Sleeping Giants – Sylvain Neuvel

This book is good - and it shouldn’t be. The premise recycles overworked elements: Thousands of years ago aliens visited Earth. They left behind a giant robot (disassembled). A government effort results in the robot being reassembled, and it turns out to be a super-weapon - which upsets other governments. The format is one that is seldom successful: Each chapter is a transcription of a recorded interview. The author makes it work through sheer craft. The flow of the interviews tells the story without the interviews becoming stilted or boring.

The character who links the pieces of the story is the one conducting and recording all the interviews. He is never named. (Indeed, he is the embodiment of “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”) He is knowledgeable, unflappable, and shockingly results-oriented. He plans far ahead and controls major events from behind the scenes. And sometimes he gets it wrong.