A review by jaylajohnson
Providence by Max Barry

2.0

I really don't like space books, but I thought this would be different since I was on a Max Barry kick. And...it wasn't. This was so disappointing and underwhelming to me. I didn't connect with any of the characters: Anders was such an asshole and never developed a redeeming quality to me. Jackson was cookie cutter and one-dimensional. I enjoyed reading from Beanfield's and Gilly's perspective the most, but was never full invested in them. The war wasn't entirely explained, which I get was the idea behind exploring themes of military propaganda and how we're fighting "enemies" that we don't truly understand or even attempt to understand or communicate with. It just all fell hollow, like nothing mattered in the end

Spoiler

(especially when the author killed off everyone but Beanfield who spent 90% of the time on the hive-planet unconscious).

I think ultimately because the AI ship could do everything, the crew just felt pointless (which, I also know was another theme of the story). But because of that, there were no true stakes in the action to me. I was just reading about 4 incredibly annoying, unfit characters trapped in a spacecraft destroying alien creatures from afar like Galacta.