"Provenance" by Ann Leckie (BR)

[Meredith]

Hello all, welcome to the Provenance, by Ann Leckie, Buddy Read. Except for first impressions, please use spoiler tags and indicate chapter/page/percent for your comments.

[Paul]

Ooh, I'd forgotten about this; I'll make sure it's next up in my queue.

[Jacqueline]

I started this the other day. Didn’t realise it was a buddy read this month. Really loved her Imperial Radch series and have been looking forward to getting into this one. Enjoying it so far.

[Kaa]

I'm 3 chapters into the audiobook and liking it so far. Adjoa Andoh is one of my favorite narrators.

[Paul]

Kaa wrote: "I'm 3 chapters into the audiobook and liking it so far. Adjoa Andoh is one of my favorite narrators."


I've got the paper copy, but knowing Adjoa Andoh narrates the audio is a damned big selling point!

[Kaa]

Paul wrote: "I've got the paper copy, but knowing Adjoa Andoh narrates the audio is a damned big selling point!"

I am a super visual person, so audiobooks are almost never my first choice, but I went out of my way to get the audiobook of this because I loved her work on the Imperial Radch trilogy so much.

Through Ch 8: (view spoiler)[Very entertaining so far! I loved Ingray's conversation with her nuncle in this chapter because it managed to provide humor, new information about their family, and a helpful summary of all of the complicated plotting that Ingray has found herself caught up in. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

Through the end of Chapter 6, (view spoiler)[ I've been waiting for the pace to pick up, and now things seem to be happening. Of course, I suspect I have missed many small but significant details along the way that will become important at a later point. (hide spoiler)]

[Kaa]

Just finished this morning! Overall, I thought it was an entertaining book, and the narration pushed it from 4 to 5 stars for me. (view spoiler)[It felt very different in tone from the trilogy - this is cozier and more personal, because Ingray as a protagonist is much closer to just your average person than Breq. I thought Ingray's character arc was very well done, and I liked the complexity of her family dynamics.

As in that series, one of my favorite parts is the humor that Andoh brings the the narration - I laughed aloud on the bus and in the gym multiple times (hide spoiler)]

[Paul]

I confess that I'm struggling with reading this. I don't dislike it, but it's not gripping me; I just don't find the writing style very engrossing. The story is interesting enough so I think I'll persevere.

[Meredith]

I finished and I liked it but wasn't as grabbed by it as I expected, based on the Radch books. I did give it 4 stars, bumped from 3.5 for (view spoiler)[ 1) the development of the different cultures/civilizations. I liked when folks from one culture would point out the 'strangeness' of some aspect of another, it was done with a light-hearted tone; 2) having a mix of genders, though not entirely explaining everything (and gently poking fun at the Radchaai for not being able to use the right gender terms; 3) the Geck ambassador storyline, I loved that she was acting kinda nuts for a completely personal reason (hide spoiler)]. I liked seeing a new part of the universe that Leckie is developing, the humor, and Ingray as an unlikely heroine but thought (view spoiler)[the book never quite decided on its tone. The humor verged on 'screwball comedy' which would have been fun, at other points it was almost a caper story, and of course it was about politics inter- and intra-planetary which Leckie always handles well. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah, The Unsettled]

Meredith wrote: "I finished and I liked it but wasn't as grabbed by it as I expected, based on the Radch books. I did give it 4 stars, bumped from 3.5 for [spoilers removed]. I liked seeing a new part of the univer..."

I read this almost exactly a year ago- so I am just kind of lurking here rather than participating, but I agree with everything you said. Although I did like it better than I liked Ancillary Sword. I also struggled with the waffling tone. I think it would have been better if she just picked something and went all the way with it no matter what it was.

(view spoiler)[The Geck Ambassador story line was hysterical and thoroughly entertaining though. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

Sarah wrote: "Meredith wrote: "I finished and I liked it but wasn't as grabbed by it as I expected, based on the Radch books. I did give it 4 stars, bumped from 3.5 for [spoilers removed]. I liked seeing a new p..."

Leckie does humor well. As I recall, the humor in the Ancillary books was understated, and not the main point, while this book uses it very differently and deftly. (view spoiler)[ The first scene with Nuncle Lak is where I started getting the screwball feel: "So it really isn't as bad as I thought it was at first," observed Nuncle Lak, after the briefest silence. "It's worse." Also, Ingray's running back and forth between different places on Hwae had a good breathless and breakneck feel. (hide spoiler)]

[Meredith]

Here is a link to "Night's Slow Poison," a short story set in a different part of the Radch universe:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...