DNF @ 20%

I'm sorry, I can't listen to thirteen more hours of this. Life is too short. What's really frustrating is that this could have been SO GOOD. The pieces were all there. I actually really liked the writing, and the narrator was doing a great job bringing the characters to life. The concept was also really frickin' cool. It's very clear the author spent a lot of time building up this world. But complex and well thought out worldbuilding isn't enough if your readers literally do not know what is going on in your plot. I was so lost by the time I finally threw the towel in. I had the character dynamics, but there was nothing given to us to be able to understand even the basics of this world and how it operated.

I don't think I'll be giving this book another go in hard copy, but I would read from this author again when she's done with this series because her actual writing was very intriguing, even as I had zero idea what was happening in the book.

Audiobook narrator: Yung-I Chang

Genre: science fiction

It’s Sunai’s lot in life to keep dying. You could say he’s even used to it by now. He’s a “walking, talking artifact of corruption,” a relic AI fused with a human body, trying to f*ck his way through life figuring out what he’s doing here.

The Archive Undying is going to be hard to describe. If you read the blurb and expect a book of action, you may be left wanting. Yes, it’s about the things you can put into the summary: corrupt AIs and giant fighting robots, but that’s just surface level plot. It’s speculative, a book of ideas, with lush writing and stunning prose that makes you stop and think. It’s about death and dying, but also about rebirth.

The worldbuilding is descriptive and yet also feels intentionally sparse, because the world itself is a matter of perception: is it even real? Do we have a solid enough grasp on the concept of reality?

If you enjoy contemplative ideas driven science fiction like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or even Ursula K Le Guin, I recommend checking out Archive Undying. There isn’t a strong narrative plot arc, but sometimes you just need character- and idea-driven stories about AIs and mechs.

The audiobook, narrated by Yung-I Chang, was wonderful to listen to, as I always appreciate the audio boost for a slower, more contemplative story.

Thank you for to NetGalley and @tordotcompub for the eARC and MacMillan Audio for the ALC. The Archive Undying is available 6/27/23.