I’m not sure what I was expecting with Arch-Conspirator. As a teen fan of the Divergent stories, I was intrigued, even though I didn’t love Poster Girl. Find out my full thoughts on this dystopian meets Greek mythology release in this book review.
Summary
Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end.
Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but Antigone’s parents were murdered, leaving her father’s throne vacant. As her militant uncle Kreon rises to claim it, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest.
But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Arch-Conspirator is the latest release from Veronica Roth. This novella blends heavy science fiction dystopia – think reproductive control and consciousness – with Greek mythology. It reminds me of like Altered Carbon and Greek figures and The Handmaids Tale. And I think that might be one of my issues, Roth bites off a lot in Arch-Conspirator. While I think that some of those topics work well together, by the end of this novella, I was left with more questions than answers.
I was having a difficult time working out both the SF elements and the Greek mythology. To figure out how much of their stories they follow and how much they even know of the mythology. It leaves Arch-Conspirator feeling a bit shallow considering the depths of each of these elements individually. The only thing that kept me going was being able to also switch to the audio-book with the dual narration from Dion Graham & January LaVoy. It gave this novella a personal gripping point for me to anchor the ’emotions’ of the story.
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I enjoyed some of the themes that were being brought up – this cycle of revenge and wondering if we can truly change – which feels very Greek Mythology. But at the same time, I would have enjoyed more space to get a handle on the world to feel like it was also anchored to the world it inhabited. If you enjoyed both SF and Greek Mythology, this might be something worth checking out – I just think it bit off a bit too much in this one. Find Arch-Conspirator on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, The Book Depository, Libro.fm, and Google Play.