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mordshunger's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This one is hard to rate. It certainly made me feel things, and I feel pissed off. Immaculate vibes and strong characters but is it a net-positive? Reading this dealt me psychic damage. If fiction can be violent this was the Most Violent encounter I had with a book so far.
While it felt like it wanted to say things about religious trauma and trust and betrayal, I fail to see how it did say anything meaningful about them. It feels dangerous to read for people who struggle with upholding boundaries to people who have abused them. I don't even have the right words for a proper CW so I'll just say the lack of consent is disgusting and the immediate forgiveness of the same sickening. It really tampered my enjoyment of the story. The apologetics of an ever understanding, self-neglecting and self-hating POV is just too much.
In general, there is a very inflationary use of love in this book. I understand what this is going for and that is why I think it is dangerous. People who love deeply will see themselves in this and it's not great. This is bad. If love is just a verb for one person and a weapon and exploit for everyone else, it becomes meaningless to even call it such. Fuck that forever.
Chronological impressions:
Welcome to the religious trauma struggle bus. The vibes are chef's kiss but also vague and referential at all times, it feels like I got oil in one eye forever.
This book y'all, it's really just a pile of the worst people you know. My number one pick for most trustworthy guy in this is the not-so-informed-consent AI splinter and I'm sure they will try to kill everyone.
Sinai, Jin und Veyadi consistently bring the energy of an EMT driver/student in exam crunch after three consecutive shifts.
I hate All of Them, but I hate Imaru most. If this bitch doesn't die I'm not reading the next book. Can't believe there is immediate forgiveness, understanding and love after the ultimate betrayal.
I've read some reviews of some very confused people who get lost in who betrayed who first and which plots overlap and let me just say it doesn't matter who betrays who when they all do. They all do! They're the worst!!! And they keep asking more of him. Veyadi, et Tu?
While it felt like it wanted to say things about religious trauma and trust and betrayal, I fail to see how it did say anything meaningful about them. It feels dangerous to read for people who struggle with upholding boundaries to people who have abused them. I don't even have the right words for a proper CW so I'll just say the lack of consent is disgusting and the immediate forgiveness of the same sickening. It really tampered my enjoyment of the story. The apologetics of an ever understanding, self-neglecting and self-hating POV is just too much.
In general, there is a very inflationary use of love in this book. I understand what this is going for and that is why I think it is dangerous. People who love deeply will see themselves in this and it's not great. This is bad. If love is just a verb for one person and a weapon and exploit for everyone else, it becomes meaningless to even call it such. Fuck that forever.
Chronological impressions:
Welcome to the religious trauma struggle bus. The vibes are chef's kiss but also vague and referential at all times, it feels like I got oil in one eye forever.
This book y'all, it's really just a pile of the worst people you know. My number one pick for most trustworthy guy in this is the not-so-informed-consent AI splinter and I'm sure they will try to kill everyone.
Sinai, Jin und Veyadi consistently bring the energy of an EMT driver/student in exam crunch after three consecutive shifts.
I hate All of Them, but I hate Imaru most. If this bitch doesn't die I'm not reading the next book. Can't believe there is immediate forgiveness, understanding and love after the ultimate betrayal.
I've read some reviews of some very confused people who get lost in who betrayed who first and which plots overlap and let me just say it doesn't matter who betrays who when they all do. They all do! They're the worst!!! And they keep asking more of him. Veyadi, et Tu?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Grief, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Gore, War, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Abandonment, and Blood
Do not read this if consent is important to you to be able to enjoy a book. Just skip it.jayisreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
I really wanted to like this one more than I did. I really liked the characters, the premise was fascinating, and it had other elements that made me think, "Wow, this might be one of my favorite books this year." Unfortunately, I found the execution rather messy, especially towards the end when too many perspectives started coming into play.
I understand authors who just want to tell the story and leave it up to the reader to figure things out themself, but I felt that Candon needed to give the reader a little more to work with. I found that I was confused more often than I would have liked. I stuck with it, though, because I was really drawn to the world (at least what I was able to make sense of it) and the characters. The characters were wonderfully complex in all their flaws, and I especially loved the disability representation.
But to return to my issues, I found that I was mostly frustrated while reading this book, which isn't exactly the mood you want to be in. When certain ideas were introduced, I wanted to learn more about them, but Candon often moved on and left me hanging. I felt that I was given a lot of fragments but they didn't quite fit together to create a full picture. Maybe I wasn't as engaged as I should have been (even though I'd say I was in my attempt to follow what's happening), but things didn't pan out the way I hoped.
This book might work better as a reread, so I might give this one another try in the future, especially if it turns out this book is part of a series.
I understand authors who just want to tell the story and leave it up to the reader to figure things out themself, but I felt that Candon needed to give the reader a little more to work with. I found that I was confused more often than I would have liked. I stuck with it, though, because I was really drawn to the world (at least what I was able to make sense of it) and the characters. The characters were wonderfully complex in all their flaws, and I especially loved the disability representation.
But to return to my issues, I found that I was mostly frustrated while reading this book, which isn't exactly the mood you want to be in. When certain ideas were introduced, I wanted to learn more about them, but Candon often moved on and left me hanging. I felt that I was given a lot of fragments but they didn't quite fit together to create a full picture. Maybe I wasn't as engaged as I should have been (even though I'd say I was in my attempt to follow what's happening), but things didn't pan out the way I hoped.
This book might work better as a reread, so I might give this one another try in the future, especially if it turns out this book is part of a series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement and Cannibalism
justkyliep's review against another edition
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Being a bit of a lunatic, he hopes he's about to meet a god.
The Archive Undying is a brilliant example of exactly the sort of weird science fantasy I love to sink my teeth into. Sunai, with his dry wit and his disaster decision making skills, quickly won me over as he find himself in the middle of a one-night-stand-turned-Harbor-moderated-expedition he has no business being part of. As the expedition complicates and reveals conspirators reaching far beyond a scientific excursion, readers are led into a mind-and-reality bending reconstruction of the past. While this book is fairly niche in genre in content, it's bound to find its people with lovers of jealous and possessive AIs, visceral description, and big-ass bone robots.
The truest strength of The Archive Undying lays with its structure. Candon's narrative reveals very little plainly and constantly overwrites the character you think you know with new revelations. Even reality, as Sunai experiences it, is left with memory gaps and uncertain data. Like Sunai, I found myself trapped in a desire to trust despite unquestionable doubts. It is exciting and frustrating to be so thoroughly taken down the rabbit hole with a character that has every reason to doubt their own perceptions. I also find this feeds perfectly into the themes of being trapped in an unwell (or slowly healing) body.
I would especially recommend this book to enjoyers of Piranesi, Harrow the Ninth, A Memory Called Empire, and This is How You Lose the Time War.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The truest strength of The Archive Undying lays with its structure. Candon's narrative reveals very little plainly and constantly overwrites the character you think you know with new revelations. Even reality, as Sunai experiences it, is left with memory gaps and uncertain data. Like Sunai, I found myself trapped in a desire to trust despite unquestionable doubts. It is exciting and frustrating to be so thoroughly taken down the rabbit hole with a character that has every reason to doubt their own perceptions. I also find this feeds perfectly into the themes of being trapped in an unwell (or slowly healing) body.
I would especially recommend this book to enjoyers of Piranesi, Harrow the Ninth, A Memory Called Empire, and This is How You Lose the Time War.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Body horror
Moderate: Cannibalism and Confinement
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