Only Human

What a great ending to what has been a most enjoyable trilogy. I’m going to be especially vague in this review as I don’t want to spoil anything in this novel or in the previous two – the Themis Files takes you on a journey spanning decades and planets! My one piece of advice: read the trilogy in order, it’s a continuous story, and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you read them out of order.One of the really good things about this novel is the character development. When we first met Eva in book two, I wasn’t a huge fan, by the end of this novel she was my favourite character, she filled the space of a character that was sorely missed in this instalment, and through Eva, a little bit of this character lived on. Once you read the trilogy, that’ll make perfect sense, but I don’t even want to stand on the edge of spoilers, because there’s so many emotional moments between the characters surrounding Eva, and I want you to discover them all for yourself – genuine heartfelt moments of affection and humour.Not only do you get to see great character development, but you see plot development too, which is important, Neuvel doesn’t rely on the readers love of the characters to drive this novel forward, instead he plotted an adventure you’re eager to undertake.“If you see something wrong with the world, fix it. But what if it’s the whole world that needs fixing?”In this novel, we get to see life on an alien planet, and while UK politics may make you want to tear your hair out as you weep for the stupidity of some politicians, politics on an alien planet, on the other hand, is a joy to read about, and so interesting!As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in my reviews for the previous two books in this trilogy, it’s fantastic to see women in skilled, and powerful, professions; whether these females are on the side of good or not, they are strong characters who evoke a reaction in the reader.Again, the formatting is the same as in the previous two books, this novel is a series of interviews, journal articles, missions logs and so on. For the story told, this is the perfect format, it builds suspense and allows you to fly through the pages because you keep ‘squeezing in’ one more chapter, and before you know it, you’re finished the book! But what an amazing journey this book, and trilogy, takes you on, I highly recommend it!So, where does Only Human rank in this trilogy? Well, it’s right up there with my love of book one, Sleeping Giants; in fact, I think I enjoyed it that little bit more because having gotten to know the characters over the course of the trilogy made me all the more invested in their fates.

It’s the final book of the series. It’s not a traditional novel and demands some effort from the reader but this difference is what I really liked about the book. I really enjoyed it however tell my friends to try and then buy!

The Themis files trilogy is the first real science fiction books/series I consciously chose to read. I was always intimidated by science fiction before because I feared the books might contain to many scientific facts which I normally don’t want to read too much in fiction books. After reading the final book to this trilogy I‘m glad that I chose to read them.First of all, I liked the style of the books giving us excerpts of reports, logs and interviews between the characters. There are gaps between these „chapters“ and they move back and forth between the time on Earth and Esat Ekt, so the reader has to do some work to combine and add her or his own creativity to flesh out the whole story.I personally liked the philosophical view of „Only Human“ but I also missed the action and science aspects of the first two books. Who would have known that I would criticize a book because it was missing science? But I had certain expectations and they were not fully there. Nevertheless I still enjoyed the book and also enjoyed how it ended. I would love to read another book from this world involving Esat Ekt and other intergalactic races mentioned in the book.

Ich bin zufällig über Teil 1 in einer Bücherhandlung gestolpert, fand die Idee sehr interessant und habe dann natürlich auch Teil 2 und 3 lesen wollen.Only Human setzt, wie zuvor auch Teil 2 ca. 10 Jahre nach seinem Vorgänger an. In der Zwischenzeit hat sich die Welt auf Grund der Vorkommnisse nochmal verändert, viele Protagonisten aus dem vorherigem Teil tauchen aber wieder auf. Auch der außergewöhnliche Stil der Erzählung einzig durch die gesammelten Themis Files (Interviews, Mission Logs, Tagebucheinträge) bleibt beibehalten und bietet einen vielschichtigen Bick auf die Ereignisse.Was mich überrascht und für mich nicht nachvollziehbar ist, ist das Format (des Taschenbuches). Während die Vorgänger ca. DIN-A5 entsprachen (was ich als normal bezeichnen würde), besticht dieses Buch in DIN-A4 Größe und hat mich beim Auspacken fast erschlagen. Dabei sind Schrift und Zeilenabstand enorm groß geraten, als hätte man das ganze buch mit einem Faktor 2 skaliert. Ich empfinde es als sehr unhandlich und gerade für unterwegs sehr unpraktisch. Im Regal sieht das natürlich neben den zwei Vorgängern auch komisch aus, sofern es denn dort hin passt.Bis auf dieses Manko aber ei lesenswerter Abschluss der Reihe.

The last book in the Themis series delivers an excellent conclusion to the story of the Giant robots. I finished the first book while on a 6 hour train ride and before I reached my destination, I had purchased the second and third books already. The story has so many interesting facets and the characters have so much depth and are full of well... character! Thoroughly enjoyable Sci-Fi series that is definitely highly recommended.