After having read a couple of classics lately, I decided to go for some contemporary science fiction for a change. For me that’s a rather difficult domain because most science fiction these days seems to by dystopian which I don’t really enjoy at all. So I select my science fiction carefully. One book I recently picked up is Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, as the storyline sounded interesting and promised something other than a plain dystopian story.
And indeed I was hooked after only a few pages. The beginning reminded me a bit of the beginning of ‘Contact’ by Carl Sagan but the story goes in a totally different direction and is about a giant extraterrestrial figure whose parts are strewn all over the planet that turn out to have interesting properties on their own and especially when put together. Built by an extraterrestrial intelligence thousands of year ago the book is about the hunt to find all parts and the events that happen once all pieces are put together. Suspense is guaranteed and the book has an ending, which is, not quite utopian but not straight out dystopian either. There are two sequels to the book but the story ends at a point in the first book with enough suspense to go for the second book but not with a major cliffhanger which I would not have appreciated. A very interesting read if you are into science fiction and a not too dystopian future. Fully recommended!
The sequels have surprises.