A review by kalchainein
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

When I cracked open The Archive Undying, I read the first chapter and then said to my wife, “I bet you anything this person’s written fanfic.”

Dear reader, I was correct. 

According to Candon’s Tumblr, The Archive Undying in fact has its roots in a Pacific Rim AU. I am not, in and of itself, opposed to the filing off of serial numbers. And this isn’t even really a case of that: the storylines and characters are far removed from much that could be considered Pacific Rim-ish, other than the big ol’ robots and a neurotic scientist-type. 

No, my issue with TAU’s fanfiction roots are that it, like fanfiction, is built on a scaffolding of prior knowledge that the reader is presumed to have. Unfortunately, unlike with fanfic, the new reader of TAU has none of that background information, so tromping through its multitude of locales and terminology ends up leaving one with a sense that they SHOULD know some specific tidbit of canon in order to figure out what the hell is going on, but no way to access it. Some people like this, or at least don’t mind it. Me, not so much.

TAU’s characters also suffer because of this assumed familiarity: you get a gist of character archetypes and relationships, but at a remove, and without ever fully getting to know them as anything beyond diverse moving pieces skittering across an admittedly fascinating landscape.

One could argue that books that reveal themselves fully only after a reread are more rewarding, but if one finds the book a slog the first time because of its indecipherability, how inspired to reread are they going to be?

Also, perhaps a petty complaint, but there were far less giant mecha than I was led to believe. Despite the Evangelion joke in the summary, there was very little of Shinji Sunai getting in the actual robot.

Bomb-ass writing though. Lovely stuff. 

Unfortunately, pretty words can only carry you so far.  Two-point-five slightly disappointed stars. 
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