Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel - Review

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Thanks very much to NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

After years of investigation, Rose and her team have just begun to figure out a portion of the mystery surrounding the giant robot that they had unearthed and pieced together. The answers that they have found have been extremely interesting, to say the least, but there is still quite a bit that they just don't know. That's when a robot even bigger than the one that they dug up materializes and unleashes its wrath on a major city. Suddenly the team finds themselves living in a nightmare, as more and more robots start appearing on their planet. If they want to stand a chance the Earth Defense Corps is only going to have to work out the technological secrets of an unimaginably advanced species.

I was absolutely thrilled when I lucked out and got approved for this ARC on NetGalley since I enjoyed book one of the Themis Files, Sleeping Giants, so much. (You can see my review of that novel here. I'm so pleased to see Neuvel back back for book two in style! Waking Gods is an awesome sequel! I loved seeing our cast of characters back for round two - I can never get enough of Kara and Vincent, plus our interviewer who (reminds me primarily of Agent Smith from The Matrix with a dash of Castiel from Supernatural) is my personal favorite character of the entire group. My only issues with this novel, like before, is that I really wish we had a better sense of time between each interview and report and during a few scenes I found myself wishing that we were a bit closer to events instead of being a step or two removed. Otherwise, though, I particularly enjoyed the formatting of this story - it's such a unique and imaginative way to set up this sci-fi saga.

This installment is a fun thrill-ride with some stunning twists and emotional gut punches (I'll admit I got a bit misty-eyed) to boot. I don't want to give too much away about the plot overall, but I'm still reeling from that cliff hanger ending. If you like The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, The Fold by Peter Clines, The Iron Giant, Fringe, and Power Rangers, I highly recommend this series. I can't wait to see what will come next in Sylvain Neuvel's Themis Files!

Many thanks again to NetGalley!


I read this eARC from March 26 - March 31, 2017 and my review is also on Goodreads.