An amazing conclusion to the trilogy, and definitely worth picking up. I've been a fan of this trilogy since Sleeping Giants, and I am so glad that I discovered the Themis Files.

We see familiar characters who we have grown to care about, and meet new faces as well, both good and bad. The character development is clear, both from the first book to this one, and within this one alone.

This is definitely a book, and series, that I recommend to people. If you haven't picked it up yet, you should definitely give it a try!

As a whole I really loved this series - it was so fresh and exciting and the first two were absolutely wonderful audiobooks. I enjoyed this last installment too, however since I read an advanced copy I didn’t get to listen and I’m wondering if that affected my experience. I found myself reading with the narrators’ voices in my mind (especially for Vincent and Rose), but something about reading the interviews on paper made this less exciting than the others. I think I’ll give this a listen at some point and reevaluate my rating then.

All that said, I found this to be a satisfying conclusion to the Themis files. We got to get glimpses of an alien planet! All while Earth is crumbling to pieces underneath the strain of knowing the truth about humanity’s DNA. I found Neuval’s decision to make countries lash out at each other rather than come together to be a realistic choice, knowing what our world is like even without the threat of alien attack.

The author mentions that maybe he will revisit the series someday...I certainly wouldn’t complain, but I also think this was an appropriate and fitting ending. All good things must come to an end.

Although it had a bit of a slow start, this title picked up quickly and is a strong finish to an already-great trilogy. I look forward to seeing what else Neuvel has up his sleeve.

After spending almost a decade on another planet, two scientists and a teenager come back to Earth only to find that the problems they thought they helped solve have gotten worse. Now they must fight time, opposing forces, and even one another to prevent another world war. Author Sylvain Neuvel brings his trilogy, The Themis Files, to an elegant, albeit bittersweet, end in the third book Only Human.

When Dr. Rose Franklin discovered a giant metal hand buried underground nearly 20 years ago, it led her to the discovery and assembly of Themis, a robot sent by an alien race. After some serious miscommunication with the aliens, about 100 million people across the globe died from a biological weapon released into the atmosphere. Soon after Rose found herself inside Themis with linguist Vincent Couture, his daughter, Eva Reyes, and General Eugene Govender, head of the Earth Defense Corps, traveling through space against their will.

The aliens wanted to bring Themis home.

Now, after nine years, Rose has returned to Earth. She and the others spent that entire time on Esat Ekt, a planet in other galaxy and possibly another time, trying to convince the Ekt people to let them leave. Rose is torn at first about this decision. In some ways, the Ekt represent the ideal; what humans should aspire to. As Rose and Vincent learn, however, the Ekt aren’t perfect. They have their own problems with politics and opposing parties.

Rose and the others come back to the planet of their birth, but it’s no longer a place they recognize. The United States government has appropriated one of the robots the Ekt left behind and is using it as a way to force other countries to submit. Internment camps abound across the world where people who don’t quite fit in now have to live. Another world war seems imminent, and Eva just really wants to go back to Ekt. When she arrived there, she was 10 years old. She considers Ekt home.

What’s worse, the Russians hold Vincent in a benign hostage situation. As long as he cooperates with them, they won’t hurt him. Eva unleashes her fury at coming back to Earth by disappearing. Now Rose will have to find a way to resolve the original problem posed by the alien invaders while trying to help Vincent find Eva and make sure father and daughter don’t end up killing each other—literally.

In what has become his trademark style, Sylvain Neuvel rounds out the Themis trilogy with wit and stark truths about our times. The charm of the Themis books certainly hasn’t worn off; Only Human, like its two predecessors, is told through a series of interviews and journal entries. The writing style is at once disarming and informative, and with this book Neuvel really slides into the right groove for the world of Themis and alien robots.

Some authors might feel tempted to rush the ending, but Neuvel takes his time. After the death of a key character in the previous book, Neuvel manages to find another character with just as much pluck and dry wit. He doesn’t tie up all the loose ends, but he does provide a satisfactory ending to the book and the series. He also lets Rose and the others present some basic life truths, a message that many readers will appreciate in today’s world.

Scientists have often speculated about alien races and what they might think of Earth and its inhabitants. Neuvel’s works fall squarely in the arena of science fiction, and they do full justice to the genre while staying away from its tropes all at the same time. Yet there’s also a universality about the Themis books that emphasizes what the best writing can be: intensely personal to the author while universal in its applicability to readers.

I recommend readers Binge Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel.

Loved It. Love the whole series. Would be great to read more in this universe. Would love to know why the Ekt went to Earth in the first place or just a book about Mr. Burns. All that to say it was so good that I'm having a touch a withdrawal that usaully accompanies a book break up.

In the conclusion of Sylvain Neuvel's action-packed Themis Files trilogy we jump forward in time, almost ten years after the conclusion of Waking Gods, when Dr. Rose Franklin, Vincent Couture, his daughter Eva, and General Eugene Govender were abruptly whisked away on Themis, while celebrating aboard Themis, after seemingly stopping the alien annihilation of the citizens of earth who possessed alien blood. The book opens with a prologue shock. Two American pilots are controlling an abandoned giant, named Lapetus and they are using it to take control of Libya. This, as it turns out, has been status quo. America now controls North America and various other locations around the world. As we will later see, some other countries have gone the land-grab route, too. In Chapter 1, Rose, Vincent, and Eva are returning to earth from the alien planet Esat Ekt (the Home of the Ekt) with the aid of a young alien named Ekim. As we will later find out, in order to return his daughter to earth, Vincent has made terrible moral decisions. And as a result, Eva is not happy.

Cutting rapidly back and forth between their logs of life on Esat Ekt and dealing with the seeming mindboggling bureaucracy of the Ekt people, over the course of the book, although we seem to learn relatively little about the Ekt in a snazzy "let's show aliens!" kind of way, we learn a lot about their way of life and their tendencies, just like their earth relatives, toward discrimination and prejudice. In a seeming democracy, which Rose doesn't initially assess as clearly as Vincent and Eva, some people on Esat Ekt are disenfranchised due to lack of racial purity. It sounds all too familiar... But in spite of this, when Rose, Eva, and Vincent return to earth they are taken aback to find that a decade has wrought horrible changes on our planet. As Rose says, people are being "willfully stupid," ignoring scientific findings for the sake of comfort when marginalizing and doing active harm to a fraction of the population deemed unfit. "Our entire race is trying to lobotomize itself." These perceptions of Earth come deep in the book, and are discussed with a character that I had wrongly assumed died in Waking Gods but who, it turns out, survived, has been interred, and is then saved by none other than the dreadful Alyssa Papantoniou. Yes, I used the word interred. Earth has become a very frightened and frightening place after the alien attack. And as a result, your perceptions of someone like Alyssa may change, as well.

The battle that at the core of Only Human deals with the battle to (re?)gain some sense of an evolved human zeitgeist. While there are things I can quibble with in this book, such as the sketchy business of how Ekim is handled as a character, and the Ekt ultimate solution, which is little better than what's been going on, this is still, an interesting conclusion to the Themis trilogy.

I received a free Kindle copy of Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel courtesy of Net Galley  and Random House, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as have read the first two books (Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods) in the Themis Files trilogy and found both of those interesting and engaging.

This book wraps up the Themis files which involves Rose Franklin, Vincent Couture and Eva Couture and giant robots from another star system. This book follows the same format as the previous two in the series in that it presented in an interview file format. The plot line addresses what can go wrong when a robot is left behind and used by one country to dominate the rest of the world until another reappears. This book is meant as a conclusion to the storyline, but it can easily be reopened later if the author so wishes.

This is not meant to be a stand alone novel, so I strongly recommend that you read the first two in the series before tackling this one. I found this to be an engaging series that I strongly recommend to anyone looking for a new science fiction author.

While this wasn't my favorite book in the series it still was a satisfying conclusion to a wonderful trilogy. It had me on the edge of my seat and the pacing and suspense were good. I found myself telling myself 'Just one more chapter..." And reading about five to ten more. Absolutely riveting. Character driven. I would recommend this book and series. 5 out of 5 stars.

From the publisher: In her childhood, Rose Franklin accidentally discovered a giant metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. As an adult, Dr. Rose Franklin led the team that uncovered the rest of the body parts which together form Themis: a powerful robot of mysterious alien origin. She, along with linguist Vincent, pilot Kara, and the unnamed Interviewer, protected the Earth from geopolitical conflict and alien invasion alike. Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find her old alliances forfeit and the planet in shambles. And she must pick up the pieces of the Earth Defense Corps as her own friends turn against each other.

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel is the final book in the Themis Files trilogy, which includes Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods. Neuvel is tasked with wrapping up the story of Vincent Couture, his daughter Eva, and his former boss-turned-friend Rose Franklin as they find themselves transported to Esat Ekt, the home planet of Themis, the giant robot Rose discovered as a child. Neuvel accomplishes this using a storytelling style that relies on interviews, emails, and radio (or some sort of similar communication) conversations.

Sleeping Giants introduced Dr. Rose Franklin, Kara, Vincent, the Earth Defense Corps, and Themis (a giant robot left by an alien race). Waking Gods then tracked varying countries trying to take control of Themis. Only Human picks up ten years after the end of Waking Gods, and tells the story of the race that created Themis and what happens when our heroes want to return home.

It's really hard to summarize much Only Human, because I don't want to accidentally spoil anything. Neuvel uses his epistolary style to show what Rose, Vincent, Eva, and the General have been up to on Esat Ekt, which is where they were taken at the (cliffhanger) end of Waking Gods. The story is told with flashbacks interspersed with current events to create a full picture of the previous ten years. Suddenly, Vincent is finds he wants to try to return to Earth so his teenage daughter Eva can have a "normal" life. This idea sets off a series of events that brings the story of Themis to a fulfilling conclusion and quite capably brings the Themis Files to an end.

Over the course of three books, Neuvel has done a great job creating well-rounded and interesting characters, which to me is all the more impressive considering the style he chose to tell the story. Vincent and Rose had already been given terrific characterization, and in Only Human, Eva is given the same treatment. This characters feel very real, which is a testament to Neuvel's skill. Additionally, in Only Human, our characters find themselves on an alien world living in a culture that's a little similar to ours, but also has some fundamental differences. He does a wonderful job of fleshing out this alien world.

Of course, a giant robot story wouldn't be complete without some giant robot fights, and Only Human does not let the reader down. There are several of these conflicts (just like in the previous books) and the action and conspiracies keep the story flowing quickly.

My only real complaint (and it is minor) is that at times the moralizing seemed a little heavy-handed, something that did not really stand out in the two previous books. However, that did not prevent me from enjoying the book.

I highly recommend Only Human, the final book in the Themis Files trilogy, by Sylvain Neuvel. It is a fun and exciting conclusion to the story begun in Sleeping Giants. While the story can be read without reading the previous books, I definitely wouldn't recommend it, as readers may find themselves lacking some of the prior knowledge that would make Only Human much more enjoyable.

I received a preview copy of this book from Del Ray and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ah, I love when a series ends well! Seriously, it is one of the most happy-making bookish things ever. And it so happens to be the case with Only Human, which ends the Themis Files on a very high note. While slightly less action-packed than its predecessors, it delivers with some incredibly thought provoking plot points and characters. Let’s talk about these, while keeping it spoiler-free, shall we?

♦The humor is fabulous. Look, some dark shit happens in this series. Like, dark. But the humor lightens things up a bit, kind of retains the characters’ humanity. And frankly, just makes for an enjoyable read.

♦There’s a time jump that puts even The 100’s to shame, yet… it works just as well. I was shocked that there was a jump from book one to two, and I didn’t necessarily expect it this time, but it happened and it worked. I think it was a good way to be able to tell the whole story without adding a lot of unnecessary information.

♦Lots of great social and political commentary and discussion fodder. Seriously, the thing I have enjoyed most about this series is that it made me ponder the “what-ifs” a lot. Could this situation happen for real? How would we react? In truth, I think the author sadly nailed how human beings would react to such adversity, and it isn’t awesome.

♦Do not fret, there was still giant robot fighting! And plenty of action.

♦Our characters often had to make some tough calls, both in the past and present time, and I found that very compelling. Of course, their own needs and wants drive their decision making, just as it does for all of us, and I loved how the author highlighted that.

Bottom Line: A very solid conclusion to an overall high quality sci-fi series. If you’ve been interested, I can confidently recommend diving in!

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel is the recommended third book in the Themis series. This is not a stand-alone novel and the three book series has to be read in the order they are written.

Since this is the last book in the series, I don't want to give away too much of the plot. Basically a giant robot was found buried in pieces around the Earth. It is put together and we are trying to master the technology, when more fully operational robots are sent to Earth and begin attacking. The attack is stopped, but all the robots, including Themis, the robot that was put together here, disappear from Earth. The human crew inside Themis, Dr. Rose Franklin, linguist Vincent Couture, his 10-year-old daughter Eve Reyes, and Gen. Eugene Govender, are stranded on the robots home planet, Esat Ekt. After being stranded on Esat Ekt for nine years, they return back to Earth, but the geo-political climate has changed. The group lands in Russia, become prisoners, and discover that America and Russia are battling for the supreme control of the planet. Those in charge seem to be suffering from some kind of collective insanity and rule by violence and fear, including vast numbers of people sent to work camps and internment camps.

As in the previous two books, the story unfolds using interviews, diary entries, mission logs, and covert recordings. The narrative jumps back and forth between the time spent on Esat Ekt and after the group returns to Earth. Most of the main characters were already fully fleshed out in the first two books and are further developed here, while new characters are a bit lacking in development. Russian intelligence officer Katherine Lebedev comes across as an unrealistic cartoonish caricature especially with the "jokey" dialogue she takes part in. There isn't a lot of in-depth worldbuilding on Esat Ekt, and what is presented doesn't seem alien. The political climate on Earth is examined, but

Taken as a whole I'd give the series 4 stars, but, for me, this was a weak ending. I'm not entirely thrilled with Neuval's choice to make the plot so political. I get it; the current polarized political climate is disturbing. For me, however, all this did was make the presentation a bit too preachy in this final installment of the series and I didn't get as much of the science fiction, and robots, I craved. Additionally, I can't help it, but I missed the unnamed narrator from the first two books.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the Random House Publishing Group.
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This book was probably my least favorite of the trilogy. There were lots of slow parts. It got really exciting near the end and was a good wrap up.

This was so good! The whole trilogy is really amazing. I actually remember reading the first book in the trilogy, Sleeping Giants, and thinking that it was just okay. Everything changed when I decided to try the audiobook for the story. I was really able to appreciate the story much more with the help of the narrators. When I picked up the second book, Waking Gods, I was worried that I wouldn't be as impressed by the book in print after my experience with this previous book but I liked that book right from the start. The same can be said for this book. I thought that Waking Gods ended with just a bit of a cliffhanger and I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen to these characters. This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year and I was not disappointed.

This review will contain spoilers for the previous two books in the trilogy.

I went into this book expecting it to pick up right where the last book ended and it did to a point. The first part of the book goes back and forth between a time 9 years after the previous book and various points during those 9 years. I had so many questions about what had happened to everyone during those 9 years and I am glad that we got to see some of the more important events. We do learn more from the characters as they are being interviewed about their lives during those lost years as well.

So Vincent, Eva, and Rose have spent a significant amount of time living on an alien planet. You would think that they would have changed a lot during those years. They did experience some changes but the most dramatic changes happened here on Earth. Our planet has not done well during those years. Things are bad. Countries are power hungry and using the robots to intimidate other nations while their people are being treated poorly.

I loved the characters in this book. I really feel like I have got the chance to really know Rose and Vincent during the course of the trilogy. Eva is much older and I liked her character more in this book. Many of the key players from previous books show up in this installment as well. I was always thrilled to get to see these familiar characters play a part in the story even when they were a character that I loved to hate. There were a couple of new characters that seemed to fit into the story quite flawlessly as well.

This story was just as exciting as I had anticipated. How could a book about giant alien robots be anything but exciting? Anyway, this book had all of the action scenes that I had hoped to see. There were quite a few surprises along the way and I found myself turning pages as fast as I could just to see what would happen next. I was somewhat surprised by how things worked out in this one and it really was a good surprise. I was very satisfied by how everything ended.

I would highly recommend this series to others. This is an exciting and highly imaginative trilogy that has been a whole lot of fun. I do plan to purchase a copy of the audiobook of this one for a re-read in the near future. I can't wait to see what Sylvain Neuvel comes up with next!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine via NetGalley.

Sylvain Neuvel manages to continue his unique brand of universe-building in the third installment of the Themis Files: Only Human. As with his first two books, the story weaves in-between recorded diary entries/logs in juxtaposition of the current story line. Fraught with last minute suspense, the second book Waking Gods left readers wondering what will happen to Themis and all of those aboard?

Continuing to surprise readers with his take on a ‘first-contact’ phenomena, Neuvel spins his brand of spunky humor into a surreal story of humans stranded for ten years on an alien planet and what happens when they are jettisoned back home to a Battle Royale, Risk-esque style World War. Neuvel casts a deluge of characters that you love to love and hate to hate. What I love most about this series has been the mystery surrounding Themis, learning about the Ekt, and what it means for the people of Earth.

Unsurprisingly, the main theme of this book seems to coincide with real world issues in mainstream culture and society. When the Ekt landed and millions of people were nerve-gas annihilated, the real villains of the story (yokits! surprise, it’s the humans) divide and sort the population of people with the highest levels of alien DNA into camps. Trying to protect the human race from those that are different (wait, does this sound familiar?), humans systematically seclude and terminate those that are most alien while knowing that we ALL have alien DNA.

The only criticism I have for this book is that Lebedev’s character is fairly unbelievable and distracts readers from her interviews. While her over the top personality pulls away from the story at times, Neuvel still manages to entice the readers back with his narratives of Ekt society and customs while illustrating that in reality, humans are simply kids that never grew up who still need inter cosmic babysitters.

This book does not read as a stand alone and is really for those who want to know what happened to Earth, Themis and that ragtag gang of giant robot pilots that we have grown to love in the previous two books. This is a quick and engaging read for anyone who loves sci-fi, giant robots, and a story about humans losing their marbles when they learn they are not the biggest kid at the intergalactic playground.

This was a really good trilogy - each book told a strong story, and although the arc continues nicely - the feel and theme of each book was different. Book 1 was all about discovery, Book 2 was about disaster and consequences, and in Book 3, we finally learn more about the aliens, their culture, and their intentions. We also see how humanity handles the aftermath of the big events in the second book.

The story is told through transcripts, letters, and interviews, and that format works well (I've heard the audio versions are excellent, and I hope to check them out sometime). I would strongly recommend this series, and also strongly recommend starting at book 1 :)

3.5 of 5 stars

What a crazy ride it’s been. Only Human is the third book of the Themis Files trilogy, bringing an end to a saga that first began in Sleeping Giants, where as a child, protagonist Rose Franklin quite literally stumbled upon a discovery of a lifetime. While exploring the woods near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, she accidentally fell into a square hole in the ground containing what was later identified as the hand of a giant metal robot. Fast forward many years, and the world has now become a very different place, with humanity hovering on the brink of war against an unstoppable alien threat. A lot has clearly happened, and if you’re not caught up on the series yet, be aware that this review will contain plot details from the first two books.

First of all, it has been nine years since the end of the second volume, Waking Gods, which left us with one hell of cliffhanger as the giant robot Themis (carrying Rose Franklin, Vincent Couture, his 10-year-old daughter Eva, and General Eugene Govender inside at the time) was suddenly and inexplicably transported to another world. In Only Human, we find out exactly where they went, as well as what exactly happened in the intervening years.

Once again, the story is presented as a collection of mostly journal entries, transcribed interviews or recordings, letters and other forms of personal communication, etc. so by now the format feels very familiar. The greatest challenge the author had to overcome in this book, however, was the establishing of two timelines—one taking in the present, the other filling in the events of the last nine years—and there’s even the problem of a language barrier to consider this time. The book begins with the return of Rose, Vincent, Eva, and a fourth mysterious passenger, as Themis suddenly shows up again on Earth following its almost decade-long disappearance. Many of us had guesses as to where Themis ended up, I think, and sure enough, we soon get confirmation that the characters had been transported the giant robot’s homeworld, Esat Ekt.

As you would imagine though, spending nine years anywhere, let alone on an alien planet, would be enough to change anyone. Upon their return, both Rose and Vincent are shocked at what life has become on Earth, and Eva, now nineteen years old and who had spent most of her formative years living among the Ekt, is having a particularly hard time adjusting. They’re also being detained by the Russian government (because Themis reappeared in Russian territory), who are pressuring them to give up all the deets: Are the aliens coming back? Do they still want war with Earth? How do we fight them?

Except, of course, the aliens aren’t at all what we’ve been led to believe. They’re actually kind of a mess. In some ways, they’re even more clueless than humans, despite being lightyears ahead of us in technology. It made this somewhat of a dreary read because I spent most of it feeling pissed off at everyone, Ekt and human alike. The universe is apparently full of jerks. And if an advanced alien race capable of creating gargantuan robots that can disintegrate mountains in an eyeblink can’t even get it together, then what chance do we have? I also found myself annoyed with the characters, many of whom came across as sanctimonious, selfish, and careless. In a world where conditions have devolved so far, pitting countryman against countryman, friend against friend, daughter against father…at one point I asked myself if I would even care how this ended. It was just too depressing.

Thankfully, the plot took a turn for the better in the second half. It made me see how things were meant to fit together. I now understand that much of the conflict was meant to set up the events of the last hundred pages or so, in order to have the ending feel that much more satisfying and emotionally impactful.

That said, there were still a few things I wished this final novel did differently. For one, I wanted a lot more about the aliens. The limited information we received about the Ekt was sorely disappointing, considering our protagonists were on their planet and stayed among them for nine whopping years. Also, there were a couple downsides to the epistolary format that I confess still sort of bug me even after three books. It’s just hard to buy into the whole oral dictation angle when so many scenes in the story that are not conducive to carrying a recorder around, conveniently capturing all our characters’ conversations about their thoughts and reporting exactly what they are doing. There are still plenty of these awkward moments, with the trade-off being realism and immersion.

I don’t want to sound too negative, however. I did have a lot of fun with this book—with all three books, in fact. Given the complex nature of this series, Sylvain Neuvel had his work cut out for him, and that’s on top of dealing with obstacles that challenge all new authors. A few minor hiccups notwithstanding, I have to say he managed to pull off his debut trilogy marvelously, sparking imaginations and offering action-packed entertainment along the way. The Themis Files is a masterful storytelling experience, one I will not soon forget.

*4 stars plus! I've enjoyed this scifi trilogy and am so sorry to see it end! Very inventive and fun!

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?

I must also mention what beautiful all these books have. I was privileged to win a hardcover copy of Sleeping Gods in a goodreads giveaway and have read arcs of the others--many thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for providing me with copies for an honest review.

Another nine years have passed, and while Rose and Vincent and Eva have been stuck on an alien planet, Earthlings have been getting up to some pretty messed up shenanigans. Left in a state of terror and paranoia after being massacred by aliens, the world has gone to hell, categorizing people based on how much alien DNA they have and rounding them up into camps. But that’s not all; old human prejudices run rampant as well. Muslims are also being rounded up, for reasons that make little to no sense whatsoever. The only thing that is clear is that fear and ignorance reign supreme, and Rose and Vincent and Eva return to a world on the brink of nuclear extinction.

I breezed through this entire trilogy in less than two weeks because it was so addicting, but I’m not sure that it was a good idea. By the third book, the narrative style was seriously getting on my nerves. I was undecided about it while reading the first book, but now I’m sure – I would have preferred a traditional narrative with interviews/logs/etc. interspersed throughout. It felt so much less organic in this book; most of the “interviews” were just Rose and Vincent chatting. It felt less like an important conversation being recorded and more like a really bad play.

A lot of these conversations are just the characters moralizing on the state of things. It felt a lot like the author was using the story and characters as an intellectual exercise, a vehicle to talk out his thoughts on various issues like racism, Islamophobia, democracy, etc. It might have been easier to bear had this been written like a regular book, but as it was I felt like I was being preached at. It’s incredibly heavy-handed, like the author is delivering a philosophy lecture. And so much of this book is just that – Vincent and Rose and Eva talking about stuff. It was pretty boring. Little to nothing happens until the very end of the book, and even then what happens is still entirely centered on our three main characters. Which, okay, I get, but I would have liked to see more of the world rather than reading another chapter about Vincent’s parental drama with Eva.

Oh, also, I’ll say it: this book suffers deeply for the loss of our unnamed friend. He was the linchpin of the story; without him, it feels unmoored. Plus I miss his understated wit. Despite this loss, there were some great characters here. Rose remains a fascinating person and scientist; Vincent has become much more sarcastic in a way that feels very organic, considering he’s nine years older than the last time we saw him. Eva is a firecracker; I adored her. And Katherine; I looooooooooved Katherine. At times she felt a little bit like a caricature of a millennial, but I didn’t care, she was so entertaining and I loved every scene she was in. The short glimpse we got of Alyssa was great too.

Ultimately, I was unfortunately unsatisfied by the conclusion to the trilogy. This book had zero of the wonder and discovery of the first two installments. There was nothing here that was thrilling or interesting, there was no more mystery or twists. It was just bleakness, humans being terrible, and people going in circles having the same conversations. If it weren’t for the memory of the first two books, I would have rated this even lower, but as it stands, I did have fun reading this trilogy. So even though the conclusion isn’t that great, overall I would say that the Themis Files is a fun but wholly overrated series.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey books for review eARC of this book. I loved the first two books in this trilogy, and I was ecstatic to get a chance to read this one after the events of Waking Gods. This story begins 9 years after Waking Gods, and in it we see how both Earth and our heroes have changed in that time. It really looks at the question of what it means to be human vs. alien. I love that the unique formats have remained, and that it allows us to see much more than we would if there was a single narrator— it’s really effective. If you like science fiction, unique formats, and the fate of humanity, don’t miss this final installment in The Themis Files!

Yokits!

(Full disclosure: This review contains spoilers for the previous two books in the trilogy.)

“You think the world ch … changed while you were gone? It hasn’t. This is who we are.”

“What does a man’s life amount to? What does the life of a thousand, a billion? What is an ant’s life worth? I see now that the answer is irrelevant. It’s the question that matters. Should the ant let itself die, crushed under the weight of its own insignificance? Or should it live, fight giants, and build magnificent cities underground? What do I choose?”

“It was always you, Rose. Just you. This is your movie. The rest of us are just extras in it.”

When last we visited the world of the Themis Files – a world in which the discovery of an alien robot/spaceship/war machine upended humanity, in ways both good and bad (but, let’s face it, mostly bad because humans gonna human) – physicist Rose Franklin, linguist-turned-pilot Vincent Couture, ten-year-old orphan Eva Reyes, and EDC head General Eugene Govender were on board Themis, celebrating their unlikely victory against alien invaders, when the ship powered up and transported them … somewhere else.

The quartet have spent the last nine years living in limbo on the alien planet Esat Ekt – “Home of the Ekt,” the builders of Themis and unfortunate contributors to humanity’s gene pool. Due to their strict moral philosophy of non-interference in the evolutionary paths of other species, and well as regional political BS, the Ekt cannot decide whether to send the accidental guests home, as aliens – or make them stay, as part-Ekt citizens.

It was this very philosophy of non-interference that led the Ekt to attack earth in WAKING GODS, releasing a toxic gas that killed millions. What the Ekt meant as a surgical strike against their own people quickly snowballed, since the original twenty-four Ekt visitors couldn’t keep it in their pants, so to speak. The mass casualties sent shock waves through both planets: the earth of today performs mandatory blood tests on its citizens; anyone deemed to have “too much” alien DNA is rounded up and put in camps, even executed. Meanwhile, the fiasco has led to civil unrest on Ekt, with the h. sapiens guests/prisoners serving as a constant, painful reminder of the Ekt’s epic fail. Something’s gotta give.

ONLY HUMAN is a pretty solid end to a series that I’ve really enjoyed. Like its predecessors, the story is told via a series of interviews, journal entries, and the like, in both flashbacks (to Rose et al.’s time on Ekt) and real-time. As you can probably gather from this sentence, Rose, Vincent, and Eva have managed to find their way back to Earth, which is now in possession of not one but two alien robots. In a post-9/11 climate of paranoia and fear, this is very much Not A Good Thing. The parallels Neuvel makes to our current political climate are inescapable, and I had to wonder how much of the story he wrote before/after the 2016 election (or if he altered the narrative at all later). The ultimate view he posits of humanity is both grim, but also cautiously hopeful.

I really enjoyed getting to know teenage Eva, and to see Vincent as a father. The father-daughter conflict seemed a little over the top at times, but Eva’s narrative is really compelling: a “freak” who saw visions on Earth, Eva is more or less “normal” – if a bit of an alien curiosity-slash-celebrity – on Ekt. Vincent is pretty insistent that he wants Eva to have a “normal” life – but to her, Ekt is it. So you can imagine her angst at being forced to leave by dear old dad. (I was pretty peeved with him until the final chapters.)
I also came to love Mr. Burns – something I wouldn’t have thought possible in books one or two – and kind of teared up at the surprise twist ending. Slow clap on that one.

Someone needs to stop giving these war criminals government jobs though, smh. #StillNotReadyForThemis