Providence

by Max Barry

'Compelling and innovative... Barry takes a story that has been done countless times before and makes it seem original' - Daily Mail


She is the ultimate weapon. She once served us. Now she's got her own plans.

Once we approached the aliens in peace... and they annihilated us. Now mankind has developed the ultimate killing machine, the Providence class of spaceship.

With the ships' frightening speed, frightening intelligence and frightening weaponry, it's now the salamanders' turn to be annihilated... in their millions.

The mismatched quartet of Talia, Gilly, Jolene and Anders are the crew on one of these destroyers. But with the ship's computers designed to outperform human decision-making in practically all areas, they are virtual bystanders. The Providence will take them to where the enemy are and she will dictate the strategy in any battle.

The crew's only job role is to publicise their glorious war to a sceptical Earth. Social media and video clips are THEIR weapons in an endless charm offensive. THEIR chief enemy is not the space reptiles but each other, and boredom.

But then everything changes. A message comes from base: the Providence is going into the Violet Zone, where there are no beacons and no communications with Earth. It is the heart of the enemy empire - and now the crew are left to wonder whether this is a mission of ultimate destruction or, more sinisterly, of ultimate self-destruction...

PROVIDENCE is a dazzling, inventive, and thought-provoking new novel from the author of Lexicon.

• ISBN10: 152935207X
• ISBN13: 9781529352078
• Publish Date: 4 May 2021 (first published 31 March 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder Paperback
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

3.5*

Real talk: Being stuck in space would be terrifying. And I feel like a lot of books don't talk about how mind-numbingly boring it could get being stuck with the same handful of people for what has to seem like eons. But you know the old addage, be careful what you ask for. Because sometimes being bored is far preferable to the alternative, which is an alien species, whose literal life goal is to kill you, breathing down your neck.

As if life in space with only three other people wasn't rough enough, soon the crew ends up in a zone where they're unable to send or receive communication from the rest of the universe. Yikes. I mean, we have now been stuck with the same few folks for weeks now, can you imagine if we couldn't reach out to others? The author did a great job of making that seem realistic, though at times, it was a little bit of a slog, since the characters' lives were, at certain points, actual slogs.

There is a point where things pick up a bit, but I can straight up tell you nothing about it whatsoever, which stinks, because it is my favorite part of the book. But I will say, if you're thinking "hmm this is a bit slow" as you explore the characters' personalities and situations, know that things absolutely will pick up. This does make for some uneven pacing- going between the mundanity of space life to something far less calm, but I think worth it in the end. The characters were interesting, and I found much of the book to be quite thought-provoking.

Bottom Line: A slower start leads to a wild ride and a lot of character development in a very thought-provoking setting.