The Archive Undying is a fractured story about broken people in a shattered world. Everything about this story, the people, the place, even the story itself, is in jagged pieces.

But with everything in jagged pieces, while it makes the characters compelling, and the world they live in a fascinating puzzle, the fractured jaggedness of the story itself makes the whole thing hard to follow.

Which makes describing the thing more than a tad difficult. Because you’re never quite sure what’s going on – even after the end – because you don’t know how anything or anyone got to be who, where and what they were at the point things start. Or even what the point of what they did might have been.

That’s true of the characters, the institutions and the whole entire world they inhabit. Because it’s all been corrupted. Not by the usual human forms of corruption – well, honestly, that too – but because everything in this world was run by autonomous AIs, and someone or something, both in the distant past and in the immediate present, introduced corruption into those AIs’ codes that caused them to fall. And to die.

At least as much as an AI can die.

So the story begins with Sunai. Or at least the story we drop into begins from Sunai’s point of view. He’s a salvage rat hiding a bitter truth from himself – but as it turns out Sunai is lies and bitter truths pretty much all the way down.

So is everyone – and everything – else. But the more of all those perspectives of lies and deceptions and bitter truths and sorrows we see, the more it all comes back to Sunai. And to the bitterest truth of all that he has hidden so deep that it will take an invasion of rogue mechs and rapacious AIs destroying his city to finally bring it to light.

Escape Rating B: I listened to The Archive Undying in its entirety, and I have to say that its the narrator that carried me through all SIXTEEN AND A HALF HOURS. The narrator didn’t just do a good job of voicing all the many, many characters, but by literally being in their heads and not my own it allowed me to care enough about the individuals to be willing to experience the whole constantly twisting saga. If I’d been reading this as text, if I’d been in my head instead of theirs, I’d have DNF’d fairly early because the sheer number of changes in perspectives combined with unsatisfying hints of the world they occurred in would have driven me mad in short order. YMMV.

The Archive Undying is a story that expects a lot from its readers, probably more than it is likely to get. Which is somewhat ironic, as Sunai, the being who stands more-or-less as its protagonist has learned to expect very little, and is often surprised when he gets even that.

But then, that’s the thing about this book, in that if the reader can come to care about the characters, particularly Sunai the failed archivist and reluctant relic, then that reader will stick with the story to see what happens to Sunai and the ragtag band of friends, allies, frenemies and rogue AIs who have attached themselves to him. Or that he has attached himself to accidentally or by someone else’s purpose.

The story has so many perspectives, and it jumps between them so frequently and with so little provocation, that the story is difficult to follow. But more often than the reader expects, all of those fractured pieces come together in beauty – just the way the bits of color in a kaleidoscope suddenly shift into a glorious – if temporary – whole.

I left this story with three completely separate – almost jagged – thoughts about it.

Because we spend this story inside pretty much all of the characters’ heads – even the characters that don’t technically HAVE heads, and because so many of their actions have gone horribly wrong and they’re all full to the brim with regret and angst, this struck me as a ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ kind of story. We see their thoughts, they’re all a mess all the time, they’ve all screwed up repeatedly, and they’re all sorry about almost everything they’ve done – even as they keep doing the thing they’re sorry about.

Second, as a question of language, and because I listened to this rather than read the text, I got myself caught up in the question of whether the word, and more of the characters than at first seemed, was ‘relic’ or ‘relict’ as they’re pronounced the same. Sunai, and others, are referred to as ‘relics’ of the mostly dead AI named Iterate Fractal – or one of its brethren. But a ‘relic’ is an object of religious significance from the past, and a ‘relict’ is a survivor of something that used to exist in a larger or active form but no longer does. Not all of the autonomous AIs were worshipped as gods, but they all left relicts behind.

There’s a part of me that keeps thinking that at its heart, The Archive Undying is a love story. Not necessarily a romance – but rather a story about the many and varied ways that love can turn toxic and wrong. To the point where even when it does come out right the selected value of right is tenuous and likely to break at the first opportunity.

An opportunity we’ll eventually get to see. The Archive Undying is the first book in the projected Downworld Sequence, implying that there will be more to come even if the when of it is ‘To Be Determined’. I think I got invested in the characters enough to see what happens to them next – and I have hope that maybe the many, many blanks in the explanation of how things got to be this bad will get filled in in that next or subsequent books in the duology. But after the way this first book went, I KNOW I’ll be getting that second one in audio because the narration of this first book by Yung-I Chang is what made the whole thing possible for me and I expect him to carry me through the next one as well.

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon feels like a highly experimental work. There was obviously a lot of thought put into the story. The characters are fleshed out pretty well from the beginning, but the overall story gets more confusing as it goes along. This was not a book for me and I stopped about 40% into it. It was not bad, but I had a hard time understanding what was happening and why. A little more world building before unleashing the main character in their quest would have probably made it a little easier. It's a very interesting concept but overall, I could not get into it.

Sad to say that this was a real struggle to finish. I loved the premise of a post-apocalyptic AI god world that gets destroyed when the AI god goes mad. Like, that sounded cool! However, it was tough to keep up with the switching of POV throughout the book. This book was very much a character-driven novel. However, I felt I needed more world-building to understand what was happening.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio!
If you love complex and tricky sci-fi, this is definitely the book for you. The story's premise really dragged me in with the AI gods and resurrection. Sunai was one of my favorite things about the story, as he is extremely nuanced and really likable. Seeing the broken world through his perspective and story contributes to the erie and ominous vibes. This is definitely a complex story and needs a lot of processing time. There definitely needs to be a little bit more details with some of the world-building and character choices, but I still think it is very enjoyable as someone who likes confusing books.

The prose in this book was so lovely at times that I had to stop and really take it in. Sunai is interesting and likeable, and his relationships with other characters are engaging and at times unpredictable. The world is also intensly interesting, but deeply confusing. We are fed information a little too sparsely to really understand what is going on. Overall, the deep sense of confusion that I felt pulled me too much out of the story and made me unable to finish it. I think this is a really neat world, and I would have enjoyed exploring it more if I felt a little less lost about Sunai's past, exactly what and who he is and what he's harboring inside of him, and just a lot of other stuff along the way.

I think this book will be fantastic for folks who like a bit of a puzzle or who are comfortable being suspended in confusion, and I think it might have been a little more manageable if I had a physical copy to refer to.

The narrator of the audiobook was top notch.

I've been anticipating this book ever since I read Emma Mieko Candon's Star Wars novel, Ronin, and it exceeded every expectation I had. Every character had so much depth, and I found myself wanting more of all of them at the end of this book. Emma has such a strong ability to pull you in and get you so deeply invested within just the first few chapters.
This book is also a compelling look at artificial intelligence in a way that only an author as talented as Emma would be able to afford it the nuance they do. It is science-fiction in its best form, and it reminded me exactly what I love about the genre.
In addition, the audiobook is beautifully narrated and a fantastic way to experience this story.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and all sci-fi lovers should give it a read!

Check me out on Instagram @books_boards_and_brews and @themarriagestoriespod

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence #1)
Written by Emma Mieko Candon
Read by Yung-I Chang
Book 148/200
Genre: Sci-Fi
Format: Digital/Audio, ARC
Pages: 496
Published: 2023
Rating: 4/10

*This ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review*

The Archive Undying is a sprawling and complex sci-fi story that I'm still not sure I completely understand. I am thoroughly going to lodge this book under "not for me". I found it overly confusing and i just couldn't feel anything towards the characters. This book also uses a big pet peeve of mine, writing in second person. Most of the time I think this can come off as overly pretentious, though fortunately, Candon's writing is good enough to prevent that. This book is a HARD Sci-Fi and I would encourage fans of the sub-genre to give it a try, it's just not for me.

I was provided an audio arc of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This is going to be hard book to review, only because it was a hard book to follow. First off the cover is stunning, which was immediately what pulled me into the book. The book is filled with amazing ideas and concepts, unfortunately I found it really hard to follow on audio. I was able to get my hands on the ebook from my library which made it a bit easier to follow along as I could look up things, but the way this is written it jumps around from POV to POV and from past to present. I had a hard time keeping details straight. The details are extremely important as the story progresses. I think the audiobook was very well done and the narrator does a fantastic job with voicing all of the characters. Personally I had a hard time keeping up with all of the very important details with only the audiobook on hand. I had a much easier time finishing the book with both the print and audiobook on hand.

Would I continue on with the series? Yes, but I would would want both the print and audiobook versions so I could go back and look up references to things I was confused about in this complex story. This is not an easy book to keep up with, but I still enjoyed the creative concepts. This is such a unique novel, I don't think I've read anything quite like it. You've got a bit of everything in here, sci-fi, a post apocalyptical future setting, a strange religious aspect, some horror elements (body horror FYI), and so much more but I don't want to spoil anything.

Despite this being a sci-fi flavored book, it is very character driven. I tend to prefer plot driven stories, and this focuses much more on the characters and how they intertwine with each other. The author does a good job eventually unravelling the twisted story of how they are all connected. This doesn't have the epic sci-fi robot battles at every turn that one might be expecting from this book. This book is not going to be for everyone.

I truly wanted to like the book but I found it confusing and slow. I understand that much of this is likely purposeful so perhaps it may resonate better with a different reader.

The Archive Undying is truly a mixed bag of a book. There are things I really loved about the book, I thought there were some really strong elements like pieces of the dialogue, the backdrop of the world, and the themes surrounding the AI “gods.” Unfortunately, the writing sometimes detracted from the message, especially in the second half as perspective jumps and becomes confusing. If you like mechas, AIs, and stories of reluctant rebels, then this story is for you.

Thank you to Macmillian Audio and NetGalley for the ARC of the book.

*sigh* I had high hopes for this book but unfortunately it didn’t hit the marks I was wanting it to. I ended up DNFing the book which is not something I do lightly. I rarely DNF and hate to do it but i truly don’t see myself finishing this book anytime soon with so many others I actually am enjoying. I should also mention if I DNF a novel I don’t usually give it a rating. However because this is an APC I need to. So I’m going to give it a 2 star rating as I think the concept is interesting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am sad to say that this was a disappointment. I usually love sci-fi that incorporates giant mechas, especially with lgbt+ main characters. But I had no idea what was happening the entire time I was reading this story. I wanted to like it, but I just could not follow the story, the plot, or the lore/backstory of what was happening and WHY it was happening. I didn't know why I should care about any of the characters.

They can't all be winners.

The Archive Undying is about Sunai, a young man (god?) who is the last of his kind (I.e. the only one left from a dead land). He’s lived his life drunk and sleeping in a new man’s bed nearly every night. Living in this life of debauchery lands Sunai in contract with a group traveling back to the dead land. This book is…. Confusing…. Not only is there little to no description of some of the language used within the story, meaning there’s words used in the common language that doesn’t match the way it’s being used within the story, the book switches from 3rd person to 2nd person with no real preface to it happening. This may be a gap because I consumed the book via audio with no physical book. I wanted to love this book because the plot sounded so good but the writing is too lyrical in my opinion. There’s so much explaining of things (emotions, internal dialogue, etc.) it gets muddle in what the actual plot is! Unfortunately, the plot isn’t capturing my attention to keep going through the book. I DNFed at chapter 10. Maybe I’ll pick up a physical copy and see if the reading is easier in a different format.

The Archive Undying channels the storytelling vibe of N.K Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy with the self-reflection and body horror of Mary Shelley.

Emma Mieko Candon sets off on an ambitious adventure with this novel as they traverse a fractured nation ruled by broken Gods and shady collectives, walking the fine line that is creating an expansive world with allowing readers to stay present at the moment with their characters and form attachments to them.

The book does struggle initially with its exposition.

The dual perspective narration does at first make for a less than graceful dive into the depths of the story, coupled with the language used to describe all the types of existence and sentience both pre and post-corruption becomes a bit much as an entry point to the story.

But the book levels itself out as we see more of the world from the perspective of our main character whose complicated history and present view of self help us get a better grip on what reality means in this world.

The characters themselves are all beautifully written and so compelling, from the moment we’re introduced to Sunai, the mercenaries, and the aunties you’re grinning and ready for the ride that is their excursion.

Overall, The Archive Undying is a solid 4/5 read.

This was such an immersive science fantasy novel. I was immediately pulled in from the first chapter and enjoyed the ride.

I love the writing style of this book. The prose were both simple but also beautiful in places. The dialogue was more casual than I normally prefer with lots of f-bombs, but I felt the casual prose worker in this case.

The worldbuilding in this novel is one of my favourite aspects of the novel, but also one of the weak points. The godpunk premise was great, but yet I wished the surrounding world had been more fleshed out. I usually enjoy epic fantasy with narrow points of view, but in this case I wished this novel had more perspectives. Between the scope of the story and the writing style, the worldbuilding was hazy. If the author has a clear picture of this imagined world, it was not entirely conveyed to the readers.

Yet despite my small criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will absolutely be continuing with the series. I would recommend this imaginative sci fantasy novel to readers looking for something new. This one reminded me of Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse mixed with The Outside by Ada Hoffmann.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I didn’t understand everything, but I found the characters and the world fascinating!

I think this is the first time I’ve ever been able to describe my thoughts on a book with a single sentence. But that’s not enough for a review, so I might get some things wrong, but I’m gonna do my best to explain why this book is so cool.

There are these big AIs that sort of run cities, and people can interface with them. But the AIs inevitably get corrupted, and anyone interfacing when that happens either dies or becomes what is known as a relic (which is what the MC, Sunai, is). And now there’s this powerful governing body that creates or finds these mech bodies for the AI and forces relics into them to pilot them. There’s more, but that’s the gist. The whole concept, the different AI, the way the interfacing worked between different characters and AI in the story, it all felt very unique and interesting.

The characters felt modern and understandable in a way that grounded the story for me. But at the same time they were a bit obscure, products of their fictional world, with beliefs and experiences wildly different from my own, doing what they felt was right, having a lot of feelings about AI and each other, in a way that made them fascinating. They had such complicated relationships and histories, especially since they were all so full of secrets. And they were definitely not perfect people. But Sunai was good, or trying to be, and too trusting, and too willing to put himself in harm’s way, and easy to care about.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this a romance, but there were feelings. Between two men who really shouldn’t have gotten involved because things were complicated. But I think Sunai was too intrigued and drawn in by Veyadi’s care and tenderness, and Veyadi was pulled in by the good in Sunai and the need to protect him since Sunai had an alarming lack of self-preservation. (Though to be fair, he was immortal.)

I did not have much trouble with the POVs. (It was mostly Sunai in 3rd person, and an AI in 1st / kinda 2nd person because they were essentially talking to the people whose heads they were in. By the time a bit of other weirdness was introduced, I had a handle on it.) My confusion came from 1) the complexity of the world and how a lot of it had to be understood from context, and 2) the way characters were very cryptic and talked around things instead of ever clearly stating anything, so I was often unsure what they meant or what they were planning or what their motivations were. But in a way, I feel like the book might not have been as good as it was, might not have had the same vibes, if it hadn’t been like that. Anyway, some things that didn’t make sense to me at first were explained later, or I was eventually able to figure them out. Some things I never did quite understand, but that’s ok. It’s definitely the sort of book you have to give your full attention to.

There’s no cliffhanger, but it’s the first in a series, and I’m looking forward to more.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Yung-I Chang, and it was great! He sounded natural, and the way he spoke always matched the scene and the emotions of the characters. Voices for different characters were slightly different. I enjoyed the narration.

Overall, this was a 16-hour audiobook, but it kept my attention the whole time, despite some confusion, because I was fascinated by the complicated and sometimes messed-up characters, the complex AI-filled world, and the wild story that kept me on my toes!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In a world where AIs have been corrupted, people run in fear of corrupted Tech that threatens everything around it. Here we find Sunai, a former pilot who is struggling with himself. He finds solace in anything or anyone he can, but that changes when he finds himself in the bed of someone who he should have never found and might be his undoing. It turns out that you can’t outrun your past.

Robots, queer relationships and people, and a pseudo post apocalyptic world that refuses to quit. What more could I ask for?

This was a very fun read. I really enjoy the characters, but the large number and with all of the new terms to learn in this universe, it all gets a little jumbled in my brain. It may make it easier to keep everything in line by reading the book, but I listened to the audiobook. The narrator was great to listen to, but he did not have a wide repertoire of voices so some characters were harder to tell apart than others.

Saying all that, I really did enjoy the story and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

If you like Gundam, Pacific Rim, or Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao, you will definitely enjoy this book!

Unfortunately this was confounding to me from beginning to end. There were some moments of well crafted beauty, and I loved the world's aesthetic! But ultimately, I would have appreciated if this story was a bit more decipherable, and with a few more narrative landmarks in place.

I give props to the readers who can journey through the dark with just a flashlight and a prayer to the book gods. This book is for them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Emma Mieko Candon's The Archive Undying is the first entry in the scifi mecha Downworld Sequence. Sunai has been on the run for seventeen years, fleeing his past, but unable to age or die. After another night of blackout drinking, he finds himself part of a new salvage crew, waking in the bed of the crew's doctor. Sunai is surprised to have found love, but it will force him to confront his past and embrace the role he was destined.

The setting is a dystopian future where giant mechs serve to defend cities from threats that are controlled and preserved through humans converted to what this world calls archives. There are powerful AIs, and this might be Earth? I think, if it was explained I missed it. This is not a straightforward book and many readers will find it a difficult to follow.

From the book blurb this sounded like it would be interesting, but it did not make for a good audiobook. (Nothing against the narrator, they did a nice job making sure different characters had different tones). I had made it half way through and realized I had no idea what was going on and had to restart. Even after that, I am still confused by much of the book, particularly the mechanics of the AI and Mechs.

Like many scifi dystopias, one individual has the power or capabilities to overturn the present order and bring in a better era, but what will they have to sacrifice to bring about these changes?

there are two very well known ways to read: for fun, and for comprehension. Both are great! This book reminded me, just as Gideon the Ninth did, that there exists another way: for the vibes. What makes this different from For Fun and For Comprehension is two key things. 1) you absolutely do not know what’s going on and 2) that doesn’t take away from your experience. This book was definitely a For The Vibes book and i LOVED it. For me, if I’m reading a book for vibes, there’s gotta be hella worldbuilding (check), gay shit (check), and i have to care about the characters (check). I spent this entire book feeling like I was missing something, and that felt like a feature, not a bug. I loved these characters and the world they inhabited, and while I couldn’t explain what happened to literally anyone, I do think this was an immaculate read.

Representation: Asian rep, queer rep, queer love story, nonbinary rep

spice level: none