Ann Leckie

Provenance

Ryan LaFerney

Provenance is another richly textured and graceful novel from Ann Leckie. Although Provenance doesn't quite live up to its predecessors (the amazing Imperial Radch Trilogy whose first novel, ancillary Justice, won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award) it still possesses enough charm and wit, intrigue and action to keep readers hooked. Provenance is a cozy sci-fi mystery set in the same Radchaai universe as Leckie’s debut trilogy, although it doesn’t directly continue Breq’s (our protagonist from the Imerpial Radch trilogy) story. Instead, Provenance focuses on Ingray Aughskold, who is clever and resourceful and likable and believable female protagonist. Ingray pays to have a convicted criminal released from prison, as part of a complex plot involving forgery and stolen antiquities, she rapidly finds herself drawn into a much more serious plot involving murder and angry aliens.
Ingray’s journey is as hectic (and as endearing) as her personality: what starts as a prison break story tinged with an unfortunate case of mistaken identity shifts gears to a heist story, then to a family drama, and then to a comedy of political intrigue, and then…. 
What is at the heart of the story is the family drama: Ingray is determined to prove her worth to her high-ranking foster-mother Netano Aughskold, even if that means spending all of her inheritance on a scheme to impress her mother that might not work out. This story ultimately is about the question of where people come from, and how an individual is formed.

This was a fun mis-mash of a space adventure novel, complete with a likable aristocratic young heroine in the gender-neutral universe we come to be intrigued by. As always, I appreciate that Leckie's universe feels lived in. Leckie’s imagined universe feels familiarly old-fashioned and quite homely, and that's nice. I felt that the middle was a bit of a slog however. 

3.5. out of 5

For fans of: Lois McMaster Bujold and John Scalzi.

Didi Chanoch

Whenever an author who burst on the scene with a debut novel or series goes on to the next, there's always a bit of fear. What if that one book or series was their one and only great story?

When it comes to Ann Leckie, we can put that fear aside, now that her next is here. Provenance is a wonderful novel, a cozy mystery with great implications, a terrific character study and an introduction to new and fascinating parts of the same universe as her Ancillary books. 

If anything, her writing seems more assured and lighter on its feet. Leckie knows this universe, with all of its marvelous quirks. 

Ingray, our protagonist, is a wonderful character. Brilliant but anxious, suffering from low self esteem and genuinely kind. It was a pleasure following her as she is thrust into adventure.

Provenance

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