Confessions of a Literary Addict

This review is spoiler-free!

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel
Series: Themis Files #2
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: April 4th 2017 by Del Rey
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Rating: ★★★★★
Find it here: Goodreads || Book Depository

I can’t decide if I liked this sequel more than the first book or not. Second book slump? Not here, no siree. I want to say I liked it more because I was used to the world by the time I got to this one in the series and there was enough action to keep me on the edge of my seat basically the entire time, but the twists weren’t quite as shocking for me as they were in the first one, and those are what really got me yelling into the void when I was reading.

It’s a hard choice! Needless to say, though, regardless of which I liked more, I loved both. There’s a time-skip that does throw you off a little bit jumping into it, just as a warning (not a spoiler!), but it doesn’t lessen the giant robot alien goodness that was in the first one. With the way Sleeping Giants ended, I think we maybe needed a little bit of a grieving period somewhere in there. (Man, that still messes me up, what happened.)

Really, if you liked the first one, I think you’ll enjoy the second one. It’s different from the first book by a long shot if only because of that time skip (which makes sense the further you get into the story), which forces the book to focus on some of the different aspects being introduced now that, oh, aliens really are real and shit there are giant robots involved oh and also one the people very important to the narrative is dead (from the first book) here now we have to learn how to do this.

Fun, right? I loved it.

There are also some pretty wild elements thrown at you in this second one to keep you from sitting too snugly in your seat of understanding. Get ready for that. It will try its best to turn you on your head. Plus, action. So much action.

This second book definitely seems to focus on different things in the narrative now that the first book took all the baby steps out of the equation, and, despite loving the first book so much, I also loved this one even for all its differences. A really good sequel to a fantastic series, and I can’t wait to reread this one.

Thanks for reading!