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Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Le Sommeil des Géants by Sylvain Neuvel

10 reviews

thriftedbookworm's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

i honestly really wanted to like this, as it was marketed as some alien giant robot story and told in interview format like world war z. and while those still remain true, it felt as if the giant alien robot wasn’t even that central to the story. it read more like a political novel with sci-fi interspersed throughout, and definitely more of a prologue to the rest of the series than a good novel that stands up on its own. all of the characters, including our mysterious interviewer, just kind of fell flat for me and it read more boring than entertaining.

and don’t get me started on the romance subplot forced into here. man was that not fun to read. i will say that the premise did hold some merit, which is why it isn’t a one star read, but the author definitely fell short on execution.

will i read the next book(s)? probably because i hate an incomplete narrative. will i like them? probably not
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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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4.25

 Finished reading: September 7th 2023


“I was smart enough to know it was wrong, but not brave enough to stop them.”

It's true that I don't usually read a lot of sci-fi, and especially when there are aliens involved... But there was something about Sleeping Giants that made me curious ever since it was first published back in 2016. I guess my TBR jar thought it was time I finally gave this first book of a trilogy a chance, and I'm very glad this title popped up now. Why? I have to say that I was very much impressed by Sleeping Giants! There was just something about this story that was both addictive and able to make you feel humble at the same time. The fact that you don't exactly know what is going on only adds to the suspense, and it was absolutely fascinating learning more about what was being discovered. The writing style itself stands out as it is told through interviews, diaries and other files, but somehow the story was still very readable. It makes you wonder what would happen if such a discovery would be made in real life, and how the people involved would react... The different characters involved added humanity to the story and while I could have done without the love triangle, in general I enjoyed learning more about them. And after how things ended, I also can't wait to pick up the sequel to see what will happen next! 
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surprisebear's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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mengzhenreads's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Listening to this as an audiobook was super cool, it's a fun premise that is really interesting and engaging. I just really enjoyed myself.
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obviousthings's review against another edition

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The story really jumped the shark with the lengths the nameless interviewer character was willing to go for the project. The thing about
Vincent's legs
is just incredibly stupid, imo, and I don't want to read any more of this.
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jojo_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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feranmi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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mar's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

why is almost every character in this book a war criminal. this sucks but i cant put it down tf
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cold_boy's review against another edition

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It started as a very cool premise, with a writing style that lent itself well to an audiobook - and I've gotta say, the audiobook narrators were fairly good. It's written almost entirely as transcripts of recorded interviews, and the dialogue is mostly pretty well written.

Part of me wanted to stick with it just in case a cool twist happened, but I honestly can't trust the author to write anything innovative or interesting after getting halfway through. My issues:

1. It pretty rapidly becomes that very specific brand of military propaganda  in which individual soldiers are glorified but the government is evil. Think Marvel movies, or Transformers.

2. The author seems to have a child's understanding of science. Which is a bit of a problem when you're writing a science fiction book where one of your main characters is a physicist. I don't think I ever see her discuss anything related to physics. I don't even think the author knows what a physicist is. This becomes even more obvious when
we get the explanation of what is written on the alien tablets. I can't suspend my disbelief when people have been studying this language for a decade and only just now realized that they're just basic math equations. The author really thought he did something when he revealed in a massive shock that it's written right to left and in base 8.
It feels like something I would have written when I was 14 and thought myself incredibly clever for doing so. Also the idea that they can magically produce enough argon-37 to spray *the entire world* was ridiculous.

3. The author clearly wants to fuck one of his main characters. Kara the helicopter pilot is such a painfully cliche and borderline misogynistic caricature. Every time male characters talk about her, it comes back to their attraction towards her. It's really uncomfortable to read.

4. The point that I stopped at,
a character is about to lose their legs after they're crushed by a car. The way the characters spoke about what life would be like for someone who has to rely on prostheses was nightmarishly ableist. He goes on a long tirade about how apparently people without legs can't take care of themselves and shit themselves constantly. It's really fucked up.
 
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bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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challenging funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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