Friday, December 13, 2019

[Review] Only Human (Themis Files #3) by Sylvain Nuevel

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel

Series: The Themis Files #3
Rating: 4 stars

Published: May 1st 2018

Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
A thrilling conclusion to the end of one of my favorite science fiction series.

Rose Franklin, Vincent Couture and his daughter Eva have returned from space almost ten years later. Instead of a war between aliens and humans, they are now in the middle of a war between world powers, as countries fight for control of the giant robots, and have strictly regulated who exactly is considered human.This story is analogous to the current refugee and immigrant crisis. Levels of human to alien DNA is now calculated, and the more alien DNA a person has, the more likely they are considered "other" and deprived of their rights and are sent to camps, and are discriminated against and mistreated. Does this sound familiar? We're living in this world right now.

It's tragic to see how the world fights over who is deserving of rights on Earth, as though they are the authority to determine such. The solution Rose proposes to stop such terrible crimes from continuing further wouldn't exactly work in the real world, but aliens were able to intimidate humans into logic.

There were some instances were Only Human drifted away from its normally spectacular narrative, and this was during the drama of Eva's growth from child to teenager. Because of this story's nonlinearity, we don't necessarily see all the details of their life on Esat Ekt. We're missing details that would have made me more sympathetic towards Eva. Instead, I felt vague annoyance towards her actions.

Despite this, the series is an excellent introspection into the human condition, and I appreciate it to pieces. Rose Franklin continued to be an empathetic heroine to the end.

I'm a scientist. I find beauty in absolutes. I love the clarity of math, its unwavering dependability. Math will never say one thing and do another one. It will never harm you on purpose because its only purpose is truth. On Esat Ekt, I found that same clarity, that perspicuity, that is so lacking in people on Earth. I found it not because it was there but because I was searching for it. I saw faces in the clouds. I found what I was looking for here because I brought it with me. I know that now. I also know that I'm a hypocrite. I marveled at their idealism, applauded them for not wanting to share knowledge with us, but I lied to them to get them to teach me. I lied to them to try to save Eugene. I admired their principles, as long as they didn't apply to me. (197)

Vincent and his banter continued to also be hilarious, as always. We also get Alyssa! And some new, hilarious additions with Alex and Katherine.

I loved how this book made me think, made me consider its parallels to the real world. Because the aliens are, unsurprisingly, very human in nature.


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