Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

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 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—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.

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 provenance of relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

Giant freaking robot. Hell yeah!

I love a good science fiction with pretty much any sub-genre. While this wasn’t anything that blew my mind, Sleeping Giants is still a good sci-fi political thriller.

It does have a bit of a rough start and takes a little while to get going. The majority of the book is done in interview format, where a mysterious guy brings a team together to secretly work on a giant robot that was discovered. I don’t mind this format at all, it can actually be a lot of fun, but it was on the dull side in the beginning. It doesn’t get too technical or dense, it’s just the introduction to the characters is kind of bland. The characters personalities eventually started to shine through, though. I grew to like them all, especially Kara, a hard-ass military pilot.

Despite the slower build-up, I really got caught up in it! It was intense at times once it really got going, and had me on the edge of my seat. There’s the whole mystery about where the robot came from and what its purpose is, because this thing is massive. Not to mention several thousands of years old. One thing is for certain, it could be one hell of a weapon. Once other countries find out about it, the shit hits the fan.

Overall, I liked Sleeping Giants. There’s some drama, a dash of humor, and a lot of intrigue. And after that ending, I’m really looking forward to the next installment.

I just have to say that I totally had the image of The Iron Giant in my head before I started reading, but that image soon shifted to Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot. I constantly had the song ‘I Am the Robot’ from the show in my head as I read. I loved that cartoon, okay? lol!