Reviews

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth

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gladiolorum's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

mybooksarenovel's review against another edition

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3.0

Veronica Roth's dystopian telling of Antigone by Sophocles.

This was a 3.5 hr audio, so I knocked it out while knitting after the kids went to bed.

Read this if you know Oedipus Rex.
Read this of you are a Red Rising fan.
Do not read if you hate tragedies.

I love well written tragedy.

teatimewithliam's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This is abreally interesting dystopian retelling of Antigone - which makes it baffling why it's a novella rather than a full novel. The world building is impressive foe the length of the book but it could have gone so much further. I also didn't expect the multi-pov approach for a novella but it both worked surprisingly well and simultaneously increased my frustration that the book wasn't longer.

It captures the themes of Antigone - female agency, resisting tyranny, shared grief - but sets them against the dystopia backdrop of a world on the brink of collapse, striving to find innovative ways to preserve life and resources.

Left me wanting (a lot) more.

spenkevich's review against another edition

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2.0

A dystopian society of forced birth and supposed regeneration of souls on a dying, radiated planet is beginning to fracture towards rebellion becomes the setting for a retelling of [a:Sophocles|1002|Sophocles|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1195014481p2/1002.jpg]’s [b:Antigone|7728|Antigone (The Theban Plays, #3)|Sophocles|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486701308l/7728._SY75_.jpg|1052210] in Veronica Roth’s Arch-Conspirator. Plucking the characters from the Greek story and launching them into a future fraught with political upheaval, the story very closely follows what you would expect with Antigone facing punishment for giving funeral rights to her deceased brother, Polyneikes, after he dies slaying his other brother in an attempt on the iron-fisted rule of their uncle, Kreon. There is a lot going on here, particularly in world building which is rather expansive and effective given the short length of the novella, and while it may often feel like there is just one element too many to properly balance in the framework of a Greek myth retelling, I applaud Roth for a solid effort and attempt. The story rotates between the perspectives of many of the characters, giving a variety of viewpoints and conflicting opinions that helps construct a really dynamic portrait of the events, though it does feel overly stuffed at times. Though while it was occasionally cumbersome, at least Arch-Conspirator is a bold and daring attempt that hits some fantastic moments of political struggles between characters as Antigone’s actions become a catalyst for a possible revolution in dystopian Thebes.

‘Seven houses crumbling on a Theban street. One’s got no fire, one’s got no heat. One’s got no water; one’s got no meat.’

The primary issue with Arch-Conspirator is that, while having inventive fun with the original tale, it seems like it is trying to do too much at once instead of exploring one theme really well. I love a retelling that really throws you for a loop, but I feel a total resetting of time and place to use the narrative as a modern political commentary was done much more effectively in Home Fire by [a:Kamila Shamsie|168076|Kamila Shamsie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1264510720p2/168076.jpg], which dealt with immigration and the Iraq war. I quite liked that we get to see conflicting opinions and perspectives that self-justify actions, though in Home Fire we spend much more time in these perspectives that allow them to be nuanced instead of such broad strokes as we have here.

The world building is excellent but also trying too many things at once. We have a fascinating and terrifying birthing system, with women forced to give birth through State fertility programs that selects the DNA of deceased citizens (there is a library of the dead, basically) and, through gene editing, creates a new life. In this way the people are told souls are reincarnated—Antigone finds this dubious though it is her brothers final wishes to have his soul collected, something Kreon denies him due to his “traitorous” demise—and pregnancies conceived through intercourse without gene editing are considered unnatural and create humans that lack souls. The now deceased Oedipus and Jocasta had their children this way, and so Antigone and her family are not only marked by their parents radical past but considered soulless vessels (Oedipus was a radical who believed ‘Immortality…should be for everyone’ and made the soul collection available to all). There is also the underexplored aspect that the planet is supposedly inhospitable to life now and the radiation is slowly hurting everyone, though a brief mention from Antigone gives the impression this might be partially orchestrated to keep everyone in the city under Kreon’s control.

‘What do you think would happen if I allowed a crack in my wall?’

While not enough, the perspective from Kreon really works. We see a man who, while doing horrible things, sees himself as making hard decisions that are ultimately good. It is a great reminder that most of the worst evils in the world are done by people convinced it is the right thing to do. How can humans survive without tough control, he feels, and see’s Antigone’s actions as a threat against his rule that could incite public opinion against him. Though, as his son Haemon comments, ‘You don’t want to allow a crack in your wall—but the crack is already there, and I fear this will widen it.’ I enjoyed these conversations the best, especially when the characters are arguing as it shows the situation is much more nuanced than it seems.

‘One man, High Commander or no, doesn’t have the right or the power to declare cruelty to be morality just because something has affected him personally. There is a word for the man who tries…tyrant.’

While the revolution brewing is a big driving part of the plot, it feels very under examined and could have easily been expanded for a full length novel. Rare for me to say as I love a short book, but this just needed room for all the elements to breathe more and be explored deeper. It just feels thrown together otherwise with quick mentions on how they interact and inform other decisions instead of truly seeing how each element bleeds into the others. Especially with Antigone’s story having such far reaching consequences.

‘For some reason, you talk to people about food shortages, power outages, contaminated water, the government disappearing people—you might as well be speaking another language. But if you tell them their High Commander wants to send a pretty young thing into space to waste away? Suddenly they’re listening.’

I love what she is doing, and for the most part I think she is doing it well and doing something really cool with the story, it just never quite came together well enough to fully land. And while I’m certainly of the mind that you can do whatever you want in retellings, I found the ending to be rather lackluster compared to how dramatic and abrupt the story of Antigone usually ends. Once again, I can’t help but compare it to Home Fire which I think really nailed a retelling ending.

“And if the election turns out something worse?”
Parth leaned forward.
“Then at least we would be responsible for our own doom.”

Despite some criticisms, Arch-Conspirator is a cool story and a really fun retelling, I only wish I felt it was all able to be more effectively juggled. Which isn’t really Roth’s fault as it would require an absolute master of literature to pull all this off in such a short space while also feeling polished and powerful. It just feels like biting off more than one can chew, though it still isn’t bad. Antigone is a great story and it was fun to see this done in a sci-fi setting.

2.5/5