SFF

Arch-Conspirator

by Veronica Roth
Tor. Feb. 2023. 128p. ISBN 9781250855466. $19.99. SF
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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 Kreon. As the children of the previous ruler, Antigone and her siblings are virtual prisoners of Kreon 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. Kreon 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 Kreon down.

CORRECTION: This review originally misspelled Kreon’s name.

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.
Reviewed by Marlene Harris , Nov 01, 2022
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