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3.0 

Arch-Conspirator

By Veronica Roth
Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

In this gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Antigone, #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth reaches back to the root of legend and delivers a world of tomorrow both timeless and unexpected.

“I’m cursed, haven’t you heard?”

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.

Antigone’s parents—Oedipus and Jocasta—are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, 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.

“Roth is a masterful conjurer, summoning both classic myth and visceral dystopia to weave a breathtaking tale of love, avarice, and the timeless desire for revenge.” Ryka Aoki, bestselling author of Light From Uncommon Stars

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

861 Reviews

3.0
Surprised Face with Open Mouth“This retelling of the play "Antigone" is absolutely beautiful. The novella length was perfect. We dive right in and get into the action. I love the way Roth sprinkles in the details, rather than info-dumping. Everything is beautiful. Finished in one day, just a lovely, thought-provoking read.”
“Some of the theme hit close to home in our current political climate around bodily autonomy. I wasn't familiar enough with the original tale of Antigone prior to reading this, but upon reading the synopsis, I find that it's an interesting adaptation and well updated to this dystopian reality. It's rare that I would like a book to be longer than it is, but I would have liked to know more about this world.”
Thumbs Up“Thanks to Tor for the ARC (received at New York Comic Con this year). 4 stars until the very last 20 pages and then it sort of almost made me cry which usually shoots a book up to five stars for me, but I wasn't feeling it for this one, so I gave it 4.5 stars. As many reviewers have already pointed out, this is a retelling of Antigone in a futuristic sci-fi world. For some reason that isn't expanded on, the world has gone to shit (doesn't it always) and people are living in a sort of dystopian world where they don't have children naturally (even though women are required to have children) and when people die, their "Ichor" (basically reproductive cells) are extracted and stored so that other people can basically ~design their kids from the archive of stored cells. I'd read Antigone in 9th grade for school, but I had forgotten what happened, so I needed to wiki it first. I really enjoyed this retelling of it, and I definitely related a lot more to this version of her than the original (from what I can remember about her at least). I also really liked the multiple POVs and the way that we were able to get the POV of everyone involved. I loved almost all the characters (and I especially loved getting to read from Eurydice's POV). I think my main issues with the book were twofold. First, I just wish it had been expanded. Not in the way that the ending was - I love a good bittersweet and uncertain ending (and I can make up a happy ending in my head and no one can tell me otherwise!) I mostly want to know more about this world and understand more about Ichor and the Archives and just figure out how the world got to the way it was portrayed in the book. I want to know more about the system of government and the rebellions they kept mentioning and generally learn about the worldbuilding that the author started and gave us the barest hints of. The other thing I thought regarding this book (sort of related to the first) was that there were a lot of issues that weren't expanded on. Obviously, the main plot related to Antigone and civil disobedience, but there were mentions of the lack of autonomy for women and their bodies, reproduction generally, birth and death, and a bunch of other stuff. It just seemed like too much crammed into a book that was 120 pages, and I wish the author had gone more into it. I think the stuff about women's autonomy was useful in the context of the plot, but wasn't completely necessary (Ichor could have existed without that bit) and I think more could have been done with it. Like I said earlier, the last couple chapters almost made me tear up because of the conversations between the sisters and I'm a huge sucker for that kind of thing. I thought it was awesome that the author managed to explore such emotions with such a short book, so that was what bumped it from a 4 to 4.5 star book. It would be great to get a sequel and find out what happens, but given that this is based on Antigone, I doubt that will happen. ;;”
“I really liked the book. When I first started it, I was really confused but then caught on quickly. It’s a great short read. I will say, I would have liked the book to have been a little longer. The book developed really fast and sometimes the scene felt a bit rushed or shallow because of how short the book was. It was super easy read and definitely was not a happy ending in the slightest but part of me likes when the author doesn’t do a textbook happy ending.”

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