Provenance - Ann Leckie

Published by Orbit Books: London, England, 2017.

A strange science-fiction book, in that it is a simple storyline, but with a strange amount of complex world-building for a 'stand alone' novel. Apparently this is because Provenance is set in the same universe as author Ann Leckie's previous trilogy, but as a reader fresh to Leckie's world, I found it a little confusing. Not only are there numerous political factions and treaties being signed between groups that the reader never actually encounters in the book, but Leckie also includes a third gender into her world without explaining fully how the whole thing works. This is particularly disorienting when the third gender is referred to as 'e' (as opposed to 'he' or 'she') or 'eir' (as opposed to 'their') with no warning - I honestly thought the book was just poorly edited for quite some time. 

As for the storyline itself, we follow Ingray Aughskold, the adopted daughter of Netano Aughskold, as she seeks to impress her mother and out-manoeuvre her more politically minded brother. The way Ingray intends to do this is by paying for the convicted thief Pahlad Budrakim - one of this third gender, known as a 'neman' (as opposed to 'man' or 'woman') - to be released from Compassionate Removal, with the aim for learning where Pahlad had hidden various stolen items that could give Ingray some advantage in her political machinations. This plan quickly goes sideways - although Pahlad has seemingly been 'delivered' to Ingray, this person may not actually be Pahlad. There are also now a group of aliens known as the Geck after the captain of the ship Ingray was hoping to escape on. Later on in the novel a murder mystery of sorts complicates things further, and eventually there is a bit of heroic self-sacrifice and various other twists and turns as well.

Really, its all a bit scattered. Ingray simply goes from place to place reacting to whatever happens to her, and this can mean that the plot dances all over the place as well. By the end of the novel Ingray has successfully impressed her mother, but even this is done less by design and more by chance.

I don't know. It didn't really do much for me.

Completed 27 September 2022.

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