Provenance, by Ann Leckie

I have about six books in progress at the moment, a few of which I've been "reading" for several months, but I'm still finding reading a challenge this year. A few weeks ago I decided maybe I needed something entirely different and I started Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis, which is actually the book I've made it farthest along in – so maybe I was onto something. But it's dense and, unsurprisingly, grim. So when I had a free afternoon on Sunday, I found after reading it for about 15 minutes, I wanted something different. There had been some recent chatter about Ann Leckie's new book among people I know, which reminded me that I'd had a copy of Provenance for quite a while and not yet read it. I got through 100 pages of it that afternoon and finished it three days later. Apparently it was what I needed. 

On top of the fast-pace and engaging story, I found it physically easier to read than the other books I've been reading lately. The edition I have isn't large print, but the typeface is noticeably larger than that in Late Victorian Holocausts or in the NYRB editions I so often find myself reading. (I know people love the NYRB design, but the print is so small!) I started noticing it was harder for me to read small print sometime in 2020 or 2021. I was always taking off my glasses to read books or look at my phone. A bit over a year ago, I got progressives for the first time and it definitely helped. I can usually read through the lower part of my lenses, but recently I've observed that's become harder too – and taking off my glasses no longer helps. They warned me when I got the progressives that I'd need to keep increasing the strength of the reading part of my lenses. I sort of wish that had scared me off, because now I wonder if progressives were the right choice at all. (Though I suppose the convenience of having a single pair of glasses that works for most uses is a plus.) A few weeks ago, I ordered a couple pairs of reading glasses online. I'm not sure if I just need to get used to them, or if I really ought to go get a proper prescription, but they don't seem to help much. They do magnify, but text doesn't seem clear when I'm using them. In any case, I don't want to blame my degenerating vision for my reading slump – I think there are a lot of other factors and distractions in my life – but I do wonder if it's playing a role. Especially having experienced the relative comfort of reading Provenance. 

As for Provenance itself, as usual I feel out of my depth when talking about science fiction. It was really good! I liked it! It did interesting things with gender and pronouns and relationships - family relationships, romantic relationships, inter-species relationships. It didn't blow my mind the way the Ancillary books – in particular Ancillary Justice – did. (Going back and reading my post about Ancillary Justice I had to laugh; I had no recollection of recommending it to the woman at the insurance call center!) But Provenance exists in the same universe as those books; their events are going on somewhere in the background, in the distance. And that itself was interesting. The characters in Provenance are as in awe of the AI described in the Ancillary books as I was reading about it. Reading Provenance made me want to see more parts of this universe. (Happily, I can. I look forward to reading Translation State before long.)