The latest and final read in the Themis Files series unfortunately results in a bit of a fizzle as opposed to a real strong finish. The series, about alien robots and the intentional distribution of them on earth, was a great start and strong middle, but I had a lot of trouble getting invested in the finale here for whatever reason.

In terms of a unique reading experience, this is up there, and the books may have a strength to them as one piece as opposed to spread out over multiple years, but for me, I just wanted more from the finale here.

Only Human is the much-anticipated conclusion to the Themis Files trilogy. We discover what has been happening to Rose, Vincent, and Eva after their abrupt departure from Earth, as well as what has been happening on the planet they left behind. Offering a rather bleak, but sadly realistic, view of humanity, the story suggests just how close we are at any given time to WW3. I continued to enjoy the told-through-transcripts style, which keeps the story moving at a good pace. It was also fun getting to know the newly introduced characters and experiencing the alien planet. A satisfying end to the series!

Ok so this is going to turn into a mess of a review because I don’t even know how to talk about my feelings properly.

From a 10 year-old girl falling into a hole and discovering a giant robotic hand, to this, I can’t believe we’ve come full circle and the Themis Files are over. There’s this bittersweet feeling left in me because my gosh does this series fly and I feel like I’ve watched these characters grow old while I’m left in the past and it hurts. But it’s also immensely satisfying to see them come so far. And let me tell you Only Human was a damn perfect ending.

There’s a significant time jump again from the end of Waking Gods to when Only Human starts and I admit I kind of did a double take when I realised how old Vincent is. (And Rose and Eva too of course but my gosh Vincent.) He’s a really stand out character to me because I remember not liking his young-self much at the beginning of Sleeping Giants and he’s now my fav; Vincent has changed so much and to see that he’s also aged so much felt surreal – like he wasn’t much older than me in Sleeping Giants?! Omg. All he wants to do is protect Eva and he’s honestly doing the best he can. I have so much respect for him. Fatherhood was just shoved on him, but he took it in stride and he tries so hard – whether he succeeds is a different story (I personally think he does). Love love LOVE the way Neuvel has developed his character, there is such growth from Sleeping Giants but he’s still the same Vincent who obsesses over details (the linguist in him). His heart has expanded a tonne. You know what really hurts though? Knowing that Vincent will always be older than Kara… and one day Eva will be too. I just started crying when I realised that.

Eva’s grown up into an independent young woman with very strong opinions. She’s definitely rebellious and has completely different views to Vincent. She may not always be right (I thought she had a naïve and skewed perspective of the world) but nobody can blame her given her dysfunctional upbringing and what she’s had to endure. There’s the world she was born in and the world where she’s grown up and spent most of her life so it’s no surprise where her loyalties lie. For her there’s only ever one home. She really embodies the rebellious teen image haha.

While Rose faced a lot of internal conflict in Waking Gods, she’s become a constant in Only Human. She’s finally settled into her own skin and accepted who she is. Throughout Only Human I found her to be the voice of reason like she was back in Sleeping Giants. It felt grounding to finally have level-headed Rose back as I felt like she was the one who held not only the gang together, but the story itself. The way Neuvel wrote her character was seriously amazing. Rose had the perfect balance of a brilliant mind that was ethical and moral. She’s juxtaposed against some pretty intense characters – Alyssa who we’ve witnessed in the previous books as purely research driven and will do anything to get the scientific results; new character Katherine who works for Russian intelligence and seems like a regular manipulating, somewhat sadistic human being who only listens to the top. Rose shows that humans can still be humane, putting people before science, that a person can still be manipulated by superiors but end up doing the right thing.

There is no villain in Only Human, or in the series overall really, but in this last book it’s really about humanity being pitted against one another. I think that’s what makes the Themis Files so fascinating and different to me – Neuvel tackles current issues of race and extends that to our species and what does it mean if human isn’t human? What makes us human? What is humanity? There is no one answer but I think Neuvel is able to portray differences of humans versus aliens to say, collectively this is what it means to be human.

I would have loved more world-building on Esat Ekt but I can understand why Neuvel didn’t concentrate on this – this series has always been about the people and their thoughts/feelings. The glimpses we did get of Esat Ekt through the characters’ journal entries was definitely interesting, kudos to Neuvel to creating a planet similar to Earth but not the same.

I still can’t believe this trilogy is over. Does humanity come out on top? Or do we end up decimating each other using alien technology at no fault but our own? You really need to read this finale to find out.

If you haven’t read the first two books in the <i>Themis Files</i> series, stop what you are doing and read them first. ONLY HUMAN is the third book in the <i>Themis Files</i> series and is best appreciated in the context of the series as a whole. ONLY HUMAN takes place approximately ten years after the events of the second book, WAKING GODS, and has Dr. Rose Franklin and Vincent Couture returning to Earth after living on the planet, Esat Ekt. They return to a world completely changed by the devastating attacks of the giant robots. People are now imprisoned in internment camps based upon how much of the Ekt DNA is in their bodies and all international treaties have been dissolved, leaving a world on the brink of chaos. Can Rose and Vincent find a way to once again unite their old allies and find some semblance of peace?

Wow! ONLY HUMAN is told in the same epistolary format as the two previous books, providing us with transcripts of interviews and journal entries from our main characters. I love that we finally get more insight into the Ekt people as we see the troubles plaguing their own planet. One of the differences with ONLY HUMAN versus the earlier books in the series is that ONLY HUMAN is more philosophical, focusing on a message about society as a whole.

Rose has been a favorite character of mine throughout the series and she shines once again in ONLY HUMAN. Eva is a pleasant surprise for me, as she shows quite a bit of spunk. I won’t lie, however- I stayed mad at Vincent throughout most of the story and sided with Eva in her anger at him. In fact, I love all of the characters we’ve met in the <i>Themis Files</i> series other than a new one we meet in ONLY HUMAN, Major Katherine Lebedev, who is part of the Russian Main Intelligence Agency (GRU). She seems almost like a caricature of what “the bad guy” would be and is a little disappointing in an otherwise brilliantly crafted and strong series. Perhaps Sylvain Nuevel intended Katherine to be this way, but her over-the-top threats are quite annoying.

ONLY HUMAN concludes the <i>Themis Files</i> series and I’m more than sad to see it end. I have enjoyed the clever way Sylvain Nuevel utilizes the epistolary format to create both a stunning world as well as multi-dimensional characters. If you read just one science fiction series, make it the <i>Themis Files</i> as it’s sure to hook even non-genre fans!

*review is in the editing queue at Fresh Fiction*

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel

Only Human concludes the Themis Files, a trilogy that began with the superb Sleeping Giants. You really need to have read the first two novels first – and why would you not? Giant robots! Aliens! – and this review assumes that you have and don’t mind hearing bits about what has gone before.

Ten years have passed since the events of Waking Gods and they have been momentous years, not least for Dr Rose Franklin, Vincent and his daughter Eve. They’ve spent the time on the homeworld of the alien creators of the giant robots. And this planet is different in every single way and not just because its inhabitants are blue and hairless. This is a world that cannot make up its mind about what to do with these human – and helpless – interlopers. And this forms one strand of Only Human – the life of our humans on this alien planet and how each of them responds to it in a different way. Eve, just a child when she arrived, is bound to be shaped the most by what happens.

The other strand follows Rose, Vincent and Eve after they return to Earth – to Russia – and find their own homeworld distinctly changed and extremely troubled. Countries now have a far better way to annihilate one another – two giant robots which are built for war. Rose is determined to help the world find peace but she must also help those she loves to do the same.

Only Human continues the narrative style of the previous two novels, comprising mission logs and interviews. This does mean that we lose some of the wonder of the alien planet as we ‘see’ it only through the dialogue of our humans and, not surprisingly, descriptions are few and far between, but it does add an immediacy to the narrative as well as build on the personalities of Rose, Vincent and Eve. It certainly adds colour. I loved the voice of the Russian interrogator Katherine in particular. Some moments are very funny and witty.

I didn’t find the narrative technique as successful this time and I think this is partly an inevitable consequence of the fact that we have lost key characters along the way. I missed the voice of one in particular enormously. But the other reason is because the mission logs from the alien planet don’t seem especially plausible, that they’re there to continue the narrative style of the previous books even though they don’t seem real. I couldn’t understand how or why these logs were recorded. They also meant that we missed out to some extent on understanding the inhabitants of this strange place. I really like the linguistic touches, though, and the problems of communication and the inevitable misunderstandings.

This is a novel with a political message. It presents a warning about the dangers facing our planet when countries refuse to understand one another. Full out war is on the cards and we’re left in no doubt as to the responsibility of the world’s powers to reach a compromise with those they cannot understand. And the same goes for the relationship between humans and aliens. How can one trust or forgive when mistakes can cost millions of lives? We hear about the segregation of people on Earth – all people are rated for the purity of their blood. There is similar xenophobia on the alien world. I think in part this is over-laboured when some subtlety might have made a more effective, less preachy message, but it’s a fascinating portrait of a possible future.

As this completes the trilogy, a reader must hope for resolution and I really did like the way in which Only Human ended. I don’t think that the third novel is as successful as the previous two but judged as a whole this is a fantastic trilogy and I have loved it. The giant robots are so hard to resist and they are certainly scene stealers. I love stories of first contact, alien encounters and strange distant worlds and we have all of this here and I lapped it up. I can’t wait to see where Sylvain takes us to next – it could be absolutely anywhere.

Other reviews
Sleeping Giants
Waking Gods

When Rose Franklin was a child, she fell into the hand of an iron giant. Years later, she has been on unbelievable adventures and discovered that aliens exist. Rose and her friends have spent a decade on an alien planet, but that won't be the most difficult thing. When they return to Earth, they find that new divisions have formed and the planet is on the brink of war. The existence of aliens might not matter after all; humanity is about to destroy itself.

This series succeeds at doing what the best sci-fi stories can--making us think about humanity because of a story about aliens. When Rose, Vincent, and Eva return to Earth, they expect to find a planet that has changed because we know we are not alone in the universe. But instead of uniting people, it has turned them against each other. They use the alien robots to take land and resources and fight other nations. Internment camps have sprung up across the world as everyone turns on their neighbor with the suspicion that they might have alien DNA. Our heroes have to decide which side they are on and what they are willing to fight for.

Sylvain Neuvel has written a great trilogy where each book takes the story in new directions. Each one is told through interviews and recording, but the characters are still very vivid. In fact, I found myself missing a few of them who aren't in this final book. The Themis Files books make the existence of alien races and giant metal robots seem entirely possible and is a wonderful addition to the canon of science fiction.

Only Human
Themis Files #3
By Sylvain Neuvel
Del Rey May 2018
336 pages
Read via Netgalley

The Themis Files is one of my favorite science fiction series. I love the storytelling style, the characters, and the plot (so pretty much everything). Needless to say, I had incredibly high expectations going into Only Human. While it took me a lot longer to get into this story at first, the last third of the book was incredible. There’s a lot of very timely social commentary in this one, which, although sometimes difficult to read, was worth reading. The exploration of what it means to be human definitely left me thinking.

There was a big time jump between Waking Gods and Only Human, which took me a bit by surprise. However, I loved that the jump allowed Only Human to explore the relationship between Vincent and Eva. In some ways, this was Eva’s coming of age story. As always, Rose was my favorite character. I did miss some of the characters from previous books who didn’t make appearances in this one. There was one new character who felt a bit off, she wasn’t quite as nuanced or developed as the other characters. But, as with the other books, the characters were the focus and the heart of this fantastic story.

I still adore the unorthodox storytelling style, it really helped me connect with the story and the characters. The timeline was a bit harder to grasp at first in this one but once I got used to the switches between time periods, it got a lot easier. Part of what I adore about this series is that, even though they ultimately come together to create a cohesive story, each book is entirely unique. Only Human was more focused on social issues. In particular, Sylvain deconstructs the “us vs. them” mentality. The commentary was timely and, at times, a bit painful to read because of how well Sylvain draws parallels between our situation and the situation in the book.

Only Human was a brilliant end to wrap up an amazing series. I’m already looking forward to rereading this one in a few years. I think any speculative fiction or science fiction fans will love this series.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Themis Files is one of my favorite series ever. I have been looking forward to finishing up this trilogy all year. Unfortunately, this was my least favorite in the series. I felt like it was missing key elements that made me love the first 2 books so much. Mainly, I miss Kara and the interviewer so much!!!!!! We spent a lot of time following Eva, who I found annoying most of the time. I felt like the plot was lacking too. There was a lot of social and political commentary reminiscent of what is going on in our world today. And while I appreciate where the author is coming from and saying it gave this book a different tone than the previous books. I feel like it lacked the charm of the other books and I was just waiting for something...anything to happen but alas we just got a whole lot of the same political stuff. I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The first book in this series was nearly perfect for me, balanced between compelling characters, nifty science fiction, and sense of wonder. The second volume also had great characters, and a plot filled with twists, turns, action, and dilemmas, though the sense of wonder was pretty much swamped by a darker turn toward horror.

At the very end, there was a promise of alien contact, which had me looking forward to this last volume in the three-book arc, and it was well worth the weight.

It’s been nine years since <i>Waking Gods</i>, when the giant mecha Themis (carrying Rose Franklin, Vincent Couture, his 10-year-old daughter Eva, and General Eugene Govender) was abruptly transported to another world.

In this third volume, we find out where they went, and, interspersed with the present day, we discover what exactly happened in the intervening years on that alien planet.

Once again, the story is presented as a collection of mostly journal entries, transcribed interviews or recordings, letters and other forms of personal communication, Though we never find out who was assembling this document. The book begins with the return of Rose, Vincent, Eva, and a another passenger we discover is an alien, as Themis suddenly shows up again on Earth.

It’s immediately apparent that not is well between the travelers, especially between maverick Vincent and his teenage daughter Eva. Neuvel does a terrific job with the emotional head-butting that can, and here does, take place between smart, passionate, independent family members. Love and hate are so very close together, especially under high pressure situations, and these people came back to about as high pressure situation as you can get: they are captured by Russians, who are watchful and wary as the U.S. uses its mecha to trample all over its neighbors in the name of “peace.”

When you find out that the “peace” includes “work camps” for those whose DNA is judged a danger (see book two) and other dangerous types such as Muslims, you know that the situation is about as peaceful as a pool of gasoline with a match hovering over it.

Eva, and Vincent, and Rose, are considered those matches by the powers that be.

The Russians want Themis to counter the American mecha. They need pilots, and here are Vincent and Eva, miraculously back—with Themis.

Though I still missed the unnamed handler from book one and two, I really liked Katherine, the Russian major who handles Vincent. The exchanges these two had were one of the high points of the book for me; Katherine is a crazy mixture of perky and terrifying, which complements Vincent’s volatile maverick in a way that maximizes the tension even when it made me laugh.

If I had any complaints it would be how frequently the text needed to sound the same note about human nature’s dark side, and how terrible we are to each other, in the name of all we hold valuable. I totally agreed . . . each of many repeats. Many. But it’s a small complaint, because I kept reading as fast as I could.

I loved the ending, loved the series, and am mightily impressed that these books are Neuvel’s first. I so look forward to where he goes next.

I loved Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods, but sadly, Only Human bored me and disappointed me. I really disliked it.
In the nine years since the Ekt attacked our planet, humanity has gone to hell, the situation in dire. The US is pretty much doing a WWII style clean out (or trying too).
Our beloved characters are half dead and the half that remains just got on my nerves. Rose, Eva and Vincent have been leaving in ignorance in the alien planet and our now back to earth to find it in full chaos.
Eva is a spoiled obnoxious brat. Everytime the dialogue turned to her I wanted to turn off my kindle.
Vincent is spineless and boring.
It is like Eva and Vincent forgot how to be decent beings without Cara. Gosh I missed Cara and our mysterious interviewer. Killing the two best characters in the whole series was a bad idea.
There is an interviewer here too. A Russian lady that captures them all when they returned to earth. She was disturbing. Lacked all the characteristic that made the previous interviewer relatable and lovable by the reader.
The plot was lacking too. There is nothing, no action, no sci-fi, nothing till the end. And than it is a case of too little too late.

Loved the first two books. Couldn't care less about this one.
As a thank you to the publisher for giving me a free copy this review will not be shared on my blog.

I absolutely loved the first 2 books (Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods), so I was really looking forward to this 3rd and last installment in the Themis Files. The first half of the book was very hard for me to get through, and several times I almost gave up on it. The Russian intelligence officer Katherine Lebedev's dialog was ludicrous and unbelievable. I wanted more info on the alien planet, but what I got was lots of social commentary. I am glad that I persisted, though, as I did like the ending.

My thanks go out to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for an advance copy to read and review.

This book concludes the tale that began with the discovery of pieces of a giant robot named Themis which was brought to Earth by aliens thousands of years ago. The story is told through recorded files, going back and forth through time.

As the story begins, three of the four Americans who were whisked to planet Esat Ekt have found a way to return to Earth but land in Estonia, where they are held and debriefed. The world as they know it has changed in the nine years, three months and six days they've been gone but not for the better. Did they make a mistake in coming back? And what is in store for the human race?

Sylvain Neuval explores the philosophy of an advanced alien society: Would there be racism against those not 'pure blooded?' Would they allow dissent of any kind? Seek peace at the price of individual liberty? Are there still power struggles? Then compare that with life on Earth! Do you believe in 'my country, right or wrong?'

Neuval also explores the relationship between father and daughter--how much should we protect our children, control their lives?

Interesting format, characters, situations delivers a satisfying read. I'm hoping this writer will deliver more stories of this kind in the future. Other worlds to explore?

The trilogy has come to an end, and I must say, Only Human was my favorite of the three. The major questions of where the giant robot came from and what its purpose was were answered. The book picks up almost ten years later, and I was pleasantly surprised where the story actually took us. While it does jump to the future, we get flashbacks of what was going on during that time. There were a couple of intramental characters that I missed, but their absence didn't hinder the story like I feared it might. Overall, it was a worthy conclusion.

Yokits good!

Well, I did have to wait a year to get the conclusion to the cliff hanger ending of the last book but it was worth it. “Only Human” is set ten years after the events of “Waking Gods” and a great deal has changed on earth since then and not for the good. Earth’s reaction to the discovery that a great deal of humanity had alien ancestors has not resulted in celebration and street parties. Instead we see a frightening, and not without precedent, vision of the future.

We do find out what happened to Vincent, Rose, General Govender and Eva at the end of the previous book and we slowly learn about the culture of the planet that Themis and the other giant robots originate from.

I’m trying not to give much away here. I did really enjoy reading the book, although I was horrified by a lot of it. But that’s a good thing. It also wasn’t quite as action packed as the previous books but I think you’ll enjoy it despite that.

It’s written in the same interview style as the previous books and I don’t know if it was just a quirk of the Galley copy I was reading, but I found that it was really difficult to keep track of who was speaking in some conversations. But the actual finished book may be quite different from the galley.

A strong conclusion to the Themis Files trilogy! Katherine Lebedev was my only real issue with this book—she almost feels like a cartoon villain throughout most of the novel, which felt out of sync with the morally and personally complex characters we've now known for 2+ volumes. It was especially delightful to see Eva's character development. Neuvel did a stellar job with this series, and I look forward to reading whatever he does next!

The Themis files are such awesome science fiction stories; they capture the awe of technology and aliens and other worlds, but they also have such big focus on people and their relationships. My favorite thing about this series is that even when the world is falling apart, family always looks out for each other. The friendships and bonds and complicated ties that tie different characters together are truly the stars of the show.



After the end of Waking Gods, I was really about the scope of book 3 because a door had been opened to new worlds. The interesting thing about Only Human is that it takes place after a large time lapse after the events of book 2, and it brings the focus of the story back to earth. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get more time in the new worlds, but we did get a lot of flashbacks into the time between books 2 and 3. Eva is a willful teenager now, and sometimes she and Vincent don't see eye to eye. The epic stakes of everything in this book make the usual rebellious teenager phase so much more intense and terrifying; just imagine trying to talk down a teenager who has access to a giant world-destroying robot!



One thing I love about science fiction is how the crazy scenarios and how people react to them can actually reflect on our world today. As we found out in Sleeping Giants, nearly everyone on earth has some alien DNA in them. In Only Human, we see how far people's paranoia goes, and how much we fear those who we perceive as different from us. People's social status and standard of living are dictated by how "human" they are, even when the fraction of alien DNA we are talking about is less than 1%. It's a thinly veiled criticism of how quick we are to erect barriers between people of different backgrounds and find scapegoats in a crisis.



Waking Gods has to be my favorite book in the series (I don't think any book in the series could come close to topping the emotional impact of two heart-wrenching scenes in there), but Only Human was a strong conclusion to an excellent series. I highly recommend it!

This was a great conclusion to an awesome series! I really liked getting to hear more about the alien's home planet (where our main characters become the ones who are alien) and the social commentary on how the world reacts is very timely and well-done. People seem to be quick to give up freedom for a sense of a security.

New Release Tuesday!

Only Human is the stellar conclusion to the Themis Files Trilogy. (Book one was Sleeping Giants, book two was Waking Gods.) And WHOOO BOY. What a roller coaster of emotions!

If you haven’t started the trilogy, read my review of Sleeping Giants here. Basically, without spoiling too much, a young girl stumbles upon a giant metal hand, and this sparks a world of scientists to figure out what it is. The book is told in letters, transcripts, interviews, diary entries, etc., much like the Illuminae series I so adore.

Spoilers for the first two books lurk below!

Only Human is told in past and present pieces. Rose, Vincent, and Eva were whisked to another planet inside the alien robot they had just successfully disabled. The humans have to navigate a world full of aliens, class systems, and rebellion for many years, until one day they finally find a way to escape back to Earth. Upon landing on Earth, they are immediately taken captive by the Russian Government, who take ownership of the robot and interrogate the travelers for details of the foreign planet. These two separate timelines are interwoven, showing the humans on both Earth and their temporary home.

This is an incredibly complex, out-of-this-world story, from the very beginning of the trilogy. I finished the book on the train home, and I’m pretty sure my seatmate thought I was a lunatic with the range of emotions I experienced as I finished the series. So bittersweet, to finally finish a series you’ve been reading for 3 years. I can’t wait to see what Sylvain Neuvel comes up with next.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Links in post are affiliate links whose proceeds go toward the maintenance of this blog.

Awesome ending to a great trilogy. I really enjoyed these books I am sorry they are over but I really liked the ending.

4.5 stars. Only Human wraps up Sylvain Neuvel’s excellent THEMIS FILES science fiction trilogy with some surprising plot turns. *Expect some spoilers for the first two books, Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods*

At the end of Waking Gods, the robot called Themis was suddenly transported back home to her original planet by remote command of her alien makers, accidentally carrying along four people who happened to be inside of her: Vincent Couture, the only human capable of piloting Themis; his 10 year old daughter Eva; Dr. Rose Franklin, the brilliant and compassionate scientist who first discovered the immense, buried hand of Themis as a child; and General Eugene Govender, commander of the newly formed Earth Defense Corps. After nine years on the planet Esat Ekt, Vincent, Eva and Rose, together with one of the natives of Esat Ekt, commandeer Themis and travel back to Earth.

They land in Estonia, where the Russian government (which controls Estonia again) is delighted to take possession of both the robot and them personally. In Waking Gods, Rose had disabled another of the giant robots that the aliens had sent to Earth, and it turns out that the U.S.A. has been ruthlessly using this other robot, called Lapetus, to take control of many other countries around the globe. (How the U.S. was able to solve the tricky robot piloting issue is disclosed later in the book.) Vincent, a Canadian, is not happy to learn that Canada is now subject to U.S. control. The Russians intend to use Themis, Vincent, Eva and Rose to combat the U.S. and Lapetus. It’s an understandable strategy, though their convincing methodology ― personified by the veiled threats of Katherine Lebedev, a major in Russia’s intelligence agency who is assigned as their prisoners’ handler ― is decidedly unpleasant.

Meanwhile, in a panicked overreaction to the events that occurred in Waking Gods, most countries around the globe have created internment camps for people whose genetic makeup includes more than a certain percentage of alien DNA … and even executing those with the highest levels. Our world is devolving into chaos and governmental oppression, with rampant mistrust. It’s not a happy or peaceful world to which Rose, Vincent and Eva have returned.

Neuvel includes a good amount of political and social commentary in Only Human. It occasionally gets a little clunky, but there are some incisive if rather pessimistic insights into human nature and our behavior when stressed … and the massive alien-caused deaths in Waking Gods have led to unprecedented levels of worldwide fear and uncertainty.

Only Human is a dual timeline novel: the current timeline describes what occurs after Rose, Vincent and Eva return to Earth, interspersed with flashback chapters that follow their lives during their nine years on Esat Ekt. I was delighted to see Sylvain Neuvel take on the challenge of creating an alien culture but, partly because Neuvel is still following the same file-based narrative structure as the first two books, we only get a limited look at the aliens’ world and its people. It’s mostly seen indirectly, through the discussions and journals of the four humans who are involuntarily being held there. The aliens’ world of Esat Ekt is, in many ways, a familiar one despite their vast technological superiority and unswerving dedication to non-interference with other cultures. But like humans, they also have political conspiring, large portions of the population who are dispossessed because of their race … and even soup kitchens. I would have liked to have sensed more alien-ness in their society, but it was interesting to compare and contrast the flaws in their world with those in ours.

Katherine Lebedev, the military officer in charge of Rose, Vincent and Eva during their time in Russia, is a quirky combination of threats and faux-friendly chirpiness who never quite feels real. As a handler, she was a distinctly unsatisfactory replacement for the nameless handler who was such an impressively dominant force in Sleeping Giants. However, the relationship between Vincent and his now nineteen year old daughter Eva makes up for this with its painful realism. Neuvel delves into the chaotic web of love, misunderstanding, anger and concern that can make up a relationship between parents and children … especially rebellious teenagers.

Only Human is an enjoyable, thoughtfully written conclusion to the THEMIS FILES trilogy. It’s one of my favorite recent science fiction series, deftly combining hard science with interesting characters and social commentary, not to mention the excitement of giant robot deathmatches. Overall I give it an enthusiastic recommendation!