Waking Gods

By: Sylvain Neuvel

Narrated by: full cast

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

In the gripping sequel to Sleeping Giants, which was hailed by Pierce Brown as "a luminous conspiracy yarn...reminiscent of The Martian and World War Z", Sylvain Neuvel's innovative series about human-alien contact takes another giant step forward.

As a child Rose Franklin made an astonishing discovery: a giant metallic hand buried deep within the earth. As an adult she's dedicated her brilliant scientific career to solving the mystery that began that fateful day: Why was a titanic robot of unknown origin buried in pieces around the world? Years of investigation have produced intriguing answers - and even more perplexing questions. But the truth is closer now than ever before when a second robot, more massive than the first, materializes and lashes out with deadly force.

Now humankind faces a nightmare invasion scenario made real, as more colossal machines touch down across the globe. But Rose and her team at the Earth Defense Corps refuse to surrender. They can turn the tide if they can unlock the last secrets of an advanced alien technology. The greatest weapon humanity wields is knowledge in a do-or-die battle to inherit the Earth...and maybe even the stars.

Cast of narrators:
Andy Secombe - Interviewer
Eric Meyers - Headings
Roy McMillan - Jacob Lawson
Laurel Lefkow - Rose Franklin
Adna Sablylich - Marina Antoniou a.k.a. Alyssa Papantoniou
Charlie Anson - Vincent Couture; Jamie
Christopher Ragland - Ryan Mitchell; Lieutenant General Alan A Simms
William Hope - Mr Burns; Eugene Govender
Madeleine Rose - Kara Resnik
Karina Fernandez - Eva Reyes
Olivia Dowd - Sarah Kent
Sarah Wells - Deborah Horsburgh

©2017 Sylvain Neuvel (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Kick-ass, one-on-one robot action combines with mind-bending scientific and philosophical speculation. Series science-fiction fans will enjoy this follow-up filled with unexpected revelations and a surprise finale.” (Booklist)

“Pure, unadulterated literary escapism featuring giant killer robots and the looming end of mankind. In a word: unputdownable.” (Kirkus Reviews [starred review])

“Sheer escapist fun.” (Shelf Awareness)

Just WOW!

The second book in the series is even better than the first. What an exciting, thrilling and surprising ride. It kept me on the edge of my seat and had just as many shocking moments as the first book.

I love the way the story is told. It is perfectly suited for the full cast recording. Well worth the Audible credit. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I didn't want to stop listening.

If you enjoyed the first book, you should love this one. If you are new to this series, be sure to start with book 1. This is not a book you want to read without having read the previous book first. And for anyone who doesn't like cliffhangers, sorry, but this one has a doozy. That said, this part of the story arc does get resolved, but the story ends with the lead in to the next book and it's pretty exciting. Just disappointed I will have to wait another year to see what happens.

great story made even better

great story made better by some great narrative and a full cast. Nice job. looking forward to seeing the new one.

meow

So i can write anything right here? Wow that's amazing, how cool is that huh?

Amazing performance for a fantastic sequel!

I wish I could give the performance 6 stars.. Amazing job by a full cast to really flesh out the story!

Second Book Takes The Fight To A New Level

I was a bit skeptical in terms of how this story would proceed in the beginning. It felt a little different in spots, yet the story and characters marched onward and kept my interest enough to march along with then. It was a very much like a modern version of “War if the Worlds” at times.

Was it as good as the first one? Yes and no. I enjoyed the story but sometimes felt the performances weren’t quite as dynamic in range...especially Kara’s character. That being said I still think the series is pretty strong overall and will buy the third one if it continues.

I liked it

Great story, interesting story format but it worked well. I highly recommend it to any sci-fi fan.

Did not disappoint!

I was enthralled with the first story, so I was reluctant to purchase this one because it had a lot to live up to. This flew by so enthrallingly fast that I wondered if there really were 9 hours to the story. The author has a magnificent imagination, and did an impressive amount of research into the science aspect. Looking forward to the next!

Conflicted

Having gone through the Themis Files trilogy, via the audiobook, I have trouble recommending it. Sleeping Giants is likely the strongest implementation of the stories core concepts but the descent into the story's key flaws and this audiobook presentations key flaws are most significant here. There are a few moments that really took me out of the listen, particularly the moments of impact grunting and verbal onomatopoeia in combat segments, that suffer from the utter lack of any background sound-scaping.
The guttural delivery and performances of those moments isn't even necessarily bad but in the void of sound it comes off as incredibly jarring.
While the idea of proper soundscaping is something more prevalent in long form narrative audio podcasts, there are a fair few audiobooks that have gone that extra mile and the Themis Files as a whole would have heavily benefitted from the extra care and consideration throughout.

Good Sequel.

I quite enjoyed this follow up to Sleeping Giants. Couple of new characters are added to this novel and the main characters return, one in a very reduced capacity which made me wonder at the character's inclusion at all. This novel takes a much darker turn than the first. Sleeping Giants was filled with these wonderful moments of discovery. This novel, which occurs about 8 years after, is missing that feeling of awe and curiosity. However, I do like that the author takes a realistic approach about where the characters are at this time. Kara and Vincent appear rather bored with how their lives have turned out. They have done the publicity circuit and I think they too are missing the infusion of excitement that enveloped them in the initial stages of the discovery of Themis. Rose feels a bit lost in this entire book due to incidents in the first book. Her reflections and her struggles are an interesting development of her story though it dragged on a bit. I wasn't fond of the addition of Eva. I thought the idea of who this character is was interesting, but I feel the author made some missteps in how he developed the character. Overall, I thought this was a well-written sequel and pacing and tension were well executed.

Great extension to the first

This is a really good continuation of the story. Some unexpected losses and good character development make for a super fun ride.