Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Leuven

Publication date:  21 April 2016
Published by: Penguin
Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher's synopsis
A GIRL NAMED ROSE IS RIDING HER NEW BIKE NEAR HER HOME IN DEADWOOD, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand's code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

My Review

I am generally not keen on books that are told in the style of found text (be they letters, emails or, as with this book, documents and audio transcriptions of interviews).  In the case of Sleeping Giants this style mostly works well, but there are problem areas.  At times the interview discussions cover bits of information that one would not expect to appear as part of an interview and I got the impression this was more for the benefit of the reader than the 'nameless interrogator'. Also, I felt the dynamic between important characters was weakened, as was the impact, because their interactions and reactions were not being experienced first hand.

I found the story intriguing in the beginning but, if I am honest, my interest wained as the book progressed.

As a sci-fi novel, it was not like anything I have read before, which made it a novel reading experience.  I think this story would work well if told through a visual medium (i.e., for the big or small screen), and I wonder if the author had this in mind.

The next instalment is out this month.  I was kept interested enough to want to see what happens next and, for some reason, I have a feeling that the next book will be a better read.