Robert Harris often has the very best ideas for his books, but sometimes the book itself is a real let-down. The Second Sleep is an example of this. First of all, his good idea — the big reveal — comes very early in the book. What seems at first to be a tale set in Medieval England turns out to be set 800 years in the future — as we quickly learn when an Apple iPhone turns up unexpectedly. And that’s basically it. Nothing else very interesting happens. The book builds up to the digging out of an ancient buried chamber to reveal — well, let’s just say that it is one of the most unsatisfying endings I’ve read in a recent book. Not recommended.