This fast paced and suspenseful novel follows the four person crew of a sophisticated AI-controlled battleship as they travel across space exterminating an alien threat. It takes a toll to spend four years farther from home than anyone has ever been, with nothing but each other and their jobs, which are really more to provide pro-war propaganda to viewers back home rather than control any aspect of the AI-driven mission. This novel shined for me in its little worldbuilding details, and its characters and their battles with their own limitations, fighting a war against aliens that they fundamentally don’t understand, while passengers on this ship that they ultimately don’t understand any better.⁣
⁣
Providence is driven by big and fascinating ideas, but for me the plot diverged somewhat from those ideas and veered more into frenetic action I enjoyed less as the book went on. That said, I really loved how Barry wrapped the book up and the strong development of the characters carried the novel. ⁣