Provenance by Ann Leckie
Orbit Books, 2017. ISBN 9780356506968
(Age: Adult) Highly recommended. Themes: Science fiction, Coming of
age, Power, Sibling rivalry, Theft, Alien culture. Ingray, in a
desperate bid to outwit her brother and impress her mother the
Netano, frees a thief from Compassionate Removal, a prison planet
from which nobody has ever returned. She returns home to her planet
where she finds things are unsettled and when she is the first on
the scene of a murder in a public park, danger escalates.
This is a stand-alone novel set in the Imperial Radch universe,
where her award winning Ancillary Justice was based, but it
is not necessary to have read any of the other novels that the
author has written. The background of the space station, the alien
Geck, the strange customs of collecting artefacts and the family
dynamics are all vividly described, but it is the character and
action of Ingray that grabs the reader's attention and keeps it
focused on the story. At first glance Ingray seems to be rather an
ineffectual young woman, a bit prone to losing her hair pins and
crying, but as Captain Tic comments, give her 10 minutes to fall
apart and then she will come up with an outlandish but workable
solution to any problem that is facing her. The problems include
getting a thief off an inaccessible planet, solving a murder, being
diplomatic with an important Geck ambassador and rescuing her mother
and orphan children when they are held captive by an invading army.
The family dynamics are fully fleshed out, with Ingray desperate to
gain her foster mother's attention, while putting her brother Danach
in his place. As the story progresses so does Ingray's growth in
understanding of what she wants for herself and what is the best
position for her in the family. A fascinating side plot is the
reverence that artefacts hold for members of the planet, and the
fact that they could be fraudulent but still important in the eyes
of the populace.
Provenance introduced me to the author, winner of the Hugo,
Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke and Locus Awards, and I will definitely be
picking up her first three books,
Pat Pledger