named Themis, while Army pilot Kara Resnik and Quebecois linguist Vincent Couture are becoming more adroit at moving/controlling the robot. It was thought that Themis was left on Earth to protect humankind from future invasion. This theory is tested when a giant robot suddenly appears in London and subsequently wipes out a wide swath of the city. While they were somewhat successful in the aftermath of the attack, how will they handle the many robots landing in large cities worldwide? These new robots have arrived with a new way to exterminate millions of people.

The narrative is again told through an epistolary compilation of interviews, news items, and official journal entries. The mysterious interrogator/examiner is back, discussing events and actions with the characters. The development of the characters is though these interviews and journal entries and is surprisingly effective for the most part. Some more surprising information is revealed in these almost matter-of-fact entries. The complex plot moves quickly forward and the action is very fast-paced due to the way the novel is written, which allows the facts to be succinctly presented. While new questions arise, some previous questions from Sleeping Giants are answered.

Waking Gods is the second in the series and does suffer a bit from second-in-a-series syndrome with some plot points cleared up but many new ones left opened and unanswered. Still, there are giant robots arriving in cities and being piloted by aliens with some nefarious plans. And there are new scientific facts learned as well as many startling personal revelations.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House Publishing.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/03/waking-gods.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1957354772

So. Sylvain. To be honest I had a moment of doubt with you when I started reading this book. The thing that threw me of was having to get over the fact that some years had passed since Sleeping Giants and I hated the thought of missing out on those years. I wanted to pick up exactly where I left off. But it was unfair of me to doubt you because you have done a brilliant job in making this sequel even better than the first, and that is impressing.

Something that can easily happen with a second book is that the initial magic and amazement fades. But in this book it just kept growing and it was thrilling and smart all the way through. So incredibly exciting and unexpected. The plot took turns I couldn’t foresee and so many good observations about what it is to be human were made. I loved it.

My only critique for the first book was that I felt a distance in the writing, something that the special format contributed to. But this time around I felt that the writing was a bit sharper and the story managed to be intimate while still keeping the style from the first book.

It was just pretty damn perfect and the ending left me shocked and excited to see what will come next. Preferably soon.

Waking Gods is a terrific follow up to Sleeping Giants! Neuvel kept the same basic format: interview transcripts and journal entries to narrate the story. You might think this would inhibit character development, but it really doesn't. The personalities of the main characters shines through, as well as a rich story about love, fear, and the end of the world. Taking place years after the original novel, you jump right back into the action. There are quite a few heavy themes explored here, but the story kept me interested to the very end. Loved it!

Last year I did a review of Sleeping Giants, the first book in the Themis Files series and really, really enjoyed it. It was a hell of a lot of fun and the giant robot book I'd always wanted to see. There were mixed reviews on it, but for me it was a solid yes. The second book picks up some time after the ending of Waking Gods (and what an ending that was), introducing us back into our logs, interviews, and journal entries.
The format of the book, something I know some people didn't jive with (which is totally
understandable) is a modern day epistolary novel. We get pieces of documents and recordings to tell us the story, no real traditional 'he said, she said'. I totally dig that, it works for me. Of course I'm a lover of epistolary novels to begin with. It can give you a distance from the characters that, for me, works in it's favor. I see the flaws they have as well as their merits. So for me the characters in the Themis Files are very three dimensional. We get the same cast to begin with that we had with book one. We get one very big addition later and a smaller one early, but we get those same big four we ended with. And they continue to grow in very big ways, so development is not an issue.
The pacing is the perfect example of that overused phrase "That escalated quickly". The book starts at a run, with more giant robots showing up. That's the only spoiler you're going to get here since it does happen within the first few segments, but yeah, we get more giant robots. Quite a few. A bit complaint I heard from the first book was that it was slow or nothing really happened. For that I say, keep reading guys. The death toll on this one is higher. Way, way higher. Days after finishing it, I was thinking, Waking Gods felt like the first half of a 'get the gang together' movie. Waking Gods is the explosion, fight filled second half. And boy did we get those explosions.
Finally, does the sequel live up too and improve on the first? I think it does. The story starts to accelerate and we get more of what we want to see. Giant robots, action, and maybe more alien information! We get our same characters, but begin to see a wider view of the world and see the ramifications of what happened in book one. It also leaves us with questions that aren't answered but are satisfied with what we have. The only thing I can fault the book for is entirely spoilery related. But an event happens that jarred my reading of our narrator just a touch. A change occurred, but with time I'm confident that will smooth out. Overall this is one I really, really recommend you try. Even if Waking Gods was a bit slow or off for you this one is worth getting into! Borrow it from a friend, or a library because this is a series you can't drop out of early.

P.S. Holy Giant Robots! That ending. THAT ENDING, WHY?

Can I give this book 10 stars please?! It starts off ten years after the first book and begins a bit slow, but once a new giant robot alien lands in the middle of London things start to pick up really fast. Sleeping Giants introduced us to our robot Themis and this group of clever and crazy cast of characters, like Rose and Kara and Vincent and "our friend." In Waking Gods, we really get to care about these people and fear for them and want them to survive what could be the end of the world.

Thirteen bigger, stronger, more advanced alien robots land all around the world and the ensuing chaos had me turning the pages as fast as I could read the words. I had to know what was going to happen next! I don't want to give away too much, but let's just say that shit gets real.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book, and the first one, is that it's a thought-provoking sci-fi. It's sci-fi with a brain and a heart. Eugene is a mysterious man, but his conversations with "our friend" and Rose made me think about life as a human being, our shortcomings and strengths, possible life outside our little planet, that other species would have different cultures and ideas and methods and beliefs. It's like anthropology on a whole other level. It's fascinating and terrifying and amazing. Reading this book made me think about things I never considered before, which is cool in and of itself, but it helps that this book is entertaining as hell too!

Remember last year, when we talked about Sleeping Giants? Book by Sylvain Neuvel, giant robot buried in the earth, scientists, military, shadowy government figures, FREAKING AWESOME? Well, get ready: the second book in The Themis Files is out tomorrow: Waking Gods ups the ante, big time.

Picking up about a decade after the events in Sleeping Giants, we get reacquainted with a few of our friends from Sleeping Giants: Kara Resnick and Vincent Couture are back, as is our shadowy government friend, and a few other characters you'll know and love (or love to hate). Themis, the robot from Sleeping Giants, is a global sensation: she's got action figures and everything; she's a beloved Iron Giantess. And then... well, you know someone has to crash the party, right?

Other giant mechs show up, and the Earth Defense Corps (EDC), formed after Themis' discovery, scrambles into action. In a scene reminiscent of the first Independence Day flick back in '96, the first strategy is to be friendly - after all, they gave us Themis, right? Show them we're friendly folk; bring out the kids, have a BBQ in hopes... what, that the robot will join you? This is NOT the Iron Giant, man!

As expected, "Operation: Robot Tailgate" goes horrifically wrong. Earth is under attack, and our armed forces aren't enough. It's going to take some serious brain power and some kung pao chicken lunches with mysterious, shadowy figures to even get us in the game, let alone on the playing field. Let's hope Themis and Company is up to the task.

Waking Gods takes everything that made Sleeping Giants such fantastic reading and turns it all up. The format stays the same: military reports, interview transcripts, media transcripts, diary entries. It puts readers into the heart of the action; it makes us the keeper of secret knowledge, it lets us in on the behind-the-scenes chaos at the end of the world. There's plenty here for the tech sci fi geeks; the robot geeks; the science geeks, and the sci-fi, anime-loving giant robot geeks. This is simply incredible science fiction that guarantees a white-knuckled read and a complete disregard for such menial things as bedtime. And buckle up, folks: there's another installment coming.

As Kirkus, who gave Waking Gods a starred review, says: "In a word: unputdownable."

In some ways this is just as good as the first book, Sleeping Giants, in others it was weaker. The narrative technique helps propel the plot at a frantic pace, but I kept wanting more exposition beyond the dialog. My true ranking would be closer to 3.5.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!
Waking Gods is the second book in The Themis Files series (trilogy?) written by Sylvain Neuvel.
I think that I liked this one more than book one, since I already knew the characters and the world. The story starts up ten years later than the first one, when a giant robot appears in the middle of London out of nowhere. By every chapter I was hanging on the edge of my seat. In the end, this book was EPIC, with a great plot twist, more kickass action than the first book, and of course another cliffhanger. I'm so excited to read the next one.

Waking Gods follows Neuvel's lauded debut, Themis Files #1: Sleeping Giants. We continue with the story of Dr. Rose Franklin and the giant robot, Themis, that Rose discovered as a child and helped assemble as an adult. The plot in this book is structured differently from that in the first. Although we still have the files, which largely are comprised of interviews or personal logs, the action itself is different and... there is certainly more of it. There is slightly less science although the return of a certain war criminal geneticist was interesting. Basically, we knew that powering up Themis was going to result in consequences and the consequences may have taken ten years to arrive but they're here now. The interesting thing is what those consequences are and who they're targeting.

I do have to admit that found this second book frustrating in some respects. I don't know if they editor is the same as in the first book but I was bothered by some changes that I felt occurred in the character arcs and voicing for some of the characters introduced in the first book. Rose being tentative was plausible after what she's been through. Vincent seemed plausibly himself. I was always a little troubled by how Ryan Mitchell's character's career denouement occurred in the first book and his reappearance in this book was little more than a plot device, and he was so inept it seemed a leap even for a sci-fi novel. The character that most troubled me in this book was Kara, who just... didn't sound the same to me. Where is our Kara? Readers who enjoyed her in the first book may not recognize her or be very happy with her outcome in this one. And then there is Eva, a new but important character in #2, who is only ten years old. Does Neuvel have children? Has he spent time with children this age? What about his editor? The lack shows. Eva isn't a tween or a teen, she's ten and been through a lot. I just don't think she'd be so snarky and bold with what she's been through. She seems to have endured little shock or trauma from the death of parents that raised her and displacement from a typical child's life in Puerto Rico. Speaking of which, her English is mighty fine considering that less than 30% of the population in Puerto Rico is reported to speak English with a fair degree of fluency. Couldn't we have had Vincent having to translate for her from her Spanish? I would have found that more plausible, as well. Sigh.

Perhaps Waking Gods merely suffers from middle book syndrome. Speaking of which, while some are claiming the book ends in a cliffhanger, I don't think it was a particularly serious one. It seemed more like a natural progression of the Themis plotline.

I'm going to go ruminate now about a certain acerbic academic, whose voice I'll miss.

(attached image of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula in his honor)

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Group for providing me with an ARC of Waking Gods.

Rush to pre-order or reserve your copy of Waking Gods because you are going to want to read this book immediately! Ten years have passed since Themis first made its appearance on earth and now a new bigger, stronger robot has mysteriously presented itself smack in middle of London's Regent's Park. Londoners are not sure if this new robot is friend or foe and it's up to the crew from book one to figure out how to handle this new being.
This book offers tons of chaos, cool science, witty banter and lots of new plot changes. You don't need to have read book one but it helps add to the enjoyment of book two.
I did lower my star rating from 4/5 because some plot twists niggled me the wrong way and as much as I wanted to ignore them,the suspension of belief was too high.

Last year a friend introduced me to Sleeping Giants and sparked an obsession. This year I heard there was an opportunity to read Waking Gods early and tripped all over myself trying to get a copy! Although I wasn't sure Sylvain Neuvel could deliver a second book as incredible as the first, I am excited to report that Waking Gods did not disappoint!

Sleeping Giants was a well-wrapped package. While there was a mind-blowing revelation near the end, there was no giant cliffhanger, so it wasn't surprising that Waking Gods opened with a time jump. I'll readily admit I was nervous about this at first. I tend to despise time jumps just because I feel so disconnected from characters ten years after I last saw them. I'm not sure if it's the unique format of this series or if Neuvel is a magician, but he totally pulled it off and managed to suck me back in immediately.

Kara and Vincent have been living their version of happily ever after since the conclusion of Sleeping Giants and it's exactly what you'd expect from these characters. Kara is happily childfree, Vincent does what he can to make her happy, and both continue to travel around the world showcasing their robot. But when a new threat comes to Earth, they jump right back into the action, ready to do whatever it takes to ensure the survival of the human race. The mysterious man at the center of everything is also back and I was thrilled that there was much more to him this time! Even a bit of backstory. Although the format of this series could make it difficult to connect with these people, there is no shortage of character development.

Thankfully, Waking Gods isn't short on conspiracy or action either. While the first book revolved around the worlds' shock of finding an alien robot, book two is about the panic that follows when several more of them show up - this time in tact, in major cities, and with alien pilots. No one knows what they're capable of and good people of Planet Earth are intent on testing their boundaries (as they do), inciting chaos at every turn. Sleeping Giants was exciting in its own right although there were lags, but Waking Gods is fast and sometimes feels like an action movie. I was never bored with this book!

The format of the Themis Files was something I really wasn't sure about when I finished the first book. While it worked well in audio, I said in my review that I didn't know if I would've been as intrigued if I'd read it in book form. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong! The interview and log format of Waking Gods ended up being incredibly immersive and made me feel like I was in the middle of the action right alongside the characters.

I also loved that, while science was a big part of this book, it wasn't over my head to the point where I couldn't understand what was happening. There are also philosophical issues brought up in Waking Gods that you may not expect. Certain characters have to contend with some huge, life altering questions, but I always felt able to identify instead of being overwhelmed. Neuvel has written this in a way that it's understandable without being dumbed down or spoon fed to the reader.

Waking Gods is an incredibly intense sequel that did not let me go until the last page (and not really then). So often sequels suffer from second book syndrome but that definitely didn't happen here. I laughed, I cried, and I was absolutely on the edge of my seat! If you haven't started this series yet, you really need to give it a try! I cannot wait to get my hands on book three!

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to read Waking Gods.

The second installment in the Themis Files, Waking Gods, is a thrill ride. Neuvel is an original voice in his genre, and, somehow, made a sequel even more exciting than the first.

While I preferred the first book, this was a stunning sequel.

I have issues with series. I like to bingeread them. Even with the absolute best series, if I've forgotten the plot, I won't be excited about it. Though I knew I that I'd enjoy this, I put off reading this one because I kept meaning to go back and reread the first, which I loved, but then I found myself on a plane with no WiFi and sick of thrillers, so.

This book, however, could be read without the first and stand alone fine. It would be better, of course, to read the two in a row, but it would work. There was only one real act of deus ex machina that ruined the continuity, and, quite frankly, kind of ruined a lot of the believability for me as well as causing me to kind of be less invested or fearful of death.

Neuvel's writing style is still gorgeous and it caught me immediately. I enjoy the file aspect still, though I felt that this brought in fewer perspectives than the previous book. There are some points where it can be a tad confusing to follow dialogue without any tags, but I think that the payoff is worth it. When reading about "military squirrel applications" doesn't phase you, you know you have a winner.

I have no idea how the end worked. Well, perhaps an idea, but no certain knowledge or comprehension of how it operated. It was extremely exciting to read and I was on my toes throughout, but the actual concept of it went over my head. I'm not sure if that was because of the science aspect or if it just wasn't worth my brainpower.

Kara and Vincent are my favourites and are super cute for a science fiction novel. I love the personalities of the characters all the way through and how they deal with family and the idea of bringing kids up in the world.

Some of this book was confusing and I'm not exactly sure of how some characters came in, but this worked and was a gripping read.

This was the ending (I believe) of the Themis Files duology. I listened to the first one on audiobook and fell in love with the giant female robot named Themis. I fell in love with the angry Kara Resnik and Vincent Couture (who is Canadian, even if Quebec wants to separate from Canada... He's still Canadian). The characters in this book grew even more than they did in the last one. I do love the first book a little bit more than this one but it still was a fantastic novel. Told in interviews, radio transmissions, journal entries and other formats this story draws you in and refuses to let you go. I honestly would recommend this to anyone who loves science fiction and robots.

I loved “Sleeping Giants” and had very high expectations of “Waking Gods”. I was not disappointed. This sequel is every bit as good and thought provoking as the first book. Many of the characters from “Sleeping Giants” reappear – including some you thought you had seen the last of. Rose Franklin is back from the dead, missing four years of her life and bewildered. Gradually, she – and we – find out how and why (sort of) she is alive. The mysterious interviewer is still interviewing and directing operations, though he is no longer so all-powerful. He remains nameless, but eventually we get to know something about him as a person. Kara and Vincent are successfully operating the metallic giant robot, Themis, under the auspices of the international UN run Earth Defence Corps (EDC). The most important of the new characters is Eve, who starts the book. Eve is 10 years old and sees dead people – everywhere. The significance and reality of Eve’s visions becomes horrifyingly clear as the story progresses.
The tone of part one of “Waking Gods” is quite different to that of either “Sleeping Giants” or the remainder of this book. It is quite light-hearted and at times downright hilarious, despite the unfolding tragedy. Another giant metallic figure has appeared in Regent’s Park, London. The author has the locals’ reaction to a tee: “Londoners, for their part, appear in no hurry to go anywhere. Perhaps as surprising as the robot’s appearance is the utter nonchalance the population has displayed since”. The scene inside the House of Commons is so perfectly written, that I could hear John Bercow (current Speaker of the House) yelling for ‘Order!’. “‘Evacuate Central London. Bring in the Household Cavalry Regiment, so that Londoners, the good people of the United Kingdom, the world, and the aliens standing in the middle of our great city all know that our sovereignty is not something you can trample on with impunity. Let everyone know that we are still a great nation, a proud nation. To do nothing is simply un-British’” … “The British people, on the other hand, appear to be divided on the issue, with 46 percent of the population calling for military action, 42 percent against it, and 12 percent undecided, according to recent polls” (we are nothing if not divided on all major issues). I doubt that any Brit could better portray these scenes than the author has done. I had to read his biography to check that he was not British.
Unfortunately for London, and the rest of the world, from part 2 onwards, the humour stopped and things got deadly serious. The pace increased – as did the numbers of giants. The race was on to work out why they were here, what they wanted, and how to get rid of them – before the entire human race was annihilated.
In “Sleeping Giants” the ‘lesson’ was on arithmetic base 8, here it is an introduction to genetics and genealogy, presented by the psychopathic Alyssa. Genetically targeted pathogens have been occasionally mooted as potential biological weapons. This book points out why, apart from the obvious moral proscriptions against their use (regarding ethnic cleansing), they would be unwieldy and uncontrollable. The book also looks at the futility of torture as a means to obtaining information, and ponders how far governments should (could) go to ‘protect’ their people. What are ‘acceptable’ losses? Is overt ‘friendly fire’ ever justified? And even more importantly, what makes us human?
As with “Sleeping Giants” there are many philosophical and moral quandaries to ponder. You could ignore the ponderables, and just read this book as an exciting scifi alien vs human war, but that would leave out much that makes this book truly great.
The book ends on another cliff-hanger, and I can hardly wait for the next thrilling instalment.

Set nine years after the first book in the series: Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods was almost as good. And even though there were a few things in the book that didn't go my own way, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it!

As a child, Rose Franklin made an astonishing discovery: a giant metallic hand, buried deep within the earth. As an adult, she's dedicated her brilliant scientific career to solving the mystery that began that fateful day: Why was a titanic robot of unknown origin buried in pieces around the world? Years of investigation have produced intriguing answers--and even more perplexing questions. But the truth is closer than ever before when a second robot, bigger than the first, materializes and lashes out with deadly force.

Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth . . . and maybe even the stars.

Ok so if you read my review of Sleeping Giants, you'll know how much the ending of that book made me want to scream with excitement. We got the answers to the Sleeping Giants epilogue, and even though it was pretty cool to find out what happened, I didn't really understand it... I love science, don't get me wrong, I find it fascinating, but the theory behind SG epilogue was crazy. My mind was boggled.





"We come together at a crossroads between war and peace; between disorder and integration; between fear and hope."

- Sylvain Neuvel, Waking Gods





However, that being said, that part of the story wasn't a big part of Waking Gods. This book focused more on the fact that loads more Giants are stepping foot onto Earth and the EDC needs to figure out why the Giants are here, what they want, and to get rid of them. One of the things that I absolutely loved about this book was learning about alien technology. The weapons that the Giants have are incredible (very dangerous, but incredible!) What they managed to do was just... mind blowing. I also think the reasoning for the Giants coming to Earth was quite interesting and Neuvel definitely included some political thoughts and feelings when writing this. Neuvel's writing echoed some of the thoughts of today's society and even though I already think that we are living in dangerous times with all of the prejudice, Neuvel cemented it into my mind.

Like Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods is told in the format of recordings like interviews, missions logs, personal journal entries and new reports. Again, our friend with no name conducts the interviews with the characters. What I loved is that we find out a little bit of information about the nameless character and I think their background is very very interesting.

In my opinion, I thought that the first book was better than the second. Waking Gods seemed a bit... I don't know... rushed? I'm not sure... So much happened in such a short space of time and if there is going to be a third book, I think that some of the things that happened in Waking Gods, could have been put into the third book and then that means that Neuvel could have described things a bit more, had more characters arcs (because there wasn't that much character development).

Overall, this book wasn't as good as the first in the series but it was still an enjoyable read. I loved reading about the Giants and the type of alien technology that they have.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Released 6th April