Only Human

"Please do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook. The production is off the charts amazing for the whole series. 10/10 would recommend to a friend."

"I enjoyed listening to the audio book! Whole cast of characters!"

"A big, beautiful finish for a fantastic trilogy. Hands down my favourite out of the three.<br/><br/>Once again, highly recommend listening to the audiobook. The full cast is a powerhouse of emotion that I don't think would be nearly as impactful on the page. Vincent made me cry!"

"3.6<br/>I liked the exploration of the alien civilization we got, but this wasn't my favorite book in the trilogy. If I had to rank them from best to worst, it would be in series order, but I don't think books 2 or 3 are bad. As a whole, this series is pretty good, and I’d recommend it if you want something sci-fi.<br/><br/>As I said, I enjoyed learning about the aliens and seeing how their culture and government works. The transcription/epistolary style robs us of some visual details I’d love to hear about their planet, though. The first half was especially gripping and made me want to finish it quickly. The ending was alright, the stakes were high, and the reaction to the alien invasion was interesting and believable enough. In my opinion, Only Human is the most obvious about its themes and social commentary compared to Sleeping Giants and Walking Gods. The way certain people are treated on Earth is reminiscent of multiple historical and current events in real life, and the main character’s general stance on that is something I agree with. It’s written pretty heavy-handed, but I wasn’t mad about it.<br/><br/>One thing about the story that made it feel different from the other two is the way it's told. It wasn’t chronological, so we’d switch between chapters from the current day on Earth and years ago on the alien planet. I didn’t like this because the last book ended on a cliffhanger, and this one started with a nine-year time skip. We do get filled in on the resolution to the cliffhanger later, and I understand that the new pacing is used to keep certain plot things a surprise, but it’s so different from how everything else has been up to this point that it was disappointing. On the other hand, this works in the book’s favor because it spreads out the alien stuff and interrupts the current events, so neither gets boring. If the first half was all aliens and the last half wasn’t, I probably wouldn't have liked it better, but it would’ve at least made the first couple of chapters more satisfying.<br/><br/>Another thing that changed my experience was the voice acting in the audiobook. The trilogy has nice voices for each character, but I’ve never liked how Eva sounds. The voice actor for 10-year-old Eva was bad because she sounded like a grown woman, and her voice was kind of annoying. 19-year-old Eva has a different voice actor (she sounds younger than the first one), and she sounds bad for different reasons. Eva is supposed to be from Puerto Rico, she has a father from Quebec, her two other role models are American, and she has been surrounded by aliens/speaking an alien language for multiple years, so I expected her accent to change as she grew up... But why does she sound like she’s from Jersey now? Why did they do that?<br/><br/>Eva’s story in general could’ve been better. <spoiler>I think she should have gone back home. She cared so much about Esat Ekt and dedicated a lot of effort to being an activist and making that world a better, more equal place. I thought it would make sense for her to return since she kept saying she wanted to. She lived there almost as long as she can remember, and she still has friends there that she cares about. Other than Rose and Vincent, she has no connection to Earth or humans anymore, so why does she have to have a “normal life” here? Normal to her is the alien stuff. And now that the empress is gone, Eva’s name should be clear, so they won’t be hunting her anymore. She deserves to see all the part-Ekt people get the rights and representation they need. It also would’ve been very emotional because Vincent would have to let her go and live her own life. He spent so much time trying to leave the place she called home and didn’t get to give her a regular human experience until ten years went by. It might’ve been sad to see her leave, but I like that better than making her a pilot in the US military because she likes big weapons. And Eva cares a lot about people who suffer on Esat Ekt, but not so much about people suffering on Earth. She’s fine with fighting or killing humans, and she knows the camps are immoral, but she doesn’t care nearly as much about them as she should. Considering social justice is so important to her and the people being sent away or killed are just like her, she felt surprisingly distant from their struggles. Either make her an activist on Earth too, or let her be with her people again.<br/><br/>I think Vincent could have explained to Eva why they were leaving and what he did on Esat Ekt much earlier, and the only reason that didn’t happen is because it needed to be used later in the book as a plot twist. He could’ve explained it as soon as they got to Earth, and Eva still would have hated him for it, but then it wouldn’t have been a secret for no reason. He didn’t say it because the audience was meant to keep guessing until an important revelation further into the story. That was just fabricated conflict.</spoiler><br/><br/>What I liked most about this series hasn’t been around since the halfway point, sadly, but there are still things I like about it. It has good ideas for creating an alien society and its unique set of values. It has messages about human rights and comments on the inherent flaws of hierarchies. A lot of humans are racist and Islamophobic and will try to justify their discrimination with science when they’re filled with fear, ignorance, and hatred. People can turn on each other when they shouldn’t, and we shouldn't trust our governments with a giant alien mech. But I don’t fully like the conclusion that humans are too immature to be trusted and the Ekt should take responsibility for absolutely everything. I would trust the Ekt with Themis more, but that’s only because they seem less inclined than the US or Russian governments to use it at this point (and they have a bunch more anyway).<br/><br/><spoiler>Much like the interviewer, the alien boyfriend probably shouldn’t have died. His death could’ve been written better if we were closer to him, but he died too early and we learn so little about him that it doesn’t matter enough. Unfortunately, Eva didn’t seem to be very in love with him either. I think she’d be just as angry about anyone else from Esat Ekt dying after being forced onto Earth. His character could’ve been used more and might have been a nice addition to Eva’s ending. He could’ve helped her cope with losing Esat Ekt, and they would’ve learned how to survive on Earth together. Also, Eva’s visions aren’t a huge plot point anymore, and apparently, she’ll just grow out of them, but I feel like they could’ve been more relevant.<br/><br/>Vincent was fine. He’s defined by being a father and doesn’t have much else going on in this book, but he never feels out of character. Rose was a little better; she felt more layered with her fascination toward the Ekt and her naivety about the global genocide. Rose was on one end of the spectrum (being interested in aliens and scientific discoveries), and Vincent was on the opposite end (focusing on getting the hell away from all the aliens and scientific discoveries). I landed somewhere between them. Rose doesn’t talk about replacing her nameless friend anymore, and I don’t blame her, but that plotline didn’t go anywhere. She was being set up as the new independent secret agent in Walking Gods, but I don’t think that ever suited her anyway. The one reason that stayed around was to give them an excuse for recording every conversation.<br/><br/>As for the other side characters... The evil geneticist and Katherine the Russian didn’t die or get in any trouble, and that’s disappointing. Katherine was probably meant to be unlikable, but that didn’t make her better to read about. The friend they made on Esat Ekt who taught them their language (I don’t know how to spell his name; I only heard them say it) was likable, and it’s too bad he couldn’t be around more. I'm sad they sent Mr. Burns and his friends/family to die, but at least that convinced the aliens to leave, and they were reborn like Rose was…<br/><br/>The ending felt pretty normal, but maybe too normal for how broken everything felt just a few weeks/months prior. It’s not bad that the characters get to be happy, but we don’t see how the world fixes itself after being obsessed with eugenics for a few years. I also wish I knew more about the fate of people back on Esat Ekt like Eva’s friends and Vincent’s potential love interest. Their world is also changing drastically, and it’s not like the Ekt are morally better than humans, so they have a long way to go too.</spoiler><br/><br/>In general, Only Human lacks the twists, action, and mystery of the first two since most questions already have answers, and it focuses instead on relationships and racial commentary. Understandably, this one feels different, but it's too bad I didn't love it. Everything is very political like it always was, except heightened. Rose is framed as the main character in the blurb, but it doesn’t feel like that when the focus is equally (if not more) on other people. The cast was easy to follow despite them losing a couple of their interesting members. I had a good time if not a perfect one, and I’m glad I got into Themis Files. Now I’ll read File 2491."

"This book isn’t perfect, but it has heart. I’m not sure if the 2 time lines was the best was of writing this, but it definitely made it interesting to find out why people made the choices they did. The ending made sense. I think it was the only way that things could’ve ended up in a state other than total destruction. The timeframe was slightly confusing with that too, but it mostly made sense. I also really loved the way this book’s last few pages tied up the series. Overall, it’s an interesting book, one that’s well thought out and enjoyable to read. The trilogy as a whole was pretty solid- with each book being considerably different from the others, each with something different to say."

"I personally loved the whole series, I read them back to back in a matter of days so it all kind of blends together for me. I highly recommend the whole series! "