Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This isn’t the kind of sci-fi I would necessarily read. First contact, militaristic... this particular copy found its way to me as a NetGalley copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the writing style for all that it felt unfamiliar as the point of view shifts between members of the 4-person crew of a Providence class spaceship designed with an AI capable of winning the war against an alien species. So much so that the first few battles are mostly dialogue, which worked for me. Of course there are complications, some technical and some psychological as the crew are stuck with no one but each other and the mission to kill an alien enemy using the ship for 2 years. Everyone has their own motivation and their own feelings towards the propaganda going on back home. Unusually there is a civilian tech specialist, the people person & PR favourite, a survivor captain and the weapons specialist who would be more at home in a regular military setting. Likability is not a prerequisite and everything ties together into a solid logic. If this is your kind of story it’s done very well and deserves a read.

This was an interesting sci-fi alien invasion style book. I enjoyed it, it was pacey and fun but it's been done before and I've read it done better - hate to say it!

All the SF books I've read by Max Barry (Jennifer Government, Lexicon) have been very different in style and content, but at heart there always a distrust of higher authorities, particularly ones that are managed and influenced by big corporations. His latest novel Providence seems a little more of a traditional SF space adventure and his usual concerns lie mostly in the background, but they are ever-present in a variety of forms and - perhaps as reality starts to kick in - come very much to the fore as the novel progresses.

It's certainly not obvious at the beginning of Providence, which relates a first contact situation that humanity has with another intelligent alien race, creatures that they call salamander first discovered by scientists on the Coral Beach studying bacterial growth in space. Let's just say that the salamander did not come in peace. The ship footage viewed back on Earth is quite shocking. Ever since then Earth has fighting a war in a far-off region of space with four three mile long Providence-class battleships controlled by AI that can kill from five hundred thousand miles away.

Another Providence ship is soon set to join them on a four year mission to help utterly wipe out the salamanders. With an AI doing practically everything, from selecting targets to updating objectives, there is only a four man crew on the ship; Command: Jolene Jackson who captains the ship, Intel: Isiah 'Gilly' Gilligan a technician who analyses battle engagements, Weapons: Paul Anders who monitors the ships weaponry and Life Officer Talia Beanfield who is there to keep tabs on the psychological well-being of the crew as well as present an acceptable public face for general consumption on social and mass media.

After a series of operations in engagements against the salamander hives that seem a bit routine making half a million kills with the aliens posing no real treat, it's beginning to look like the salamander are no match for the firepower and AI technology of the Providence ships, but operations are about to step up to the next level. The crew are send inside the VZ, the Violet Zone, into the heart of the alien space. That means that they will be out of sync with Earth for updates and some of the four strong crew have already been starting to show signs of psychological and emotional strain.

What you see gradually coming to the fore is the matter of humans relying on AIs to make big decisions for them and for there to be come concerns about it. That's not an unexpected theme in an SF book, but Barry handles it rather differently from Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick and with a slightly more cynical eye on our very different modern age. The people who make the AIs are also considered, their development initiated by the promise of prestigous and highly paid government contracts. It comes as no surprise to find out that war is of course good for business, and there are suspicions about who is really responsible for dictating policy. When an AI mind can gather and process information faster and determine outcomes and objectives faster and most reliably than any human however, who can argue against that? But can we trust their intentions are for the best?

Which leads to another theme that Barry approaches well in Providence, showing that it's much more than just a space adventure of a military crew blasting aliens in outer space. There's also consideration here for how humanity copes with AI handling functions that people are used to doing; how to keep mentally alert when everything on the ship is looked after by the AI, when even the building of AI is done by AI. There's a theoretical application of this as AI becomes more intelligent and capable of taking over and being better at traditional tasks, but it would be a mistake to think that there's anything human about its logic and thought processes.

Conversely there's also a practical real world now consideration of people being treated as abstract problems to solve and manipulate like business models. War is not only good for business but for keeping people in line. "The real war isn't out there. It's down here."

Barry is definitely not a fan of life coaching platitudes, corporate indemnity and the lack of accountability of those who use people this way. What he is good at is keeping this situation simmering beneath the surface of a space adventure where threats are always just around the corner, and they come from more than just alien attack as they get considerably closer than five hundred thousand miles away. There's a lot of room for things to go wrong and Max Barry works his way thrillingly to where the greatest threat of all lies, and it isn't out there, it's down here.

This was a highly entertaining sci-fi read. I haven't read lots of sci-fi, so for me it was original, fun with some humor and a good story.
I definitely enjoyed it and turned the pages eagerly.

thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

The gist: I loved Lexicon so had high expectations diving into Barry’s latest novel, and I sure as hell wasn’t disappointed. Providence is a high octane, super-charged thrill of a ride through space, and the perfect form of escapism. The characters are great, each one bringing something different to the table (as you would expect given the nature of how they were selected). Barry’s pacing is fantastic, and his dialogue (which was part of the reason I loved Lexicon so much) is once again spot on. I love a good Artificial Intelligence character, and Barry’s spaceship AI is both there and not there and the question of consciousness creeps in and around the edges of the story. Barry does a great job of balancing comments about the nature of war, the commerce of war, and the impact on individuals with pure energetic, all-out adventure.

This is the perfect book for getting away from it all, into the depths of space, surrounded by aliens that sort of want to kill you. Maybe quite a lot want to kill you. Perhaps I should work on my ‘getting away from it all’ plans, but this is a LOT of fun.

Favourite line: “I’m going to call you Martin, because it sounds less like someone throwing up.”

Read if: You want to escape into a thrill ride of a space adventure.

Read with: No plans to sleep much as this is the sort of read that keeps you turning the pages through the night.

Earth is at war with an alien species referred to as Salamanders. The world is pouring all its resources into the war effort and a company has devised Providence ships that are run and managed by a highly intelligent AI with the ability to learn and adapt while on the job

Gilly, Anders, Jolene, and Talia are on a Providence ship. However, the ship does all the work and no one seems to understand how and why it works, they only care that it does. The crew is there purely for the companies public image. They are on a 4-year tour, have very different personalities, don't particularly like one another and are slowly suffocating under the boredom.

This story is a fast-paced, enjoyable read. I don't overly care about the outcome of the characters and it's unlikely I will be thinking about them tomorrow, but they had a nice variety of distinguishing characteristics that made them fun to travel through the book with.

Although this book is by no means bad, it is also far from the original. The whole plot was so derivative of every other alien invasion, book, movie, tv-show, that exists, that it did become quite annoying. I have no problem with inspiration being taken from these areas but there should always be something unique in each story that makes it stand out against the mass of other stories in the same genre. This book definitely missed that which was a shame as otherwise it's not badly written.

I did release a pre-release edition of #Providence from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. As such, I hope that the formating issues where a sentence cuts off mid-word and continues in the next line or even a new paragraph, have been corrected in a final edit for the release.

This was a pacey, alien encounter book that was a little bit generic at times. It tells the story of the Providence spaceship and its mission to destroy the Salamander aliens plaguing the Earth.

The Positives: I liked the multiple perspective narrative structure as it gave a real insight into each of the crew members. The Salamanders definitely gave me 'bug' vibes from Starship Troopers and indeed, the book as a whole felt like a bit of an homage to the Heinlein, given the brief glimpses into Earth society we are given. I thought that the action scenes worked well and that the overall pacing of the book was good.

The Negatives: There was a bit of a generic feel to the narrative that left me a little bit flat. It didn't push too many envelopes, but instead relied on old staples, such as the worryingly erratic crew member, the cold captain suffering from PTSD and the engineer who is socially awkward. I also thought that the conclusion to the novel felt a bit rushed and the ending was incredibly abrupt.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but it wasn't a new favourite.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

With thanks to Max Barry, Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the ARC of Providence.

This is a highly entertaining read as our protagonists travel across the universe is pursuit of enemy aliens. There’s good comment throughout the book describing the incongruousness of military funding and artificial intelligence. The character development is excellent, the story told through the eyes of each of the crew. Each character is unique and relatable. It’s a difficult book to put down. Definitely recommend.

When it comes to ship AI being deadly then Iain Banks Culture novels are the standard to aim for and this book does a very good job of achieving that, I think a bit more humour particularly of a cynical nature would have been appreciated but that is probably just me