Only Human, by Sylvain Neuvel

The robots have come.  The robots have left.  But when they left, they took some passengers with them back to their home planet.  Sylvain Neuvel picks up Only Human where Waking Gods drops off.  At the end of Waking Gods, a group of humans finds themselves trapped in Themis, heading back to the robots' home planet.  After a decade there, they are headed back to earth.

Only Human switches perspectives between the human's time on the alien planet, and their return to earth.  They find that in their absence, the U.S. managed to repair an alien robot and is using the technology to bring other countries under their control.  Russia, with the threat of nuclear weapons still viable, has held of the U.S., and it thrilled when Themis shows up in Russian territory.

The humans navigate the threat of impending war between the robots, try to navigate the racial and genetic territory of the robots' world, and navigate their increasingly complicated human relationships.  Neuvel brings together the themes and storylines from the first two novels in the trilogy, but this one was not as enjoyable to read as the others.  Light on action, heavy on the "messaging," it ends up sort of sterile and unengaging. 


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!