Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel

GoodReads Summary:
In her childhood, Rose Franklin accidentally discovered a giant metal hand buried beneath the ground outside Deadwood, South Dakota. 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. She, along with linguist Vincent, pilot Kara, and the unnamed Interviewer, protected the Earth from geopolitical conflict and alien invasion alike. Now, 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.
Review:
The third book in the Themis Files, Only Human, was an excellent finale to this incredible trilogy. I listened to this book (as well as the first two) as an audiobook from my wonderful library. I really loved the audiobook experience for this series. It was really more of a performance than just a narrated story. The only complaint I have for this audiobook is that two of the characters were narrated by someone different than in the first two audiobooks. I got used to the new voice of Rose, but I couldn’t handle how different the narrator for Eva sounded. In book two she had a Puerto Rican accent because that’s where she grew up until she was ten, but in Only Human, she has something closer to the accent of a New Yorker. It bugged me the entire time I listened.
I continued to love all the characters that make up this story. Rose was interesting in this book. I liked the conflict between her and Vincent. Rose wanting to stay on the alien planet was not a surprise at all, but the attitude of the aliens that inhabit the planet was a bit surprising. Vincent was still entertaining and doing his best to be a father to Eva. In his attempts, he may have made their relationship worse. His loyalty and love for Eva led him to do crazy things that may have been a bit over the line. But Vincent would do anything he needed to in order to protect his loved ones. Eva grew into a little fireball. She’s now nineteen and trying to assert her independence. Like Rose, she didn’t want to leave the alien planet. Growing up there she made friends and created a life for herself. So it’s not really a huge surprise that she didn’t want to come back to Earth. She was a firecracker and didn’t hold back. I love that she always spoke her mind no matter who she was talking to or what she was saying.
I think what I liked most about this book was that even though it was the conclusion to the series and most of the story was wrapping up loose ends there were still things happening that surprised me. I was surprised at the chaos that was Earth once they returned. I liked how this book was concluded. Too many books leave me unsatisfied with the ending of the series, but this one did not. I liked that everything felt final and like the readers got some closure.
Only Human was an excellent ending to the Themis Files. Readers got to see into the goings on of another planet while also seeing how alien intervention could affect Earth and the human population. We also see the characters make a hard choice to do the right thing, the better thing for the planet overall. I loved the characters and the story. I especially loved the format of these books. Written as if we’re listening to a series of interviews, radio broadcast and things of that nature (which I did actually listen to because audiobooks are the best), made for a really interesting listening experience. To any readers that enjoy themselves some science fiction, this series is one that I will recommend until I’m blue in the face. This series will also always be my first recommendation when talking about audiobooks.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

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