Provenance by Ann Leckie is set in the Ancillary universe, but doesn’t have much to do with the Radch or any of the known characters. Instead, it’s a pleasant little space-opera adventure. I enjoyed it a lot, even if it didn’t have the same quality as the Ancillary trilogy – it clearly doesn’t aim to be the same book, and that worked for me. The protagonist is young, sometimes clever, but noticeably inexperienced and often wrong. There are a couple of inconsistencies in her character, I’d say (both painfully insecure, and sufficiently sure of herself to pull off big plots of her own?), but having the inner view on a clever, but anxious person was convincing, all things considered. As usual for Leckie, relationships are not really fleshed out (because, again, the protagonist is somewhat clueless, although we do get a very low-key romance), so it falls to the reader to notice interactions and draw conclusions. The worldbuilding was very good, as to be expected, and I’d have loved to see more of it, especially of the different human and non-human cultures.
So, if you like scifi adventures with a believable cast, great worldbuilding, and no Chosen One Saving The World, Provenance should fit the bill. Sadly, I have now read everything there is to read from Ann Leckie, and I’ll have to wait for her next book to come out. Thankfully this isn’t a long wait: Her first Fantasy novel will come out in February next year.
