A fantastical future world of giant robots, broken AIs, and brutal societies
Sunai has a problem. A lot of problems, given his true nature and role in life. And his possible relationship with an expert in AI shrines and technology, Veyadi, is just one of those thorny problems. But in a world where broken artificial intelligences, giant mecha robots and repressive city states are what the Earth has got, Sunai is going to have to deal with his problems, and the new ones engendered by an expedition that might awaken yet another AI god into an already fractious and corrupted world of them...
This is the story of The Archive Undying from Emma Mieko Candon.
Imagine a world of artificial intelligences as veritable gods, but fallible gods. Gods that can be corrupted, destroyed, changed. A world of advanced technology and hardscrabble living by the humans in the midst of gods, broken gods, mecha, and much more. It’s a tapestry rich with potential for worldbuilding.
And indeed the worldbuilding is where this novel really shines. The world Candon creates here is unpleasant in many ways. An undefined amount of time in the future (but given the utter lack of references to anything resembling our present, it’s a long time to be sure), the world appears to be a set of city-states or small polities. Artificial intelligences, in various levels of corruption or disrepair, run these city-states. Most of the states, from the implications in the novel, are much like other brutal, oppressive, hostile places that have resorted to violent control because of dangers like fragmentary portions of AI and war machines: “fragtech.” The potential of finding valuable things in shrines and in the ruins and the dangerous world outside the city-states does draw the desperate and determined, but even right in the city-state itself, fragtech can appear, and strange half-controlled mecha like the Maw. In other words, this is not a safe world, and it provides a canvas to build story and characters upon.
Speaking of mecha: My exposure to mecha (in the form of anime and manga, anyway) has been limited, and so this chance to appreciate giant robots (powered by AI, by corrupted AI, by fragtech and so forth) might be slightly wasted on me as a reader. Nevertheless, even with my limited exposure to such things, the giant robots and the conflicts and pulse-pounding action beats enthused me as a reader. This novel could be thought of as “Come for the action with giant robots, stay for the thought-provoking ideas about artificial intelligence, sentience, the uses of technology, society, and a love story all in the bargain.” And did I mention AIs?
Now imagine a fragment of one of those AIs, one Sunai, who has wound up in the Wrong Bed with the Wrong Person. He’s had a hard life, especially given that he mostly hides his true nature (who wouldn’t in this world?). The Archive Undying imagines Sunai (our primary point of view)’s life struggling to survive and persist in a world that is fascinating and precarious (even given his nature, and perhaps especially so). At the bottom of all of that worldbuilding that I’ve discussed through most of this review is the story of Sunai, his relationship with Veyadi and how they try to navigate a relationship that probably shouldn’t work, can’t work, but matters of the heart are the thorniest and prickliest things in this future world that Candon creates.
I’ve used that metaphor of thorns and prickliness a couple of times and I want to emphasize that again in the context of the social relations in the novel. People in this world have pasts and presents and intersect with each other in sharp, pointed, multidimensional ways. And while both Sunai and Veyadi are our protagonists and are definitely sympathetic protagonists at that, both of them have agendas and multiple angles to them and what they do. Where the magic really happens is in Candon throwing both men together in this relationship. I could see in the hands of another writer their relationship blowing up and falling to pieces, but that is not the story she wants to tell. But she doesn’t make it easy in the least for either of them.
There is also a clever use of point of view in the novel, showing the author’s skill and subtlety in bringing across character and theme. In addition to the primary point of view and narrative thread, Candon deploys the second person effectively in two ways. First, in bringing us some of the backstory of Sunai, and how he wound up tangled up with Veyadi and the story that unfolds in the primary narrative. And second, it helps introduce a “hidden character” to the narrative whose nature, motives and goals becomes clear as the novel moves toward its final act.1
It’s a rich and deeply interesting and immersive world that Candon has created. There are a couple of touchstones for me that came to mind. First up would be the world of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain. That novel imagines a future world that resonates somewhat with this one, with AIs running cities, the world outside quite dangerous to traverse, and a sense of populations bottled up with forces beyond their control in charge of them. That novel’s Kathmandu is a more pleasant place overall than the Harbor of this book, however. The Archive Undying turns the dystopian aspects of the far future setting a few notches up, and replaces myth and magic with the aforementioned mecha.
Also, I was put in mind of the Outside novels by Ada Hoffmann, which have AIs turning into gods and thus ruling the human population. That series has an interstellar feel to it, although the second novel in particular, The Fallen, mostly sticks to one broken planet, with a lot of dangers and leftovers for the humans to try and deal with even as gods and angels maneuver and scheme.
Overall, I found The Archive Undying richly and deeply detailed and a fascinating world and set of characters to visit. I do understand that more novels and stories are projected in this wildly inventive setting, and I look forward to reading them.
1. Maybe its just a recency effect, or just the luck of what I am reading, but I seem to be noticing more and more the careful and judicious use of second person tense in SFF recently. It’s never the only tense, and its use is as an added ingredient; load-bearing, but not the only thing going on. One thing that these stories seem to be exploring with the use of the second person is something that is implicit in every story that is not first person: Who is telling the story and what is their agenda and viewpoint? Second person has an intimacy in that someone is telling you what you are doing. Who that someone is (if the second person is done well) is incredibly important and can provide extra buttressing to the narrative. Candon manages that quite effectively here.
Highlights:
Interesting AI theology and setup
Fascinating use of point of view to engender intimacy in the narrative
GIANT MECHA
Reference: Candon, Emma Mieko. The Archive Undying [Tordotcom, 2023].
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.
