Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2023
128 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
From dystopian visionary and bestselling phenomenon Veronica Roth comes a razor-sharp reimagining of Antigone. In Arch-Conspirator, Roth reaches back to the root of legend and delivers a world of tomorrow both timeless and unexpected.
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.
"[A] taut, defiant reenvisioning of Sophocles's Antigone.... The plot preserves the shape of the original without ever losing the capacity to surprise and, more importantly, prod reflection and recognition. This powerful tale of reproductive oppression is sure to wow." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Roth deftly handles extensive world building, character development, and plot. Readers familiar with Sophocles' original story will have an extra dimension of appreciation, but those without that background will still race through the pages to learn Antigone's fate." - Booklist
"Roth uses the familiar tale of Antigone as a vehicle to tell a story about desperation, hubris, tyranny, and revolution. Combined with the dystopian setting of the dying planet and the tyrannical rule of the surviving city state, the story gives readers a heroine to root for, a despot to revile, and a thought provoking ending." - Library Journal
"Arch-Conspirator is a gut punch of a story. Roth takes everything fragile about love, everything powerful about certain doom, and blooms with it. You'll be holding your breath until the very last word." - Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six
"Roth's powerful retelling of Antigone transforms a bleak classical tragedy into a story of ferocious, bittersweet triumph―all set against the backdrop of a ravaged post-apocalyptic future." - Sunyi Dean, bestselling author of The Book Eaters
"Tragic and triumphant in equal measure. Roth is a storyteller who reaches new heights with every tale." - John Scalzi, bestselling author of The Kaiju Preservation Society
"Heartbreaking, intimate, inevitable. The worldbuilding tightens around the neck in a way that perfectly matches the noose-tension of the dramatic tragedy." - Max Gladstone, co-author of This Is How You Lose the Time War
"Veronica Roth's Arch-Conspirator is something rare and magnificent―a novella of epic voice and scale. 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
This information about Arch-Conspirator was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Veronica Roth is the New York Times bestselling author of Chosen Ones, the short story collection The End and Other Beginnings, the Divergent series, and the Carve the Mark duology. She is also the guest editor of the most recent The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
