Tag: Sylvain Neuvel

Top 5 Books I Read in 2022

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Transitioning to a new year of reading has been going slowly, as it turns out. I’m still trying to finish up my final read from last year (a fact that will keep bothering me at least a little bit), so I haven’t even given myself the chance to start reading anything new for 2023. As my editing workload increased after the end of 2021, I managed to have less and less time to read throughout the year, so I actually read an even smaller number of books than I was expecting. Still, I did manage to finish a decent amount, and as I’ve done the last several years, I’d like to list my five favourite reads from the past year, in no particular order. As is always the case, these are not books that came out in 2022, simply the five books I enjoyed the most.Read More »

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Book Review – Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

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SleepingGiants

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel is the first novel in the Themis Files series. Seemingly at random, a mysterious object of massive scale is found in a sinkhole in South Dakota after a young girl crashes her bike into it. Rescue crews working to get her out are baffled by the fact that she rests in a giant metal hand. Seventeen years later, the hand’s purpose and origins are still a complete mystery. Some can’t let secrets lie, however, and Dr. Rose Franklin, the girl who first stumbled upon the thing, is now a physicist who leads a top-secret team determined to uncover the truth. The work is challenging, but the object’s hidden power is greater than they could have imagined. As they get closer to unlocking its secrets, it becomes impossible to keep such a thing hidden from the world, which may not be ready for it.Read More »

WWW Wednesday – May 25, 2022

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Nothing this week! I’m between books.

Recently Finished

SleepingGiantsOver the weekend I finished reading Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, and overall I enjoyed it a lot. I was surprised to find there was no dramatic turn focused on robot combat, even though it did find a way with the format to integrate more action-oriented sequences into the narrative. I wouldn’t have minded if things did turn out that way, but I respect the book’s commitment to taking such a pulpy concept as seriously as it does. I liked the sequel bait at the end too, which hints at things surprisingly more bizarre than we’ve encountered so far. I’m going to try to read the sequels sooner rather than later. The only thing that kept this book from being a five-star read was that the format, while interesting and unique, was a little too impersonal for me sometimes. I’ll try to have a full review up soon.

Reading Next

The Dictionary of Obscure SorrowsAs I’ve been saying for weeks, I’m going to start reading Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson next, I just need to set aside time to get some reading done. I keep thinking about trying to get a better handle on my reading challenges, though, so I think I’m going to try to go through a supplemental read at the same time, since it won’t make for a great read for long sittings on its own. This book will be The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, which is another book on my yearly to-read list. Since it’s a collection of word entries, I’ll probably enjoy reading this in shorter bursts anyway. I just hope I can manage to integrate it into my reading schedule in a meaningful way.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – May 18, 2022

Ryan2 Comments
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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

SleepingGiantsI’ve managed to make some decent progress in Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel since my drought last week. I’m coming close to having it finished, I just reached part five last night, which is nearly 80% of the way there. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but this novel really does a great job of balancing more exciting, escapist elements with real-world consequences. I would’ve thought a novel about building an ancient alien mech shaped like a person like this would have gotten pilots into the cockpit and fighting a lot sooner, but this story is really well considered. Since last week their inability to understand how it works had disastrous consequences, causing a substantial halt on research for the characters for the sake of preventing global war. I wonder if the trilogy preserves this tone throughout, or if it will turn a little Pacific Rim even by the end of this book.

Recently Finished

Berserk 35Over the weekend I read through volume 35 of Berserk by Kentaro Miura, which I enjoyed as usual but had me thinking about everything with a little less enthusiasm. The reason is that the story shifted focus back to Guts and company, which is great, but things kind of just boiled down to Guts swinging his sword around at a bunch of monsters and needing to use the Berserker Armour again, putting his mental state at risk. This is all well and good, but it all feels a little too similar to everything that just happened before they embarked upon their sea voyage. It’s not terrible by any means, I guess I’m just disappointed that things feel a little too formulaic at the moment. Perhaps this current skirmish will have compelling consequences and I just need to get there.

Reading Next

Son of a TricksterAt this point, I keep thinking I already made up my mind about what I’m going to read next between Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss and Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson; I keep assuming I’d already decided on the latter, but apparently I still hadn’t made up my mind last week. I guess this means my subconscious chose for me, so I’m going to be reading Son of a Trickster next. Now I just need to settle on another comic to read next.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – May 11, 2022

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Things turned out rather busy this past week, so I unfortunately did not find any time to read further into Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Here’s hoping I’ll turn that around this coming week.

Recently Finished

Berserk 34I did however find some time to read through a volume of Berserk by Kentaro Miura last night. It continued the conflict between Griffith along with his demonic Band of the Hawk and the newly transformed Emperor of Kushan. It was really interesting to see humans and monstrous Apostles fighting together against a common enemy. I don’t trust Griffith, but I do wonder what this new world he seems to be forming will be like, if the fantastic creatures spawning will be entirely hostile or something the world can adapt to, and if he plans to bring all such creatures as well as people under his domain. I’m probably going to read the next volume soon, as I’ve got it on hand and I have many unanswered questions.

Reading Next

Son of a TricksterI still haven’t made up my mind whether I want to read Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson next or Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss. I’m sure I’ll make up my mind as I get closer to finishing Sleeping Giants. As I said, I intend to read volume 35 of Berserk soon as well, which will also help push me along with my Goodreads challenge this year. Other than those, I’m hoping I can get a review written for The Crossroads at Midnight by next week. I don’t review every comic that I read, but this graphic novel is definitely worthy of it.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – May 4, 2022

Ryan2 Comments

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

SleepingGiantsI’m now at 131 pages in Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I didn’t get to read it as much over the last few days as I would’ve liked, but I wanted to finish writing a review finally. I should have that up soon. Anyway, Sleeping Giants is a lot of fun. I love how the story is taking its time slowly piecing together this giant robot, rather than rushing into something more formulaic. The cast is really strong, but after the last few chapters I’ve read I’m becoming especially intrigued by the nameless, enigmatic interviewer, who—perhaps unsurprisingly—seems to be manipulating developments even further than he is letting on. Or maybe I’m just being paranoid. I’m enjoying the sprinkling of politics too, highlighting how trying to covertly search for advanced tech like this buried all around the globe without causing an international incident would be a Herculean task.

Recently Finished

The Crossroads at MidnightOver the weekend I managed to finish The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard, which has now become another favourite horror collection. This collection really was something special, not a single story felt lacking or lesser than the rest, though I do have a favourite among them. “Our Lake Monster” was such a great play on the typical “a kid and their blank” type of story, this one about a family who used to tour a lake monster from their property around before it became too big. One of the daughters feels she has a bond with the creature and that the rest of her family just doesn’t understand it like she does. Another, “Mattress, Used”, will haunt me for a while. Really got under my skin.

Reading Next

Springfield ConfidentialI’m not sure what I want to read next, only that I want to focus more attention on my yearly list of 12 books, since it has been sorely neglected in 2022 thus far. So far, I think it’s a toss up between Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson and Springfield Confidential by Mike Reiss. The former is an author I haven’t read in a long time, so it’ll be nice to give another one of her books a look, and the latter is nonfiction about writing for The Simpsons. I couldn’t get enough of the early seasons growing up, and I’m hoping the book will be more about those than the last 20 years of newer stuff.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 27, 2022

Ryan4 Comments
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I didn’t mange to make any further progress in The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard.

SleepingGiantsI did however manage to get a decent amount into Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. At the moment I’m 55 pages in, so I’m not especially far along, but I have an actual grip on the story now. I’m enjoying how strange and different the format for this novel is quite a lot. I had thought that the interview structure might make it a super-fast read, but I’m happy that it’s somewhere more in the middle, with characters’ answers functioning a lot like standard prose in some places. I’m finding the mystery really intriguing as the characters continue to unearth pieces of this seemingly robotic giant of possibly alien origins. I have no idea what the story is about beyond that core idea, so I’m really looking forward to discovering how things develop.

Recently Finished

Nothing this week. Boo to me!

Reading Next

I’m really not sure what I’m going to read next, as this past week barely counted towards any reading progress. I ended up getting a lot more editing work than normal over the weekend, which has kept me a whole lot busier than I was anticipating. I suspect that I may have more free time before next Wednesday, so I’m hoping I can put a better dent in things. I still need to review A Black and Endless Sky, which unfortunately fell to the wayside this past week, and maybe I can power through Sleeping Giants if given the opportunity.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 20, 2022

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Last night I started reading Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, but I’ve only read a chapter, so I can’t really say much on it right now. Really digging the concept of the big buried hand, though.

The Crossroads at MidnightI also started reading The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard a couple days ago. So far, I’ve only read the first of the five stories in the collection. I’m really enjoying the collection’s conceit that each story is about somebody seeking connection with the unnatural or otherworldly in some way, and this first story “The Girl in the Fields” has a young woman befriending a strange person who lives on the other side of the fence bordering her family’s property, only her eye visible through one of the knot holes in a board. It perfectly encapsulated a feeling of creepiness while having a surprising shift in tone by the end. I’m really enjoying the art too, which has a style reminiscent of other adult-oriented Western comics I’ve read, with a violent twist.

Recently Finished

A Black and Endless SkyOver the weekend I finally finished reading A Black and Endless Sky by Matthew Lyons, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it just yet. I’m not overwhelmingly positive, but I didn’t dislike it either. What I did find most humorous about it by the end was how much the story amounted to a small collection of people savagely beating the crap out of each other over the course of only a few days. With only one of them having any excuse as to how she can handle the punishment, I couldn’t help but be amused at how ridiculously mangled they all were by the end, yet they kept getting back up over and over. I can’t tell if it was intentionally over the top to a humorous degree, but I don’t think I’ll knock it for it either. I’ll hopefully have a review up before next Wednesday.

Reading Next

At this time, who can really say? I’m just starting my current reads, so I’ll have to think about it.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – April 13, 2022

Ryan4 Comments
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

A Black and Endless SkyI’m about exactly two thirds of the way through A Black and Endless Sky by Matthew Lyons now, and I’ve gotten more into the book as the story has progressed, though I’m still finding it a little underwhelming. The characters find themselves in a compelling predicament, as the exorcist who presented herself as salvation for Nell, the subject of possession, must kill her to release the demon from her, lest she succumb to gradual decay from the demon’s presence in her body. Her brother Jonah isn’t having that, and now they’re on the run from more than just bikers. I’m surprised that the demon in question has been more of a background presence thus far and I wonder if there might be a slight twist to what’s going on as things come to a head. I’m hoping I’ll have this book done by next week, but we’ll see.

Recently Finished

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North AmericaOver the weekend I finished reading through The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht. I really enjoyed reading this book, especially as the aloof and crass tone of everything does ultimately veil a genuine interest in bird watching that the author encourages in the reader. I kind of wish it had been more extensive, but I understand that the joke would probably run its course long before he ran out of birds to include. When ruminating on the book after reading it, I decided to look into the author to see if he’s published anything else; it turns out, just back in December he published another field guide, so I’ll have to pick that up at some point.

Reading Next

SleepingGiantsI’m still planning to start reading The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard, I just wanted to get the Field Guide finished before starting another shorter book. With A Black and Endless Sky hopefully nearly finished, I’ve been thinking more about what the next novel I might read will be. After some reflection on my to-read list, I’ve decided I want to start Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. I’m really curious about the format of this novel, which, if I’m remembering it right, is written like an interview transcript.

Until next week, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.