
The Archive Undying
The Downworld Sequence, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Yung-I Chang
About this listen
War machines and AI gods run amok in The Archive Undying, national bestseller Emma Mieko Candon's bold entry into the world of mecha fiction.
WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT
WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND
WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK
When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to life: its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.
The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies.
Come get in the robot.
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.
©2023 Emma Mieko Candon (P)2023 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Giant robots stomp around a lush and tactile world of ruined cities and unknowable AI gods, which is all one could ever need.”—New York Times bestselling author Tamsyn Muir
“The Archive Undying is everything you could want in a mecha novel. Emma Mieko Candon is brilliant.”—Ann Leckie, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of Ancillary Justice
“Candon pours her/their elaborate setting of weird artifacts, monstrous fragtech, and corrupted AI through an intense and intimate emotional focus to create a vivid journey of recovery and reclamation.”—New York Times bestselling author, Kate Elliott
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The Incandescent
- By: Emily Tesh
- Narrated by: Zara Ramm
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Walden is good at her job—no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from—is herself.
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My favorite book of the year
- By lsrygl on 05-15-25
By: Emily Tesh
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Radiance Books 1-3: M/M Fantasy Romance
- Radiance
- By: Tavia Lark
- Narrated by: Kai Rubio
- Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Necromancer Shae loses more of himself every time he uses his magic. Always cold, always touch-starved, the only thing that helps is human contact. But Shae's dark powers scare everyone away. Even his new paladin bodyguard Arthur keeps his distance. Until Arthur finds Shae unconscious and shivering—and doesn't let go.
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Wonderfully detailed, wonderfully acted
- By Anonymous User on 03-25-25
By: Tavia Lark
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The Jasmine Throne
- By: Tasha Suri
- Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
- Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Exiled by her despotic brother, princess Malini spends her days dreaming of vengeance while imprisoned in the Hirana: an ancient cliffside temple that was once the revered source of the magical deathless waters but is now little more than a decaying ruin. The secrets of the Hirana call to Priya. But in order to keep the truth of her past safely hidden, she works as a servant in the loathed regent’s household, biting her tongue and cleaning Malini’s chambers.
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I had to stop
- By Evanlee on 07-11-21
By: Tasha Suri
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Bonds of Brass
- The Bloodright Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Emily Skrutskie
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Ettian's life was shattered when the merciless Umber Empire invaded his world. He's spent seven years putting himself back together under its rule, joining an Umber military academy and becoming the best pilot in his class. Even better, he's met Gal - his exasperating and infuriatingly enticing roommate who's made the academy feel like a new home.
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I didn't like it, but your mileage may vary
- By Zell Oakley on 04-15-20
By: Emily Skrutskie
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A Psalm for the Wild-Built
- Monk & Robot, Book 1
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Em Grosland
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
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The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 07-15-21
By: Becky Chambers
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Steel Foundations
- Will of the Immortals, Book 1
- By: Jay Krauss
- Narrated by: Armen Taylor
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Leon Jäger, a stoic and unyielding knight, lives by a simple code: repay kindness with a river of ambrosia, and slights with total destruction. When an unexplainable force pulls him into a foreign world where magic flows and monsters roam, his creed will be tested like never before. Struggling to comprehend powers beyond his imagination, Leon must master the mystical art of Qi cultivation while hiding his abilities from those who might exploit them.
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Unique premise, generic execution (light spoilers)
- By Anonymous User on 04-24-25
By: Jay Krauss
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The Crimson Crown
- By: Heather Walter
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Legends tell of a witch who became a queen—the heartless villain in the story of Snow White. But now the wicked queen is stepping out of Snow White’s shadow to become the heroine of her own legend. Her real “once upon a time” begins when she is just Ayleth, a young witch who lives in the forest with her coven. The witches practice their magic in secret, hiding from the White King and his brutal war against witchcraft. Ayleth, however, faces a war of her own.
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it was good buuut
- By Anonymous User on 08-31-24
By: Heather Walter
Candon’s worldbuilding leaves much to be desired as the current state of the world as well as how it got this way is never fully fleshed out. The whole tale is reminiscent of the 70’s film ‘Zardoz’ with a set of contrived arrangements that permit a story, but without much satisfaction.
The narration is acceptable with some character distinction. Pacing is on the slow side.
AI evolution towards corruption
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No idea what’s going on
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Note, I am DNF on this one. I also made the mistake of buying the audio book which seemed to amplify its problems.
While tossing out terms like killer AIs who kill cities, frag-tech (bio tech fragments), archives (people), relics (people?), corruption etc. may set a tone, none are defined.
The technobabble is incomprehensible—so this is high fantasy with a weak magic system and incomplete world building.
The word “archive” is misused. The term “neurotransmitter” seems misused too.
<<Spoiler alert >>
The fragments eat people. One is called a “dragon child”. Are there any grown up dragons?
Don’t buy the audio book
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Good, but not a great format for Audible
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I respect her commitment to avoiding info-dumps. Another reviewer was like, “Please spell out the world-building,” and I disagree with that sentiment. Info-dumps take you out of the flow of the story and often feel very YA. The author clearly decided she would avoid them altogether. That’s great, it’s a laudable goal, but she doesn’t pull it off. I spent 80% of this book saying—out loud—“what? wait…what? who? why?!” There’d be these passages where the narration was like “suddenly it all made sense” or “sunai understood everything” and I was like, “Uhh, I don’t.”
I STILL do not understand almost any character’s motivation, which I think is the central reason it’s so hard to connect with. The main love story is so rushed that it’s nonsensical. Everyone knows everyone or maybe they don’t but they definitely do? Divine convergence, amirite? Who is the Harbor? Wtf do they want? What does ANYONE want? The plot ends up feeling like nonsense, and by the end I was just desperate for it to be over. The last 40 minutes took me two weeks to finish. The ending lacked any sort of emotional punch, both because of the aforementioned complete lack of understanding of why anyone was doing what they were doing, but also because the perspective shifts so constantly that it becomes impossible to tell who is talking.
It’s hard not to compare this to what I think to be pretty obvious influences: Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series and Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Locked Tomb is similar in how it handles world-building, but the writing is nuanced instead of intentionally obfuscated, and you learn about the world in pieces that make sense, like a slowly revealed tapestry instead of jackson pollock painting. Where I think it fails in comparison to Eva is that was a visual medium. The author has also written graphic novels, and I honestly think this would have been waaaay better as one. She could do so much with images that she can’t with words, and I think we’d all be less confused.
I had this on my wishlist for almost a year before it came out, and I was pretty disappointed in the result. I highly doubt I’d return for a book 2, but I might sample the author’s work again down the road once she’s figured some things out.
Hard to connect with
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confused
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The Secret Shouldn’t Be The World Building
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A meditation on interbeing
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I'm not usually into mecha/robot stuff (I'm more of a high fantasy nerd) but the book blurb was so wild that I had to read the sample and it hooked me immediately! So much that, despite planning on reading it, I decided to buy the audio book so I could listen to it at work.
The characters are funny, interesting and multifaceted in their motivations. It's difficult not to like any of them even as their motivations clash. I was especially charmed with Jin, I love a little cunning, sassy bastard, especially a non-binary one.
It was a little difficult to follow sometimes (I got a little lost near the end) because it is, at its root, speculative fiction, but by the time the book was nearing the end, everything came together and I wasn't left feeling like I was missing anything (even though I'm sure I did, lol!) It's going to warrant a re-read in the near future, for sure.
The narrarator for the audio book was fantastic as well! The character voices were distinct and it was easy to follow who was speaking and whose POV it was, even when they blurred together. His cadence and voice were a perfect fit for the book.
This can definitely be a stand-alone as it felt complete, but I'm very excited to see that this may be part of a series! Looking forward to seeing what the author writes next. Thank you so much for this book!
Wonderful!
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multiple voices with out multiple audio voices.
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