Provenance, by Ann Leckie

[asakiyume]

I loved it! Here's a non-spoilery review (duplicates what I've put up at Goodreads)

The book's called Provenance, and it's a perfect title, because where things--or people--come from and what (who) they really are is a central theme. The main character, Ingray, is the daughter of a powerful politician from the Hwae system--only actually she's a child from a public crèche, and that sense of her own insignificant roots weighs heavily on her and affects her actions. Hwae society is very wrapped up in what they call vestiges, a term that indicates everything from historical artifacts to personal mementos and souvenirs (one thing that Ann Leckie is excellent at is strange-ifying things--like museums or the importance of artifacts--to reveal stuff about human nature), but what if foundational vestiges are false? The two people Ingray first interacts with are also of mysterious provenance, and their claimed identities change.

In terms of story, there are multiple plots and schemes interacting, from the very personal (Ingray's competition with her brother) to the statewide (Ingray's family is in competition with another family for influence) to the regional planetary (a neighboring federacy wants to manipulate or pressure Hwae into granting it certain concessions that will work to its advantage in the region) to the galactic (the treaty with alien species, which *no* one wants broken, but which is at constant risk).

Ingray is a **very** different protagonist from Breq (from the Imperial Radch trilogy--Ancillary Justice etc.): she's not superhuman in the least, and that makes her bravery extra-impressive ... and very persuasive. When you see her doing things she's terrified of doing but that she feels she has to do to for the sake of people she cares about, it's inspiring! Makes you believe maybe you could too. Not that that's what the book's aiming for, but it's a great side benefit.

And there's humor threaded through the book, whether it's the fact that "compassionate removal" is the Hwaen euphemism for prison or the fact that the Radchaai ambassador to the Presger just can't keep pronouns straight. There are also some uproarious examples of insufficient machine translation.

And some really marvelous aliens. Folks, you will love the Geck ambassador. She's just wonderful.

I'll mention a couple of things I was less enthusiastic about just to acknowledge that they were present: there was a budding romance for Ingray that felt unnecessary and a bit shoehorned in: the object of affection was an interesting person who did bring out the best in Ingray at some key moments, and I could see how *in time* affection/romance might bloom, but Ingray's attention--rightly--was completely elsewhere most of the time, so.

There's also a lot of explaining that goes on. I didn't mind this exactly--I think it's good to make stuff clear to your readers--But sometimes I felt that the level and wide-rangingness of the discussion wasn't credible for a situation. In the end, though, I decided to accept it as an artistic choice, like accepting in a detective story when the detective gathers all the suspects in a room at the end to go over what happened. It was a conscious decision, though.

But let me get back to my main point. This is an excellent, immersive, surprising, fun, thought-provoking, and moving book. Highly recommended.

Comments

[sovay]

but what if foundational vestiges are false? The two people Ingray first interacts with are also of mysterious provenance, and their claimed identities change.

Nice.

I've planned to read this since it came out on grounds of Ann Leckie, but you are definitely providing encouragement!

[asakiyume]

The theme of forgery, of accepting things/people for the *claim* of what they are rather than going for some literal fact--and how conscious decisions to honor claims are what ends up being important--I loved that, and it was everywhere in all levels of the story.

I really loved Capt. Uisine's story, and I feel confident you will too.

[sartorias]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So glad, too! I've wanted to read more Leckie, but I'm still trying to disengage the unfortunate mind-movie from the first one enough to tackle the rest of that series.

[asakiyume]

I really enjoyed this too. So many neat touches. I eagerly await whatever she happens to give us next!

[minoanmiss]

This sounds like a good way to get into Ann Leckie's works. *makes a note*

[asakiyume]

I take it you haven't read the others, right? If you do read this one, I'd be very interested in your experience!

[larryhammer]

I'm still slowly moving up my library's hold list for it ...

[asakiyume]

Will be interested in your feelings about it once you've read it!

[kore]

I wanted to love this book so much, because I loved the Radch books so much (and we see the problem right there). I've tried a couple of times, but I just bounce right off the opening chapters -- the events and tone. It felt way more top-down looking at the society, rather than the bottom-up approach in he Justice books that I loved. Maybe it's just not for me. Or maybe I should try something like an audiobook. But I get the feeling this is an "it's not you, it's Moi" problem.

[asakiyume]

Well of course there's the not-all-books-are-for-everyone thing, and yeah, having third-person narrative focused on someone like Ingray makes for a very different type of story. However--not to say you'll have the same experience I did but--I found that I had reservations in those early chapters that went away after they were back on Hwae.

How did you feel about Ancillary Sword? If you enjoyed some of the on-planet stuff there, I think if you pushed through those initial chapters, you might like this one. Ingray gets more and more interesting (I didn't have much sympathy for her initial motivations), and both Capt. Uisine and ... the other guy [names are spoilers!] ended up having very interesting stories.

[kore]

How did you feel about Ancillary Sword? If you enjoyed some of the on-planet stuff there, I think if you pushed through those initial chapters, you might like this one. Ingray gets more and more interesting (I didn't have much sympathy for her initial motivations), and both Capt. Uisine and ... the other guy [names are spoilers!] ended up having very interesting stories.

I LOVED Ancillary Sword, so this is making me more hopeful! Yeah, I have to admit I found Ingray very unsympathetic at first, and of course the inner comparisons to Breq weren't helping. Maybe if I just push through the opening chapters and try to think of it as being by a different author, that would help.

[queenoftheskies]

I've been wanting to read this, so I'm glad to see your review!