Provenance by Ann LeckieMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
At first I had trouble getting going with this novel. The setup is lighter and feels less ultimately important than the Ancillary trilogy--everything is smaller in scale. Hwae just feels like a less serious civilization than the Radch. Because it is, as it turns out. The protagonist, Ingray Aughskold, is maybe from an earlier but very authentic brand of female protagonist--she is not a brute, she doubts herself a lot, and makes mistakes. But she has excellent instincts.
The culture of Hwae feels very homey. The emphasis on "vestiges" rolls together souvenirs, artifacts and religious relics. It's a defining cultural affectation.
And that's what eventually grew on me about the book, and made it get better as it went along. The book wears its heart on its sleeve. All the characters are deeply motivated by forms of basic decency, even the less good ones. This theme is part of the Ancillary series as well, especially expressed through the Justice of Toren, but here it's front and center.
In the end, I liked the book very much. But if she revisits this world I hope she relies a little less on sentiment to drive the story.
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