Reviews for Arch-conspirator
Book list
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Generations after a nuclear disaster, Thebes, the last known human settlement on Earth, is ruled by a tyrant, Kreon. In Thebes, reproduction is compulsory for women, but only using genetic material (“ichor”) extracted after death and stored in the city’s Archive for future use. When Antigone’s two brothers kill each other fighting—Polyneikes rising against Kreon and Etiokles standing in the high commander’s defense—Kreon decrees that not only will Polyneikes’ ichor not be harvested but anyone attempting the extraction will be executed. Grieving her lost twin, Antigone tries anyway, bolstered by the unexpected assistance of her betrothed, Kreon’s son Haemon. She’s caught and imprisoned, but as she awaits her fate, revolution is brewing in the Theban streets. There’s a lot going on in relatively few pages, but 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. Recommend to fans of Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars (2018), Seth Dickinson’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant (2015), or Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018).
Library Journal
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Roth (Poster Girl) takes the ancient story of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, and blasts it into a dystopian future, where there is one last habitable city left on Earth that is ruled by the tyrant Kleon. As the children of the previous ruler, Antigone and her siblings are virtual prisoners of Kleon and are reviled because their parents flouted the laws that surround reproduction. In their society, genetic diversity is shrinking, and ambient radiation must be gene spliced out of every fetus. The bodies of women are protected to the point of fetishization because they can bear young and continue the species. Kleon believes that his position is untouchable, so he rewrites the laws and sentences Antigone to death. But Antigone doesn't care about her own life—only that she can use it to bring Kleon down. VERDICT 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.—Marlene Harris
Publishers Weekly
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Readers who are tapped out on The Handmaid’s Tale as a parable for the current cultural moment will celebrate this taut, defiant reenvisioning of Sophocles’s Antigone, which brilliantly probes many of the same themes. Bestseller Roth, best known for the YA Divergent series, turns from trilogy sprawl to the confines of novella and expertly meets the demands of the form, offering just enough worldbuilding and keeping a tight focus on her well-drawn characters’ difficult choices. Antigone and her siblings are given refuge by Kreon, who overthrew their father’s government. Not only is it politically expedient for Kreon to keep his dead rival’s children alive, it’s necessary—because this is a postapocalyptic scenario: all genes are compromised, and every “viable womb” is precious to the state. The siblings are ostracized because they were naturally conceived and thus believed to be soulless. Souls can be embodied only by mixing the purified genes of the dead, who are then reborn via the surrogacy of the living. Though believed to be tainted, Antigone and her sister Ismene can still serve as such vessels. But when murder blights their lives again, will Kreon respect the right of Antigone’s beloved dead to be reborn? 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. (Feb.)
