SYLVAIN. NEUVEL

Themis Files

ONLY HUMAN

Sylvain Neuvel

In her childhood, Rose Franklin accidentally discovered a giant metal hand buried beneath the ground. As an adult, Dr. Rose Franklin led the team that uncovered the rest of the body parts which together form Themis: a powerful robot of mysterious alien origin. After nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find her old alliances forfeit and the planet in shambles. And she must pick up the pieces of the Earth Defense Corps as her own friends turn against each other. Residence Montreal Q.C. Print run 35,000.

Only Human

Rob Csaszar

People are small. They’re ignorant, and they’re happy to stay that way. They make an effort to. They’ll spend time and energy finding ways not to learn things just to feel comfortable with their beliefs.

Siya S

A wee bit disappointing. Need to skin a huge chunk toward the end because it gets incredibly soapy and unbelievably wordy. I like the ending, great conclusion that wrap up the triligy nicely.

Dee B. 

And just like that, it's over... I'll miss it, but finally, the suspense is over.


For much of this book (view spoiler)[Eva and Bhodie frustrated me to no end. I kept wanting to shake them or throw them off a cliff in B's case. (hide spoiler)].

I'm satisfied with the way it ended. The (view spoiler)[Ekt finally took their heads out of their asses and helped clean up the mess that they started, and thank God they took back those robots. Nothing good would have come from leaving it there, that much is obvious. (hide spoiler)].

This is the gripping, edge-of-your-seat finale to the ground-breaking THEMIS FILES trilogy by the author of Waking Gods and Sleeping Giants . . . . . . We always thought the biggest threat to humanity would come from the outside. We were wrong. Brilliant scientist Rose Franklin has devoted her adult life to solving the mystery she accidentally stumbled upon as a child: a huge metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. The discovery set in motion a cataclysmic chain of events with geopolitical ramifications. Rose and the Earth Defence Corps raced to master the enigmatic technology, as giant robots suddenly descended on Earth's most populous cities, killing one hundred million people in the process. Though Rose and her team were able to fend off the attack, their victory was short-lived. The mysterious invaders retreated, disappearing from the shattered planet . . . but they took the scientist and her crew with them. Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose returns to find a devastating new war - this time between humans. It appears the aliens left behind their titanic death machines so humankind will obliterate itself. Rose is determined to find a solution, whatever it takes. But will she become a pawn in a doomsday game no one can win?

✨Tyler ✨

probably the weakest of the trilogy but still enjoyable and quick read.

Alexa Jade

What a disappointing finale. :((((((((((((

Tanja Hoffmann

3.5 - Eva was just infuriating but the plot was great!

Olivera Mitić

This was a bit better than the second one but, honestly, that's not really such a hard thing to achieve. 

In a way I'm glad I finally finished this trilogy, but man, was it disappointing. I will forever love the first book and I'll be rereading it many a times and as far as the other two go we can just pretend they don't exist. 

Also, Eva is probably my most hated fictional character. Ever.

Анастасия Розова

“If you see something wrong with the world, fix it. But what if it’s the whole world that needs fixing?”


Fisrt off: THIS WAS MY 800TH BOOK ON GR SO WOOHOO! 

It's been a long time (three years exactly) since I've read the second book, but I'm glad I finally got to this one and finished the series! I finished the book in like 2-3 days on audio (which is the best way to consume this one, if you can, cause full cast!) and I really enjoyed it. 

Maybe it wasn't as good and exciting as the first one and maybe even two, but I was eager to find out what whould happen. I loved Vincent all over again, but I also think that the bad guys and girls were really amazing, as usual. Especially Katherine Lebedev(a) – that's the proper name for a woman from Russia. I can't even say why I liked her. Maybe just because she didn't seem mustache-twirling and I appreciated it. And she didn't seem to me like a typical Russian evel person. So yeah, I liked her interviews with Vincent.

It did wrap up kind of fast and very neatly, this book wasn't as shocking in its twists. But still. A good conclusion! 

I will be reading the little short stories aka Files as soon as I can, because I love this world and am excited to get even small glimpelses of it again. Really happy this series was so popular and I read it. Recommend to all sci-fi lovers! Although it's not too sciency, it's really good.

Lonneke

3.5 stars. This was still a fun book but after the first two books the ending was a little lackluster. In the earlier books there was this mystery of what was going on with Themis, but in this one you already have most of the answers and the war drama on earth just wasn't as exciting as before. It wasn't a bad ending and it does make sense where the story ended, but the series could have been better as an duology I think.

We always thought the biggest threat to humanity would come from the outside. We were wrong. As the human race picks up the pieces of destruction left behind, a new world order emerges. New alliances are formed. Old divisions are strengthened. And, with a power struggle fuelled by the threat of mutually assured destruction, nothing is certain. At a time when the world's nations should have been coming together, they have never been more divided. With the human race teetering on the brink of total war, Rose, Vincent and Eva must choose sides. But doing the right thing might mean making the ultimate sacrifice.

Josephine Lemonade 

i couldn't finish this book because bloody hell why does it rely on racism and islamophobia SO heavily. 

some really bad takes in this book, but then again what did we expect from a white man :) 

i enjoyed the previous books (and the covers are gorgeous lmao) but i won't ever be finishing this book

Virginia Su

3.5 stars. It was my least favorite book in the series, but overall I still loved the entire series.

Emily C Peterson

Amanda Furlan

I really loved this series. It was so much fun! I went the audiobook route and I am so glad I did. It has a full cast and it makes you feel like you right in it with the characters. If you are going to read it I suggest the audiobook. You won’t be disappointed!!

Shirley Krijnen

So good and WOW Eva was annoying in this book.

vera

”People are denying even the most basic scientific facts because it makes them feel better about hurting each other. Do you realize how horrifying that is? We’re talking about human beings making a conscious effort, going out of their way, to be ignorant. Willfully stupid. They’re proud of it. They take pride in idiocy. There’s not even an attempt to rationalize things anymore.”

Wow, what an ending! I can’t rave enough about this series.

I went into this series without knowing that much about it. All I knew was “a little girl falls into a huge metal hand” and that was it. I didn’t know what to expect, I had no idea I was about to read a new all time fav. I just fell completely in love with this series. I couldn’t put any of the three books down.

I loved the format, the plot, the characters, the mystery, the action, the science, the worldbuilding, the plot twists. Literally everything, every detail was so interesting.

This series grabbed me and really just pulled me right in. I read the ebooks and immediately had to get the physical copies because I have to own my absolute favs in physical format.

This series is original, gripping, mysterious with some very funny but also heartbreaking moments.

The tension was there from the very begging of the first book right up until the end of the third book. I was on edge of my seat the whole time.

One thing I really loved about this series and especially this book is the exploration of certain issues and questions about the world, the universe and life.

War, racism, politics, patriotism, science. All of this is explored in this series/book. And it’s so interesting. This goes beyond sci-fi. The issues it explores and the questions it raises are so important and interesting and real to the world we live in (a world so full of war and hatred).


Also the exploration of the meaning of life while studying humans and beings from other planets and the endless possibilities of the universe.

I just think this series is epic. I loved every single second I spent reading these books. Like I said, the sci-fi elements are mind blowing but the questions it raises and the issues it explores makes everything even better.

”People are denying even the most basic scientific facts because it makes them feel better about hurting each other. Do you realize how horrifying that is? We’re talking about human beings making a conscious effort, going out of their way, to be ignorant. Willfully stupid. They’re proud of it. They take pride in idiocy. There’s not even an attempt to rationalize things anymore.”


Wow, what an ending! I can’t rave enough about this series.

I went into this series without knowing that much about it. All I knew was “a little girl falls into a huge metal hand” and that was it. I didn’t know what to expect, I had no idea I was about to read a new all time fav. I just fell completely in love with this series. I couldn’t put any of the three books down.

I loved the format, the plot, the characters, the mystery, the action, the science, the worldbuilding, the plot twists. Literally everything, every detail was so interesting.

This series grabbed me and really just pulled me right in. I read the ebooks and immediately had to get the physical copies because I have to own my absolute favs in physical format.

This series is original, gripping, mysterious with some very funny but also heartbreaking moments.

The tension was there from the very begging of the first book right up until the end of the third book. I was on edge of my seat the whole time.

One thing I really loved about this series and especially this book is the exploration of certain issues and questions about the world, the universe and life.

War, racism, politics, patriotism, science. All of this is explored in this series/book. And it’s so interesting. This goes beyond sci-fi. The issues it explores and the questions it raises are so important and interesting and real to the world we live in (a world so full of war and hatred).
 
Also the exploration of the meaning of life while studying humans and beings from other planets and the endless possibilities of the universe.

I just think this series is epic. I loved every single second I spent reading these books. Like I said, the sci-fi elements are mind blowing but the questions it raises and the issues it explores makes everything even better.

Sally Salinas

Not my favorite of the series. Enjoyed the series over all. Did the audiobooks & Eva’s voice drove me nuts-did not care for the narrator for this particular character.

ONLY HUMAN.

Darren S. Layne

The Themis Files, as a whole and individually, struck me overall as a regrettable waste of science-fiction potential. Navigating repeated waves of frustration and even embarrassment at the quality and content of Neuvel's writing, I had to push myself through all three books from a sense of commitment alone. The point of no return, for me, came about halfway through the second one, Waking Gods. From there it was a real slog, but I eventually made it to the end.

Virtually no character has any likable qualities, all of them being selfish, bratty, condescending, self-referentially clever, or otherwise devoid of depth. All are bubbly-sarcastic and arrogant to the teeth, and their dialogue is filled with inane quips and needless exclamation points that collectively function as a stand-in for the author's obviously high opinion of his own wit. More so, all of the characters sound the same, making it immensely difficult in an epistolary format to follow who is talking to whom at any given time – unless their names are used in the conversation, which occurs so often that it might as well have been written as a screenplay. Furthermore, all of the characters, whether geneticists, army soldiers, government agents, foreign leaders, or half-alien sleepers, use "gonna" and "wanna" so often in their speech that it might cause one to wonder how the author ever obtained a doctorate in linguistics.

Speaking of the epistolary format, which felt forced throughout the lineage of three full books, that structural choice left me with the distinct impression that Neuvel didn't want to bother with the trouble of writing a descriptive account, instead using pure dialogue to narrate an entire sci-fi/action trilogy. The story suffers for it. Character development and their conversations are neither deft nor interesting enough to carry the plot, leaving long stretches of stiff and telegraphed scenes anemically conveyed in documents, journals, and reports (the files) which are devoid of realistic context. Where were these files stored? Who has collected them? How have we come to read or hear them? None of these questions are answered or even considered.

By the time we reach the third installment, Neuvel has given up on telling a story or drawing the reader deeper in to his world. Instead, Only Human spends inordinate amounts of space either showing off the author's ability to create a perfunctory alien language or sheepishly attempting to comment upon the degraded state of human ethics and morals. But this is no Star Trek; there is neither hope nor other remedial trajectories for us to evolve into. In between these clumsy poles are disconnected references to modern geek-culture memes and icons, serving no other purpose than to flag up Neuvel's awareness of them.

Deus Ex Machina resolutions are introduced for both minor and major plot points, including the finale of the full series – a maddening practice that ignores any precarious conditions which were invested into the plot along the way. Characters turn on a dime and demonstrate no consistency of personality whatsoever, which simply absolves them of any care or interest from the audience; these are tropes more than living creatures, and whether human, alien, or somewhere in between, it just doesn't matter. By the end of the last novel, everyone is deeply in love with each other and there has been no evidence whatsoever of the interpersonal bonds that have formed along the way. Motivations are superficial and can only be described in a vacuum, and it doesn't appear that Neuvel has any sense of how governments and societies actually work, which I would consider to be fairly important for a writer of near-future fiction.

The Themis Files feels a little bit like Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life and a little bit like Robert Charles Wilson's The Chronoliths, but there is far more content, wonder, mystery, and craft in each of those single short books than in the collected trilogy being reviewed here. I tend to look for realism, sophistication, and subtlety in my sci-fi, but I didn't find any of these things in Neuvel's series. Your mileage may vary, but do what you wanna do.

Ben Nathan

A nice wrap up to an interesting trilogy. I enjoyed this immensely and will happily read more from him.

Leafling

Sandy

First, I was annoyed with this book. Then, unexpected developments and a raw humanity turned everything upside down. But let me start at the beginning, and be aware of spoilers, because reviewing the ending of a series without mentioning some events by name would simply turn into a collection of vague statements. You have been warned.

Only Human opens with a prologue that makes worrying suggestions about what happened on Earth since the horrifying events of Waking Gods. It leads up to a journal entry by Rose that is, again, looking back on pretty much a decade since the ending of the previous book: Themis was taken back to her home planet with her unwilling passengers inside.

Ten years did our heroes live on an alien planet with a species more evolved than ours – and we would get it in flashbacks? Yeah, I was annoyed. It felt like I had been robbed of the part I signed up for, those events you look forward to the most, the incredibly exciting FI part of Sci-Fi.

This timeline jumping continued to bother me for about half of the book, until it became clear what the purpose of not knowing the entire scope of life on the planet Esat Ekt was. Still, I would have preferred to live though the entire story like the characters again, and not be surprised with plot twists that only work because you don’t have all the knowledge.

That aside, the second half of the book made everything worth it. It’s hard to find the words how amazing the connection of all the concepts, characters, developments and thoughts was. The Ekt, a highly developed species, were dealing with the same basic issues we deal with, suggesting that some things simply cannot be solved by scientific progess (as much as we would like to believe that).

Vincent was dealing with fatherhood in such a… Vincent way, it was a great testament to his character. I’ve also grown to like Rose again, genuinely. And I was fascinated by the people on Earth acting exactly like you would expect them to in the face of alien interaction.

I was so glad to see Mr. Burns again, and to get more of his stories I’ve grown to love. And well, that ending. I can’t say anything about it, so I’ll rather list more things I did love about Only Human: the Ekt man who learned English (I don’t really have a grasp of their language) was absolutely adorable. Rose’s solution to everything, and her explanation of why she did what she had to, and ugh it’s just so wonderfully realistic.

And Eva – I just love this girl. It’s a shame we really got to know her fantastic character only so late in the series. I can absolutely see more books coming for her, especially with this life she’s had. Her journal entry is one of my favourites of all the books.

“I hate this world. People are small. They’re ignorant, and they’re happy to stay that way. They make an effort to. They’ll spend time and energy finding ways not to learn things just to feel comfortable with their beliefs.”

“One step at a time, I guess. One foot in front of the other. I don’t know what else I can do. If you see something wrong with the world, fix it. But what if it’s the whole world that needs fixing?”

Together, all the different concepts painted a comprehensive picture of what I can only call simple, raw humanity, in different species as well as our own. The fundamental questions in Only Human are not just relevant in case of an alien invasion, but something we should think about right now. What constitutes life? What does it mean to be human? The title is perfectly chosen for this thought-provoking ending to a truly unique series. I used to say I would recommend these books to anyone who loves or wants to try Sci-Fi and books in file form, or is just looking for a great story. Let me revoke this statement: I recommend The Themis Files to anyone.

Megan Weber

Very meh. I loved the first two books but it seemed like nothing much happened in this one.

Anyaconda

Roos Kuijper 

3.5 star

This was my least favourite of the trilogy, but I still enjoyed myself. 
It felt a kinda boring sometimes, but I also think it still gave a good empression of how we could react, it felt realistic.

Jeremy Cote

** spoiler alert **
           I thought this was a fantastic finish to the series. It was a great read, and I must say that the author is great with this format. The book is a page-turner, which is why I finished it in less than two days. It's so easy to read.

I found the storylines were tied up nicely, and there aren't too many loose ends. There also seems to be a possibility for more stories, so I'm looking forward to that. If you enjoyed the other books, you'll love this one!

ONLY HUMAN Themis Files

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