Provenance Hardcover – September 26, 2017

Ann Leckie's newest book suffers some from the weight of expectation. The Ancillary Trilogy was a tour de force, introducing readers to the incredible interesting character of Breq and the incredibly intricate world of the Radch.Provenance is wonderful in that it not only brings us back to that universe, it gives readers a new perspective on it, outside of the Radch and of many other human and alien groups making their way in a complicated galaxy. It is fun to read about the repercussions of Breq's adventures.The character development and world building talent Leckie exhibited in the Ancillary Trilogy are again on display. However they seem a tad more perfunctory this time around. The characters are a little too predictable and polished. The narrative just a bit too streamlined and deus ex machina'd. It is still a fantastic book - one I could barely put down - but not quite up to the authors own lofty standards. It reads like a very good book by a very talented author who need to write another book.All that said, Provenance is immensely fun. If you liked the world of the Ancillary Trilogy you will love this new addition. It's fast and fun and absolutely worth reading.

There's an awful lot wrong with this book. It's a story that essentially goes nowhere; the underlying question of whether the female protagonist will inherit her mother's name and position over her sleazebag brother hangs suspended until the end. And the answer is... No prize for guessing.The foreground action consists of speculations as to what might be going on, instead of things actually going on. There is little sense of location with long rather silly conversations taking place in generic voids such as 'her bedroom', a 'small galley on a spaceship', or the 'waiting room of an immigration office'The climax is undercut, partly becauses none of the participants is prepared to do anything for fear of violating 'the treaty' which stands as an obstacle to anything happening. Meanwhile, a far more interesting premise - the intention of the Raadch AI to form their own independent nation - goes completely to waste! Someone should write that book instead.It's also a bit of a grind to read, the writing is somewhat clunky and frequently indecipherable; eg while two ambassadors have a conversation the author refers to 'the ambassador'. I had problems working out who and where people were, exascerbated by the sheer number of non-crucial characters with unpronouncable names, none of whom do much to impel the storyline. Award for the most surreal moment: the heroine and her adoptive siste have a thing for each other and hope one day to.. you know.. marry or something. Fair enough. But then, somewhat unexpectedly, the two principal male characters both randomly come out of the closet. Together. It's most peculiar. As though Batman and Commisioner Gorden had spontaneously decided to become an item. If there's an important gender message in there it's lost on me.I liked Ancilliary Justice enough to give it 5 stars. Which just makes this all the more disappointing.

It would be helpful to reread the Raadch books, although not strictly necessary because Provenance is its own thing set perhaps a short time after Ancillary Mercy ended. I liked Ingray from the start; for one thing, she is noticeably more "human" than Breq of the Raadch books. While I admired Breq, she was also very austere, very stern. Ingray is much more fallible and vulnerable. She is certainly a misfit and the new misfit friendships she makes are entertaining.This book is very heavy on human politics, and a bit of alien politics as well. You might get a little lost if you don't pay attention, but I found it all very interesting. On the other hand, the book is also about Ingray's relationship with her family and I found that downright fascinating. Her family is very complex, all the individuals conniving about with various shades of likable, enigmatic, and douche.By far the most amusing thing is the aliens. The Geck are always very surprising and relentless. I also kept wondering about this future Conclave they kept talking about; it was also mentioned in Ancillary Mercy and I really, really want to see more books in this universe.

I’ll admit that the beginning of the book just didn’t click with me. The first time I saw the use of the pronoun “E” I thought it was a typo, I was confused by the avalanche of new names and places (also I foolishly didn’t reread the Imperial Radch trilogy so I had only vague memories of the world), and I found the initial stakes underwhelming. In short, I was on the path to declaring this book another entry in the mountain of disappointments that is my 2017 reading list. Thankfully, my initial impression couldn’t have been more wrong. Everything seemed to fall into place for me around the 50% mark, after which point I couldn’t stop reading. I stayed up late into the night to finish it, occasionally taking a break to refill my tea and jot down a few notes for this review. I have no idea what snagged me: maybe I finally let go of my reservations and let the book take me in or maybe that was when the plot started to ramp up or maybe I’ve fallen victim to some fell enchantment. Whatever happened (my money’s on enchantment), this book comes highly recommended.The pronoun gimmick threw me for a loop this time and not in a pleasant way, but well… this is Ann Leckie we’re talking about here and the general rule with her books is that if you can’t play nice with non-binary pronoun usage then you shouldn’t get on the ride. Eventually I got past my instinctual gag reflex at which point I found myself impressed with what she had done here. The highlight had to be a few notable sentences where she uses these pronouns to make language puns (in the narration, not character dialogue), which I found both clever and delightful.The optimal reading time for this book feels like a day or so. I would suggest spending a Saturday or Sunday sitting on a couch with this book in one hand and glass of tea in the other. If your tastes run parallel to mine you won’t be disappointed.