Providence

Critics Review

• Praise for Providence

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• Providence is such a blast you almost overlook how clever it is. Like Starship Troopers and 2001: A Sapce Odyssey, it’s about the limit of human intelligence, the nature of humanity and the price we’re prepared to pay for the survival of the species

  Daily Mail

• Providence is a light-hearted thriller with a superbly dark, existential sting in its tail

  The Times

• A quirky, character-driven commentary on the mechanisation of conflict and the sheer perversity of human nature

  Financial Times

• Compelling and innovative… Barry takes a story that has been done countless times before and makes it seem original

  Daily Mail

• [A] terrific sci-fi thriller

  Publishers Weekly

• PROVIDENCE is an absolute treat. Pulls the trick of being both irrepressibly old-school sci-fi and creepily relevant to the data-driven future

  Austin Grossman, author of Soon I Will Be Invincible

• An astonishing novel! PROVIDENCE is Philip K. Dick and William Gibson fueled by pure adrenaline (with a bit of Spielberg and Ridley Scott thrown in). The brilliant, unstoppable imagination of Max Barry glows on every page of this action-filled, yet emotionally resonant, tale. It will keep you riveted from first page till last. I read in one sitting and I guarantee you’ll do the same

  Jeffery Deaver, author of The Never Game

• Action-packed and unsettling, PROVIDENCE is a sleekly-written parable about the absurdity of war–and the deeply human urge to destroy everything we don’t understand, whether it comes from a distant planet or right here on Earth

  Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous and The Future of Another Timeline

• I could not put PROVIDENCE down until I’d finished it in one thrilling sitting. This is science fiction at its best-a ship so believably alive and characters so determined, flawed, and compelling that you’ll forget you’re not also part of the crew

  Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M

• PROVIDENCE’S greatest strength – apart from being terrifically entertaining – is its characters. (…) It’s Barry’s empathy for his characters, his willingness to dig deep into their foibles, that distinguishes PROVIDENCE from most of the golden-age science fiction that inspired it.

  Locus

• The meat of this is in its human interactions

  SciFi Bulletin

• Max Barry’s excellent novel Providence

  New Scientist

• Providence is an extremely smart take on an entirely different genre … page-turning anticipation which pays off beautifully in the final third

  SFX

• Providence is a meditation … on the difference between programmed intelligence and the human version. Barry tells a fun and funny story that finds the perfect moments to break your heart in the best ways

  Locus

• Like Starship Troopers with added brain, this is such a blast you can overlook just how clever and thought-provoking it is

  Daily Mail