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booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
THE ARCHIVE UNDYING by Emma Mieko Candon hits my brain like an achillean version of THE TIGER FLU by Larissa Lai or THE ALL-CONSUMING WORLD by Cassandra Khaw, combining viscera and technology to create liminal immortality in an ongoing negotiation, tenuous and vital.
I love stories with worldbuilding that is immersive, not waiting for the reader to catch up, but just letting the story unfold; only explaining things that someone in the world would need stated, more explicitly. THE ARCHIVE UNDYING provides explanations late, intertwined with regret.
As I’ve said before and will doubtless say again, I specifically love books which include mental transformations of nominally the same character, such that they understand some thing very differently than they did before, or have an entirely new state of mind. My particular favorite is when they are so different as to be a discrete person by the time the changes are done. THE ARCHIVE UNDYING is full of this, first with a narrator whose identity takes a long time to be known, and then with of variety of technologically assisted mental connections and transformative clashes of mind, such that even if everyone nominally remains afterward as entities, they are changed by those meetings.
Reading this is an audiobook definitely helped to let the story roll over me, enjoying the flow of the words even if I didn’t always understand why something was happening. A few pretty significant changes happen towards the end which reframe and contextualize the actions of some secondary characters. It’s the kind of book where I know I will reread it, if only to experience the shift in perspective that comes with knowing characters, backstories, and ulterior motives from the start.
I love stories with worldbuilding that is immersive, not waiting for the reader to catch up, but just letting the story unfold; only explaining things that someone in the world would need stated, more explicitly. THE ARCHIVE UNDYING provides explanations late, intertwined with regret.
As I’ve said before and will doubtless say again, I specifically love books which include mental transformations of nominally the same character, such that they understand some thing very differently than they did before, or have an entirely new state of mind. My particular favorite is when they are so different as to be a discrete person by the time the changes are done. THE ARCHIVE UNDYING is full of this, first with a narrator whose identity takes a long time to be known, and then with of variety of technologically assisted mental connections and transformative clashes of mind, such that even if everyone nominally remains afterward as entities, they are changed by those meetings.
Reading this is an audiobook definitely helped to let the story roll over me, enjoying the flow of the words even if I didn’t always understand why something was happening. A few pretty significant changes happen towards the end which reframe and contextualize the actions of some secondary characters. It’s the kind of book where I know I will reread it, if only to experience the shift in perspective that comes with knowing characters, backstories, and ulterior motives from the start.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Body horror, Gore, Cannibalism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Torture, Murder, and Death
Minor: Sexual content and Vomit
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