A frustrating read. While a voice of undeniably avid and assured intelligence animates the story, the execution is mushy and oblique ... Giant robot fights are indisputably cool, but it’s hard to be invested in them when you don’t know why they’re fighting or what will happen if they win or lose.
The narrative becomes crowded with big feelings, unspoken revelations and confusing conspiracies ... The Archive Undying has a great premise; the follow-through doesn’t quite hold up.
The unfolding of a complex web of relationships, Sunai and Veyadi’s romance, and the consequences of their relationships with now-destroyed AI form a satisfyingly solid foundation for a revenge quest.
Fascinating if sometimes disorienting ... Candon’s fresh, vivid worldbuilding skillfully blends anime staples like giant robots and cigarette-smoking aunties with edgy SFF tropes ... Though the emotional thread of trauma, guilt, and grief is well-executed, the narrative is written in an elaborate, often evasive style that may lead some readers feeling left behind by the plot.
Readers may find themselves desperately searching for more explanatory backstory, which is only partially forthcoming ... It's not always possible to tell who is narrating or experiencing various moments of the story, as consciousnesses merge and only incompletely separate. There’s definitely some important point being made about the nature of sentience, but it’s not 100% clear what that point is.
