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nightstitch96's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Death, and War
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide attempt and Torture
stories's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
The stakes escalated quickly indeed! Still full of twists, just on a greater magnitude.
Some of the plot turns we’re not what I wished to happen, but boy were they well executed.
Some of the plot turns we’re not what I wished to happen, but boy were they well executed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Grief
ticktock's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
mar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Genocide, and Torture
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Ableism and Alcohol
kimbekaw's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Grief and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide attempt and Torture
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
When I started listening to Waking Gods, I did not expect ten years to have passed since the end of Sleeping Giants. As much as I was looking forward to this sequel, that simple fact threw me off for the first couple chapters while I reacquainted myself with the characters, the world, and the events at the end of the first book. I’m usually okay when I read book two a few years after book three, but because of the time jump, there was a lot to catch up on.
Once I caught up, though… Waking Gods is just as good as Sleeping Giants. I still really enjoy the dossier style of storytelling. The audiobook version amplifies this by using a host of different narrators, all of whom do an excellent job. The storytelling and reading are both rich and interesting.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this book. For me, this was easy because the narrators sounded so different (I can not emphasize enough how excellent the audiobook is). For those who don’t enjoy untraditional storytelling or multiple POVs, Waking Gods may be a miss. The story is pushed forward by the plot itself. We do see some character growth, but since it is a dossier-style of storytelling, it’s really more about having the pieces of information to fill in the empty spaces than which character is telling that part of the story.
I’m still a bit salty about one of the choices Neuvel made at about 75% through the book. If nothing else, I will say that he is brutal and doesn’t shy away from making extreme decisions that will completely shatter your predictions for the end of the book. The very last chapter – the ending itself – the great.
I really enjoy Neuvel’s style. Hey gives you just enough about the story direction that you’re entirely clueless about what is coming next. He gives you just enough about the characters that you’re rooting for them without quite realizing it. He changes the world we know just enough that we ar3e led by out perception to make false assumptions and the twists hit you that much more.
Waking Gods is just about as good as Sleeping Giants. It manages to be both a self-contained story and a bridge between books one and three. Waking Gods expands the our world understanding and while we get a few answers, we are left with more questions. It makes the reader curious in the best way a second book can and I am completely invested in the story. Sleeping Giants remains one of my favorite books and in my top three audiobooks of all time. While I think the first book was just a little bit better… Waking Gods is excellent and I continue to highly recommend the Themis Files.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, and Ableism
Minor: Alcohol and Cursing
aviery's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, and Genocide
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
Minor: Torture
josefinceh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
The second book in the Themsis files. Following the employees at the EDC after the discovering and learning to control Themsis, the ancient giant robot with backwards legs. The atmosphere gets tenser when another giant robot appears in the middle of London and standing in silence as the characters try to figure out how to react.
The book really has a lot of good mixed with a lot of "meh". The characters of the story just didn't come across as clearly and honestly lost a lot of their personality, or the traits that had been established in the previous book. This became especially clear with Kara and Vincent whom, I felt, made a pretty much total reset as characters.
It's also worth noting that the recordings format that the books have didn't work as well as in the previous book, especially since there were a lot more characters at play which made some "recordings" a bit confusing and I often mixed up which character said what.
What I was disappointed by: Karas development
I was really frustrated with how Kara was built up to be this really strong character but kinda became a pushover and just there to move the plot forward. She was strongly against both children and marriage and ended up having both (a very frustrating recurring thing in media), the only point to have her around was to bring Eva into the story, and then when the brought Eva in and introduced her to Vincent, Kara's role was over, and so she was killed of.
What I liked: Mr Burns, More about the mystery interviewer, Rose Franklin
let's start with Mr. Burns, probably my favourite and most interesting character of the entire book, I don't really have much to say about him, I just really enjoyed the chapters where he was around.
Mystery Interviewer, I was really surprised that he also was killed of, I do still like that you get some Insight into his life, his son and how he ended up doing what he was doing. Especially liked the part of him basically saying "I don't work for anyone, people just think I'm scary either way"
Rose was also a high point for me, I loved her development as the characters and her understandable struggle with coming back to life not knowing what had happened. I do wish that her talking to Mystery Interviewer from beyond the grave would be a recurring thing, that he would be some support for her even after death.
What I wished for it: Strip it down and focus on fewer things instead of trying to deal with everything that could be important for the next book.
The book really has a lot of good mixed with a lot of "meh". The characters of the story just didn't come across as clearly and honestly lost a lot of their personality, or the traits that had been established in the previous book. This became especially clear with Kara and Vincent whom, I felt, made a pretty much total reset as characters.
It's also worth noting that the recordings format that the books have didn't work as well as in the previous book, especially since there were a lot more characters at play which made some "recordings" a bit confusing and I often mixed up which character said what.
What I was disappointed by: Karas development
What I liked: Mr Burns, More about the mystery interviewer, Rose Franklin
Mystery Interviewer, I was really surprised that he also was killed of, I do still like that you get some Insight into his life, his son and how he ended up doing what he was doing. Especially liked the part of him basically saying "I don't work for anyone, people just think I'm scary either way"
Rose was also a high point for me, I loved her development as the characters and her understandable struggle with coming back to life not knowing what had happened. I do wish that her talking to Mystery Interviewer from beyond the grave would be a recurring thing, that he would be some support for her even after death.
What I wished for it: Strip it down and focus on fewer things instead of trying to deal with everything that could be important for the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Body horror and Ableism
Minor: Grief
vash_e's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death of parent
cclardo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, and Grief
Moderate: Death of parent
A major plot point of this book involves
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