Feature: Providence by Max Barry

Good morning, readers! Yesterday marked the release of Max Barry's latest, Providence!

This one is still in my TBR since my husband stole my copy :) But I wanted to promote the book on its release week for all of you. To that end, here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

A dazzling, inventive, and thought-provoking new novel from the ingenious author of Jennifer Government and Lexicon.
Gilly, Talia, Anders, and Jackson are astronauts captaining a new and supposedly indestructible ship in humanity's war against an alien race. Confined to the ship for years, each of them holding their own secrets, they are about to learn there are threats beyond the reach of human ingenuity--and that the true nature of reality might be the universe's greatest mystery.

In this near future, our world is at war with another, and humanity is haunted by its one catastrophic loss--a nightmarish engagement that left a handful of survivors drifting home through space, wracked with PTSD. Public support for the war plummeted, and the military-industrial complex set its sights on a new goal: zero-casualty warfare, made possible by gleaming new ships called Providences, powered by AI.

But when the latest-launched Providence suffers a surprising attack and contact with home is severed, Gilly, Talia, Anders, and Jackson must confront the truth of the war they're fighting, the ship that brought them there, and the cosmos beyond.

Mike's thoughts (this is like pulling teeth, people. He says he wasn't expecting to have to give me a book report!): I really liked how the book dealt with AI stuff - the book is about a crew that's put on a ship as PR puppets; the AI is actually responsible for everything. I also really liked the characters, Gilly in particular, and found the book amusing and dark. 

Providence earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which stated "Fans of Robert Heinlein open to more nuanced characterizations will be delighted."

Barry himself describes the book as follows, "It has aliens and spaceships in it, which is new for me, and something I’ve wanted to do since… well, since I was about fourteen, probably. Because I really love aliens and spaceships. But it had to be smart and suspenseful and character-driven, too. Hopefully I figured out a way to do that."

Barry also created a Providence Battle Simulator to go along with the book. You can find that online here. 

Again, this one is still in my TBR, though I was super excited to not only receive a copy, but to receive a personalized letter from the author to go along with it!

Providence is out now from Putnam. Buy it from BookBar today!