Only Human (Themis Files 3)

Hi everyone! This is a quick post of an older review. WriteBot wishes to make this blog a bit more active again and will mostly be reviewing great fiction and non-fiction!

Here it goes:

I finished Only Human a day after it came out and have to say I'm quite disappointed with the book. I've read all three of the series (of course), and I truly liked the first two, but I would not recommend anyone else to waste money on this volume. Better leave it at two, even if it's a cliffhanger.

The setup in book one and two was great. They were well organized and I tore through them in a day each at work. I pre-ordered Only Human immediately after finishing the first and the second book. Only Human, however, turned out to be a great and uninspired mess. It turned its back on all the great first-contact themes the previous volumes promised and turned into a long moral rant that ended in a somewhat deus-ex-machina climax.

Here are some of the issues I have with this last installment:

The main characters. They deteriorated heavily after the last (second) book. There's Rose, who basically turned into a whiny emo and blamed everything on herself but at the same time on everyone else too, and her solution to the whole plot was basically 'you aliens did this, you have to solve it'. There's no theme or character growth or anything that connects this book's Rose with the other two volumes. Basically, in her view, it's all the aliens' fault, and while that might theoretically be true, the resolution of the series was very anti-climactic and disappointing.

Then there's Eva, who's just an insufferable brat, and not at all strong like Kara. All she does, too, is whine and do nothing to support the plot. In the second book, when the reader is introduced to Eva, it seems as if she has a huge part to play, and her character is built up very well, with the mystery surrounding her visions and so on, and even the ending of the book promises in some way that the next one will be even better and Eva will be very important. But she isn't. She's ignorant, she's angry, and she's quite a pest. She is not likeable at all, and I didn't find her very intelligent either.

I don't have much to say about Vincent.

The other big issue is that there was hardly any plot and the resolution of this pseudo-plot was so far from anything the series promised it was sad to see it. It reads very much as if Sylvain Neuvel simply ran out of things to say and original content to put into this book. I really really enjoyed the first two, because there was life to them, and mystery, and everything made inherent sense (well not everything, but you get what I mean), but in this last installment Neuvel seems to have run completely out of steam. The themes are redundant and often whole conversations are repeated to put a more emo spin on them, and morals are discussed when there's no reason at all these characters should be thinking about such things. The first 20% of the book especially are essentially repetitions. First a scene from this character's view, then the exact same scene or event from another's, and nothing really happens. This, unfortunately, drags through the whole book, and nothing much happens throughout the rest of it.

I'm not sure what I expected, but I had high hopes considering the series had such a great great start. However, Only Human was a complete waste of paper and money.

The Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel

As only two books out of the three book series are out so far I can't yet discuss the last book. I still felt an entry is required about this series.

All in all The Themis Files are... highly recommended!

The first two books (Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods) were not perfect (I'll go into this later) but I read them in a day and a half each and after the first immediately bought the second. This doesn't happen to me often. It didn't happen with Murderbot and while I still want to read past book one it doesn't seem urgent. Anyway. Back to The Themis Files.

Let's start with Sleeping Giants.

First of all there's the style in which it is written - which is through journal entries and conversation logs done by a mysterious interviewer/intelligence officer without name. This means there is little in the way of descriptions of a place and sometimes too much exposition when Neuvel wants us to know every little detail about what happened/how it works/what something is or looks like. It's not a problem. I noticed it (but maybe that's because I'm a WRITEbot and can see all the tricks) but it didn't take away from the story or take me out of it at all. It works. It's new in terms of style (I at least have never read a book like this before). And it's glorious. It takes out all the boring details (what someone is doing during a scene/what the environment looks like most of the time) and focuses on the really important plot points. Important: The scenes are plot points of course - but they don't feel like simply plot points during the reading of the book.

Second there's the characters. Characterization could be more elaborate (I know little about the characters even after two books) but all of them have a distinct voice so even if they're not addressed by name it would be easy to determine who's saying what most of the time. This is difficult to do so really! Neuvel made a great effort and it works.


That being said... some of the book's events are really predictable (knees! And the whole setup with Vincent and Kara and Ryan). But this is also not a problem. It feels natural.

The only real problem in the book is that the ending is a bit Deus Ex Machina. It again doesn't really take away from the story (probably because of its unique style) but there is just something about the ending that comes out of left field. The main characters suddenly find a solution to everything (!!!) that no one previously mentioned/hinted at/thought of and all with the help of a character who's pretty much Deus Ex himself. This is a bit iffy but to be honest... I can overlook it and I doubt it will take away from anyone's reading experience.

On to Waking Gods.

In summary: a lot of people die and suddenly the future hinges on a 10 year old kid. Yeah. I wasn't really hyped. As of the end of book two there is no reason that Neuvel had to kill off Kara (I'm still bummed out. Imagine this robot at its day job... suddenly crying when it shouldn't even have been secretly reading under the desk. Yeah.) and replace her with her 10 year old kid. The only difference between them (beyond both being able to control the giant robot Themis) is that Eva has the ability to somewhat see into the future. I'm hoping this becomes relevant in book three because otherwise there's going to be major rage. It already doesn't make sense that Kara was killed off. It will make even less sense if Eva doesn't have some special power that will aid the resolution of the series/book three.

But I'm guessing author thought about this or he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble setting it up in book one and two... I have hope!

And naturally Kara had to die because (while I still know little about the characters except their personality) the best characters always bite the bucket. I can only shake my head and should really refrain from naming a favourite character in any series.

However - and this is a big however: I would have been sadder if her death weren't so once-mentioned and then done with. The reactions of the other characters (even her husband - who's a bit of an author insert) were bland at best. I get it they're dealing with a lot of other stuff (the end of the world!) but their emotions after Kara's death just didn't fit. Kara was arguably (and established in the books) one of the most interesting and awesome characters for both the reader and the other characters and yet when she dies no one seems to feel much emotion over it. Her husband is said to have cried/be crying a lot. Her best friend simply notes that Kara was her best friend. That's it. Even this WriteBot (whose protocols record unusual sadness levels when touching moments happen to fictional characters) felt more numb than crushed. I am sadder about the way her death wasn't acknowledged/the way she died (like an afterthought) than that she is dead. But that's just me.

All right. The ending of book two also had a lot of Deus Ex Machina - it seems to be trend with Neuvel. The solution to book two is again something none of the characters thought of before/was hinted at and definitely something the Deus Ex himself suggested to the main characters about 85% into the book. This wasn't something 'long coming'. It was simply 'here's your solution just go and do it' suddenly at the end of the book. I'm still not bothered however. I'm too excited waiting for the third book (WriteBot pre-ordered it! And so should you! The only downside is having to wait until next April).

So.

To April!

Do I have to say it? WriteBot might struggle but WriteBot always wins. Remember: Don't ever give up anything you love to do.