I found Providence by Max Barry an interesting read, a science fiction story about space combat, aliens, survival and getting along with one’s fellow space warriors. As a heavily armed “Providence” spaceship heads into deep space for a two year stint battling an alien race of salamander type creatures we find out that there is only a small crew of four people. We quickly learn that the AI of the ship makes all the decisions and the people are simply along for media coverage.

After a series of successful engagements, the ship heads deep into enemy territory and a number of things go awry. The ship’s AI experiences a slight malfunction, the crew are stressed and having a difficult time with both the situation and each other, and the enemy is experimenting with different attack methods. Now struggling to survive and about to lose the ship, the last third of the book is rife with tension, action and surprises.

My one complaint about the book was that I found the characters to be rather tiresome. I don’t mind reading about characters that I dislike, but there were times with these characters that I wanted to bump their heads together. Perhaps that was the author’s intention and meant to add to the claustrophobic atmosphere and the feeling of isolation. I haven’t read very many military space operas so for me, Providence was original, intense and compelling. ( )

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Providence for free to review, I also bought a copy during it's release.


Max Barry's Providence is an interesting read. At points it feels almost disappointing, but not because it is poorly written. On the contrary, It's interesting because as Speculative Fiction, it raises a good number of questions, and provides a very real answer to those questions.

I went into the novel expecting a cinematic sci-fi story, this is not that novel. Honestly, given Mr. Barry's past work, that was my own fault. He delivered a story consistent with his style of writing.

Throughout the novel, I found myself wanting to feel emotional attachments to the characters; Gilly, Beanfield, Anders, and Jackson. I wanted to like them as fantasy heroes. However, That is simply not who they are. They are humans, with different pasts chosen to do a job for their military. They are less the traditional Sci-fi/fantasy hero and more of a realistic everyday hero. You like or dislike their personalities, but you don't get to love them.

As a reader, I became fascinated with the same interests as Gilly. What are these Salamanders? How do they Operate? Why is the human race at war with them? Barry's novel gives you very real answers without building extensive sci-fi lore. I felt very much the same way with Beanfield's motivations, What is the ship and it's AI? Who are these people she is in charge of keeping alive? The novel answers to those questions but, only gives you a small taste of fantasy.

I think the best way you sum up my feelings towards how the novel addresses its biggest questions, would be to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, "You can't always get what you want... but you get what you need."

I enjoyed reading Providence, and I would definitely recommend it to others. I'm not going to pretend it would ever reach my Top 3 favorites. It is a well-executed, believable novel, with human characters who are just dealing with/ or avoiding dealing with the situations they encounter. It is slow to start, but during its climax and you almost feel obligated to know how it ends. ( )

Very enjoyable sci fy novel. I was pulled in right away. As far as great literature is concerned, it's not Kurt Vonnegut, but then, I didn't want a slog. This was great for the kind of reading I was hoping for. Now on to "Lexicon." ( )

I read Max Barry’s innovative, clever, exciting and violent, science fiction novel Lexicon back in 2014 and decided he’d be one of my Must Read authors. I was surprised to find that I'd let seven years slip by between 'Lexicon' and 'Providence'. So much for good intentions.

It turned out that the two books have nothing in common except that they're innovative, unexpected, violent and filled with unsettling ideas and memorable characters.

Max Barry takes on some very big themes here: truly alien aliens that we can't reason or bargain with because the only concepts we seem to share are the instincts to expand our territory and to destroy anything not us; sentient AIs that start off helping to fight a war and then unilaterally change the rules of engagement; and an interstellar war sustained by the clever use of social media to keep the public engaged and the tax dollars flowing. He manages to do this while delivering a tense, conflict-packed drama, that kept me turning the pages.

To me, it seemed that he did this by focusing on the four humans aboard the Providence class ship. Between them they represent complex multiple world-views that crank up the tension, drive the action and allow the big themes to be held up to the light. Surprisingly, given all that, his characters feel like real people with strengths and flaws, rather than plot concepts.

Max Barry's writing is powerful and unforgiving. He never gives his characters a free pass. Sacrifices are real and paid for in blood. Motivations are complex and change over time and sometimes make the characters hard to like. The ending is both brutal and wonderful.

It's a hard book to sum up because Max Barry isn't one for simple answers but he does ask wonderfully complex and uncompromising questions.

I recommend the audiobook version, narrated by Brittany Pressley. ( )

Thanks to the publisher and Goodreads for providing me a copy for review.

Since I understand that my copy was an advanced edition, I'm willing to forgive the typos and small editing errors and rate it the 4 stars it deserves (since those will, hopefully, be fixed for publication).

Providence is the type of ship Gilly, Jackson, Anders, and Beanfield have signed up to crew for 4 long years, fighting an alien race among the stars. Communication is sparse, and the ship is it's own unknowable entity. When they move deeper into space, they're all forced to reckon with the two alien species in ways they never expected.

Barry's writing is tight and tense, and the multiple perspectives helps (though I wish we got a little more insight into Jackson. The salamanders are truly alien, in type and interactions and strangeness. Equally strange and intriguing is the ship: the crew doesn't really seem to be necessary, and at times the ship seems to be working against them.

Plenty of mysteries and twists, it's a fun and engaging sci-fi novel. ( )