This Post Has 12 Comments

1. Great popcorn novel with a hint of something more
   This novel is about 90% popcorn flick novel and 10% sci-fi thinker, which makes it quite the page turner. The story is simple enough humans vs aliens, following the mission of a four person crew on the space ship providence. The small cast features very strong archtypes that consistently play off each other and propel the narrative through the somewhat basic story. Of the four characters one was a bit too bland for me and I ended up skimming their back story sections a bit. The other three characters had a bit of something going on to make them compelling to me. If the book was 100% popcorn flick pulp I’d give it four stars. I can say that at around the third act I was fully engrossed in the story and actually delayed reading it because I wanted to finish it in one sitting, which is a testament to how much I enjoyed it. The 10% sci-fi thinker puts it in the 5 star category, the ship in the story is AI powered and the plot leaves room for the reader to ponder some big questions around autonomy, propaganda, and so on. I also found the explanations of the aliens extremely clever and were an excellent complement to the AI.

   Reply

2. Fun but no Lexicon
   I was introduced to Max Barry by Lexicon, a book I loved and continue to recommend to anyone who will sit still and listen for maybe even 10 seconds. Providence is a good bit of Sci Fi, clever, interesting, and well written but not mind bending in the way that Lexicon was. Maybe I just have to accept that Max writes many good books but thus far, only one great one.

   Reply

3. This is a great ending for me.
   I just spent the last week or so reading all of Barry’s books. It started with a Reddit post about how older scifi always had oppressive governments as the bad guys or something. My take was that going forward we’ll be seeing more and more multinational corporations as the bad guys. Someone suggested that I read Jennifer Government as a satirical take on that idea. I read it that night. It was fun. I thought maybe I’d try something else so I bought Machine Man. It was not all that great but I still enjoyed it. Next was Lexicon. It was much better.So I decided to buy the other three and read them. So I decided that his style was a lot goofier starting out so I read Syrup and Company first. They were fun. I even watched the god awful movie they made of Syrup. Some of the directions in it were actually a little better than the book. Company I really enjoyed.So I saved this for last. I’m glad I did. This was a good scifi book written by a guy who wrote all those other books. It’s about the ultimate marketing: propaganda. This book broadcasted over and over that it was a simple story. That Anders would eventually snap and try to kill everybody. The end. It became about true heroism, biological or otherwise.This book surprised me. I’m glad I went on this journey with this author.On another note, with these terrible times, I’ve been thinking about changing careers. I’ve started to teach myself web design. I’m learning the tricks of marketing, copywriting, and SEO. That coupled with reading these books have given me an interesting look at marketing in general. Coincidentally, I also started a rewatch the incredibly underwatched AMC show, Halt and Catch Fire. I’m enjoying it far more this time around because I can now better understand the complex relationships between the builders and the marketers, and that is giving me an entirely richer enjoyment of the show.

   Reply

4. Unusual
   An interplanetary war. Basically a bug hunt. But with very few people, and almost no physical combat. Not a bad read, but I’ve yet to come up with what message the author is trying to express with the story.

   Reply

5. Interesting read, he has great style. Disappointing ending.
   Max Barry is one of my favorite authors. Providence is great 95% of the way through. A terrific metaphor for our never-ending war in Afghanistan. But … it feels like he just decided to “wrap it up” near the end. It was an unsatisfying, unexplained, illogical conclusion. The build up was amazing, the ending meh.

   Reply

6. Captivating
   Max Barry’s books are always fun, so this one taking place on a lonely spaceship means that a great author is working his magic in a sub-genre that is really going to appeal to people that love that sub-genre.Beautifully written and instantly captivating, Providence assigns a character to be the point of view character in each chapters, allowing us to get into their heads and really care about them. If you’ve ever found yourself surrounded by narcissists, for instance, you will understand that Barry seems to have lived through that as well and he’s used it to fuel his writing.His alien species has a neat hook that gives the entire novel an element of scientific horror to it – as physics advanced in the real world, Barry was able to use that to make his aliens terrifying in a really modern way. Even with how gross they come off to us – normal humans – he still manages to bring forth feelings of sympathy with one hand while taking it away with the other.I liked spending time with everyone on the crew. There is an element of subtle melancholy to this book that I don’t know that I’ve seen before with his work but that sort of works perfectly in the world we’re living in at the moment.Best book I’ve read in a long time. I loved it.(You can trust this review more than the last one because I am able to correctly count the number of people on the ship which, and I cannot stress this enough, is four.)

   Reply

7. Pretty darn good
   Max Barry has written a pretty decent sci-fi story detailing the crew of a warship heading into uncharted enemy territory. Good characters, interesting social media element, overall good story.

   Reply

8. I read a lot of science fiction. It’s my preferred entertainment. And so I also read a lot of books that aren’t very good – either because their plot is silly, or their characters are two dimensional, or the writing is just boring. This is one of the exceptions. Everything here just works, beautifully. I couldn’t put it down. It won’t be for everyone, because far future stories with aliens just aren’t what everyone wants. But if the broad subject doesn’t repel you, this book is a definite must read. And frankly, it’s original and interesting and well written enough that I’d recommend it even if you don’t normally read stuff like this. It’s thoughtful and exciting at the same time.

   Reply

9. Kurz zum Inhalt: Die vier Hauptfiguren, drei Soldaten und ein Zivilist, befinden sich auf einem Raumschiff im Kriegseinsatz gegen “Salamder” genannten Aliens. Das Schiff wird aber von einer KI gesteuert und die Menschen sind nur Beiwerk, das einem verlustreichen Krieg ein menschliches Gesicht geben soll um die Kampfmoral einer kriegsmüden, finanziell ausgebluteten Bevölkerung (Kriegsschiffe der Providence Klasse sind unfassbar teuer) aufrecht zu erhalten.Zur Kritik: Die Handlung ist über weite Teile charaktergetrieben, da es zwar früh zu Kampfhandlungen kommt, diese durch die absolute Überlegenheit der Providence aber geradezu Routine sind, ohne den geringsten Zweifel wer gewinnt.Die Charaktere lernt man nach und nach kennen – zuerst oft aus der Sicht der anderen Crewmitglieder, früher oder später auch aus ihrer eigenen Sicht. Wobei ich mich öfter als einmal in einem Charakter getäuscht habe.Interessant wird es, da zum einen die Salamander mit jeder Attacke dazulernen und zum anderen durch die menschliche Komponente. Denn die vier Protagonisten beginnen sowohl an der Kompetenz als auch der “Motivation” des intelligenten Schiffes zu zweifeln. Dies führt zu einem überraschenden Ende das mit weniger Kontrolle und mehr Vertrauen besser ausgegangen wäre. Man könnte hier im Nachhinein an der Frage “Was wäre wenn?” wirklich verzweifeln.Das Buch wirft sehr interessante Fragen auf, die sicher nicht neu sind aber doch immer wieder anders gehandhabt werden: Wie reagieren Menschen psychisch darauf Jahre im Weltraum, auf engem Raum, mit immer denselben Menschen und immer derselben Routine zu verbringen?Und wie kann man einer künstlichen Intelligenz vertrauen, deren “Gedankengänge” mit menschlichen Gehirnen nicht nachvollziehbar sind und von der man nicht wissen kann auf welcher Seite sie wirklich steht?Fazit: Viel Psychologie am Anfang, überzeugende Action im letzten Drittel und ein sehr spannendes starkes Ende.

   Reply

10. So the other night as I was utterly consumed in this book, my husbands says (clearly having been reading over my shoulder), ‘I didn’t think you read sci fi?’ To which I replied, it’s not sci fi, it’s a Max Barry!Another fabulous book by this author & what continues to surprise me is the theme for each book is so totally different but the storytelling is witty, interesting and well written.Happy Reading!

    Reply

11. The book started of really well and up until half way I just could not put it down. But then it quickly goes downhill from there, with crews acting crazy for no reason and fighting like they are in a Hollywood movie. It was huge disappointment.

    Reply

12. This book is a curate’s egg. Some parts are truly sensational whilst others are a bit plodding. Overall I would recommend it and I will look for other books by this author.

    Reply