Arch-conspirator

Select an Action

Title:

Arch-conspirator

Alternate title:

Archconspirator

Author:

Roth, Veronica, author.

Summary:

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. Antigone’s parents―Oedipus and Jocasta―are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, 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. -- Amazon.

General Note:

"Doomed from the start. All of us." -- Cover.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

112 pages ; 22 cm

Genre:

Science fiction.

Mythological fiction.

Personal Subject:

Antigone (Mythological character)-Fiction.

Subject Term:

Families -- Fiction.

Dictators -- Fiction.

Women heroes -- Fiction.

Revolutions -- Fiction.

Publisher:

A Tor Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates/Tor Publishing Group,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9781250855466

Publication Information:

New York, NY : A Tor Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates/Tor Publishing Group, 2023.

Call Number:

ROTH

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003654152	New Adult Fiction	ROTH Veronica	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In this gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Antigone , #1 New York Time s bestselling author Veronica Roth reaches back to the root of legend and delivers a world of tomorrow both timeless and unexpected.

"I'm cursed, haven't you heard?"

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.

Antigone's parents--Oedipus and Jocasta--are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, 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.

"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

Author Notes

Veronica Roth was born on August 19, 1988 in New York. She graduated from Northwestern University's creative writing program. She is a full-time author whose books include Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant. Divergent was adapted into a movie in 2014. In 2015 Insurgent made The New York Time Best Seller List. She also wrote four short stories from Divergent's character, Tobias Eaton's point of view. That book, entitled Four: A Divergent Collection, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2014. She wrote Carve the Mark which made the bestseller list in February 2017. The Fates Divided, which is the sequel to Carve the Mark, was publised April 2018.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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.)

Library Journal Review

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