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natalie_bee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
meghaha's review against another edition
3.0
This was a bit disappointing. It's not that Provenance is a bad book (it's actually pretty decent), I just have really high, perhaps unrealistic expectations for books by Ann Leckie. I still think about how much I liked Ancillary Justice from time to time, and I read it three years ago. Of course, the rest of the Imperial Radch trilogy didn't quite match up to Leckie's spectacular debut and this latest book is more of the same in that it's decent and capably written but nothing special. Ancillary Justice was special and I keep hoping Leckie will produce something like it again and so far she hasn't. Perhaps I should just accept decent is what I can get from Leckie so that I can enjoy her books as they are rather than yearn for what they aren't.
I'll admit I read Provenance very quickly and it was a smooth, easy read, which is great because I haven't finished a novel in a few weeks. However, there was something quite off-center about the plot and the main character, Ingray. I don't know how to explain it. I don't want to say it was too-small concerns within a wider, more interesting conflict, but that's how it came off. I mean, I appreciate that Ingray is insecure, I quite like books that focus on character development, and she does need to establish her identity as it relates to family, which is a perfectly worthy theme. But I just kind of thought the whole sibling rivalry thing was a bit uninteresting, and some incidents felt sort of unbalanced in the scope of the expansiveness of the world-building that included several planets, and political conflicts between multiple societies and species. In some ways I felt like this book should've been Young Adult and would have been better if Leckie had decided that and picked up some of the conventions of the genre, as I feel like this had a strong coming-of-age center, but was struggling to see itself as such.
I don't know. Something was just off. I wish I had a stronger sense of the Tic or Garal (blank faces to me) or of any of the supporting characters. Ingray's doubts and fears and kindness and mess-ups did feel authentic to me, so that's something.
I'll admit I read Provenance very quickly and it was a smooth, easy read, which is great because I haven't finished a novel in a few weeks. However, there was something quite off-center about the plot and the main character, Ingray. I don't know how to explain it. I don't want to say it was too-small concerns within a wider, more interesting conflict, but that's how it came off. I mean, I appreciate that Ingray is insecure, I quite like books that focus on character development, and she does need to establish her identity as it relates to family, which is a perfectly worthy theme. But I just kind of thought the whole sibling rivalry thing was a bit uninteresting, and some incidents felt sort of unbalanced in the scope of the expansiveness of the world-building that included several planets, and political conflicts between multiple societies and species. In some ways I felt like this book should've been Young Adult and would have been better if Leckie had decided that and picked up some of the conventions of the genre, as I feel like this had a strong coming-of-age center, but was struggling to see itself as such.
I don't know. Something was just off. I wish I had a stronger sense of the Tic or Garal (blank faces to me) or of any of the supporting characters. Ingray's doubts and fears and kindness and mess-ups did feel authentic to me, so that's something.
whirl's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
solhibou's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
katerintree's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
unicorn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mckracken's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
darkskybooks's review against another edition
4.0
I quite enjoy it when authors take you into there previously established worlds from another angle. Ann Leckie is doing exactly that in Provenance. Here we enter the universe that was established in the original Imperial Radch trilogy, but we have new characters, new worlds, new politics. The events told previously are obliquely referenced and seem to be occurring somewhat concurrently, but we follow the goings on in a minor backwater system with its own petty squabbles on a different scale.
Here we follow Ingray, minor scion of an important family trying to secure her status and inheritance by rescuing a con artist from prison. But when she does so she ends up engaging the services of a captain running from a reclusive species and dragged into a conflict between her home world and one of its neighbours. Full of the same clever political machinations that typified the earlier Imperial Radch stories this is an intriguing companion novel. Separate but interlinked, sharing all the same DNA and telling a pretty enjoyable tale in the process
Here we follow Ingray, minor scion of an important family trying to secure her status and inheritance by rescuing a con artist from prison. But when she does so she ends up engaging the services of a captain running from a reclusive species and dragged into a conflict between her home world and one of its neighbours. Full of the same clever political machinations that typified the earlier Imperial Radch stories this is an intriguing companion novel. Separate but interlinked, sharing all the same DNA and telling a pretty enjoyable tale in the process