Review: Providence by Max Barry

Providence by Max Barry
Publication Date: March 31, 2020
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Faced with a losing war against a spacefaring race of huge and hostile bug-like creatures (nicknamed "salamanders"), the countries of the world unite (with much grumbling, as this shit's expensive!) to build a fleet of AI-powered Providence-class battleships, crewed by the best and the brightest. The latest Providence battleship---which is never named, unless I missed it, which seems relevant--- are Gilly, the socially awkward tech genius; Anders, a handsomely psycho weapons officer; Beanfield, the Life Officer---think ship's counselor---and Jackson, the captain, a survivor of a devastating salamander attack.

But isn't that a pretty small crew for a massive battleship, you ask? To which I reply: yes, you're right! That is absolutely a question you should be asking!

Halfway through Providence, I was convinced I'd figured out the twist: the aliens would turn out not to be real, you see, and the entire ordeal would be revealed as some hideous corporate experiment. Or the aliens were real, but the salamanders were just the equivalent of artificially-created drones, and Our Heroes' mission would turn out to be to encounter the real aliens, the intelligent masters behind the curtain.

I won't say if I was correct; best to read this for yourself. But I will say this: this book is either incredibly nihilistic or exactly the opposite, and I still find myself still chewing over which it was.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler

The Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler
Publication Date: March 1, 2020
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A patchwork of petty kingdoms, nestled in the ruins of a fallen magical empire, face a rising horror when an expedition to discover a lost city goes horribly awry.

Bingmei, who was born with pale skin and hair---a condition viewed as a 'sickness' in her homeland---and who can literally smell people's intentions, was orphaned when her mercenary parents and grandfather were murdered, and now trains for revenge. When she ends up in possession of a magical blade--one of many magical objects left behind by that now-fallen empire, whose use summons a mysterious but deadly fog to strike the wielder down---she ends up joining her mercenary band on a quest that accidentally sets in motion a series of very unfortunate events.

I'd say this read like a YA novel, but I've read too many YA novels that seemed more 'adult' than this. (And this seemed way too long for a YA novel, frankly.) I enjoyed it a lot at the start, but as the story progressed my interest waned dramatically, until by the end I was really ready for the whole thing to just be done.

There's clearly talent here, but there's a . . . simplicity? to the writing that annoyed me so much that I knocked off several stars. It constantly read like the author was terrified his readers wouldn't understand the characters' motivations, so he decided to over-explain, flat-out announcing things that should have been intuited by the reader. I glossed over that tendency at first, but the book's so much longer than its plot really needs that I really couldn't ignore it by the end.

It's hard to say this was bad; I've read bad books and this wasn't that. But it's equally hard to call this good, and  . . . that's the heart of it, I think.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.