For the most part, as I said earlier, the book does fine with being clear about who’s speaking. There are only a few minor nitpicks I really have with Waking Gods. My copy clocked in at just over 300 pages for the main story, and none of those pages felt wasted even as topics like genetics came up. Although I read Waking Gods, I imagine a fully voice-cast audiobook might end up being the optimal experience.įinally, reading this book is simply fun because it doesn’t try and overstay its welcome, but manages to pack quite a bit into what ends up being a pretty short novel. Nor does it stop there from being deep, emotional moments. The majority of what a reader has is what these people say. In general, the voices are so well-done that it’s easy to follow a conversation. Fortunately, their reasons for doing so do not seem contrived.Īdditionally, not always having access to body language or facial expressions doesn’t hinder a reader from picking up on nuances in characterization. It certainly helps that the characters actually have to say what they’re doing. However, the book easily conveys the action going on around the characters. I’ve promised not to spoil as much as I can.) (I say perhaps for reasons that I hesitate to name.
Perhaps the man with no name, who speaks in bolded text, counts. No omniscient or even limited voice really steps in. Telling a story without more traditional narration is not easy. Overall, Waking Gods gets a 5 /5 stars, based on its killer giant alien robot action, its excellent characterization, and its generally-good use of its format. It’s set entirely in dialogue, from interviews to oral mission reports to remarks made at certain places which we shall not name to news reports. However, those complexities revolve around the robots themselves and people’s relationship to said robots.īefore we get any further, it seems important to talk about the format of this novel. Oh, there are more complex pieces of the story.
Waking Gods (and the first book in this series, Sleeping Giants, which I will attempt most strenuously not to spoil) fills that niche pretty well, especially considering the fact that there are humans who can pilot said alien robots. Sometimes, what you need in your life is a story about alien robots. By Cheryl Wassenaar 6 years ago Sylvain Neuvel’s Waking Gods builds well on the excellent first novel, Sleeping Giants, though it feels slightly more constrained by the format.
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