Provenance

Provenance
By Ann Leckie

Ann Leckie had one of the most acclaimed debuts in SF history with Ancillary Justice, the first novel in her Imperial Radch trilogy. Provenance returns us to the same Imperial Radch universe to tell a new story about a rather stressed-out young woman named Ingray who is looking to impress her high-ranking mom with a crazy plan involving the release of a notorious criminal from a prison zone.

The plan starts to go wrong right from the start, with what follows being less space opera than space operetta as Ingray becomes involved in a political comedy of errors that threatens to spiral into a major intergalactic-diplomatic incident.

Provenance is definitely lighter fare than the Radch trilogy, but it introduces us to some interesting new characters, cultures and technologies and makes for another entertaining and imaginative Leckie adventure.