The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

Goodreads Storygraph

"Giant robots stomp around a lush and tactile world of ruined cities and unknowable AI gods, which is all one could ever need." -TM

"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 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."

I'll level with you guys. I did not get this book. the only way I can describe the experience of reading this is to compare it to the time I fell out of tree as a kid and got a concussion...while also being sick with the flu. not a fun time for me. the glimpses of the plot I managed to understand were pretty interesting, but it was an act of excavation to find them. if you really get a kick out of not knowing what the hell is going on, I'd say go for it. but don't say I didn't warn you.