The overwhelming quality which prevents me from digging my hooks fully into Provenance is the writing. Presented with an opportunity to seize the control that her mother is withholding from her, Ingray embarks upon a daring plan with the help of a recently-decanted criminal.

She's the daughter of a powerful aristocrat who treats her like trash in a hierarchical system which prizes agency and ruthlessness.

Moving away from the AI-fragment-stuck-in-a-flesh-body character of Breq, protagonist of Leckie's Ancillary trilogy, Provenance follows silver-tongued young woman Ingray.

Provenance is more of that kind of work, for better or worse. Like The Godfather, it certainly wasn't bad, but I didn't engage with it the way my fellow bookreaders seemed to (Goodreads users, if you're reading this, please don't hit me). But the actual book itself, away from the paratexts of awards and critical analyses, was just a fairly decent space story with some intriguing gender concepts, a bit of a problem with tone and a slightly bigger problem with the writing style. It bore a unique plot and fascinating protagonist. Her debut novel, Ancillary Justice, was certainly thought-provoking and a departure from garden variety sci-fi, winning every award under the sun and touting them proudly on the front cover. I think that's the same problem I've encounted with Ann Leckie's work. Certainly not a bad film by any stretch, but definitely not for me. The critical acclaim turned me off what would have otherwise been a pretty competent crime film - or an above-competent one whenever Marlon Brando is on-screen. It certainly wasn't bad, but I didn't engage with it the way all my fellow cinemaphiles seemed to (Stu, if you're reading this, please don't hit me). Part of it was that some aspects of the 1972 film had dated by the mid-2010s when I saw, but it was also because I was left underwhelmed given the immense praise the film had been heaped with.

A few years back, I watched The Godfather: a timeless classic and a cinematic tour de force, noted for many film awards and a ton of quotable lines.

Ann leckie provenance review