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I'm gonna start this review off by saying that I love "Found Item" stories. Games with a found item element are perhaps my favorite kinds to play. I love mystery / investigative tv shows for the same reason. The idea that the story being told can change greatly depending on how many clues you find is... it's brilliant, and I'm endlessly fascinated by this particular story-telling mechanic.

Which is not to say that Sleeping Giants was the type of book that made me hunt for the story. I mean, how would that even work? It was, however, the type of book written as a collection of interviews kept by an unnamed person, and diary entries kept by the other various characters in this book. 

That's it. No narrative prose. No first person writing. It was just a collection of these logs. Conversations. Monologues. All kept by this one dude whose name we never learn (henceforth known as The Interrogator)

I loved that so much. It wasn't Found Item narration, but it felt like it. It felt like little clues I'd picked up that helped me piece together this tale - it was immersive, taking me right into interrogation rooms, inside Themis, inside these laboratories. It was freaking great, and only one of the things I liked about this book.

Sleeping Giants follows the story of Dr Rose Franklin, Pilot Kara Resnik and, her co-pilot Ryan, all three hired to retrieve the parts of a massive space robot (the aforementioned Themis), which may or may not have been buried on earth by aliens, from various parts of the globe, and then assemble it. No biggie. 

This is pretty much... the entire book. I mean, obviously there's more to it than that, but I can't really say much else without spoiling things. Nor can I explain the premise of this book any better than that little synopsis. Believe me. I've tried. This is just one of those books that you have to read to understand. 

For a sci-fi novel, Sleeping Giants is largely about politics, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea. If I'd known this before, I might not have read this book, so I'm really glad no one told me this, because I loved this thing, politics and all.

It was a compelling sci-fi novel with an unusual yet remarkably effective narration style. Not only was it immersive, but the characters somehow managed to feel real and retain their depth even though we were only meeting them while they were in conversation with the Interrogator. 

I don't think I've read anything like this book to give you comparisons, but if you're looking for a well-told sci-fi book that'll suck you right into it's world, then definitely give this a go. It's so, so good