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The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti #1
The Mimicking of Known Successes
The Mimicking of Known Successes presents a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set on Jupiter, by Malka Older, author of the critically-acclaimed Centenal Cycle.
On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.
Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together.
On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university—and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems.
Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake—and, perhaps, their futures, together.
169 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2023
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22758 people want to read
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May 18, 2022Well, that was a delight. Humanity, having wrecked Earth, has moved to a gas giant, where people live on platforms off great planet-spanning rails. It's a wonderful concept, delivered vividly, and I loved the gaslamp-fantasy feel of the university and the trains rattling around the loops. We also have a lovely f/f Holmes and Watson, the not-good-at-feels investigator Mossa and the academic Pleiti, her college ex-girlfriend.
A magnificently imaginative setting, a nicely developed and satisfyingly resolved mystery, a beautifully understated central romance, and a lot of thought-provoking ideas make this an immensely satisfying read. Does more at novella length than many books manage in three times as much. A cracker.
I had an ARC from the publisher.
A magnificently imaginative setting, a nicely developed and satisfyingly resolved mystery, a beautifully understated central romance, and a lot of thought-provoking ideas make this an immensely satisfying read. Does more at novella length than many books manage in three times as much. A cracker.
I had an ARC from the publisher.
September 9, 2022
A smart and entertaining escape to a Jupiter-like planet where two former lovers, both socially awkward in their own ways, join up to solve a mystery. It's a cozy in space, and the kind of book you might want to read over tea and scones (a favorite breakfast of the characters.) It's short, less than 200pp, but still manages to provide a satisfying mystery, but the real star here is the worldbuilding which gave me a gas giant world that I wanted to visit and had me thinking of the complexities and creativity of living on a planet with no surface. A pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
November 26, 2024
Gives a very Holmes and Watson vibe, set on a gas planet. Hugo, Locus and Nebula nominee, it worked well at novella length, although at times got a little bogged down in the atmosphere (see what I did there?). Turns out Older is related to Daniel José Older, so I have wonderings about influences and rising up and the like, but I wouldn't say it was undeserving. I just don't love it as much as Robert Jackson Bennett's version. In particular, I found the writing tended towards being overwrought:
"My recollection of the melancholy reason for referring to him did not arrive in time to contain my habitual response to the name."
The backdrop is a situation where humans were forced to leave Earth after destroying it, but bringing with them all the genetic material they could.
"I always thought, because many of the species in the mauzooleum had more space to wander around in than most human residential platforms offered. If they were in captivity on this inhospitable planet, then so were we."
No parallels here; no, not at all. I liked the backdrop quite a bit, though it was perhaps a bit simplistic and feels more like the hand-wavy version of sci-fi. Still, kudos for being the first book I've ever read that had humans on a gaseous planet (thinking about Peter Watts, which might be the exception).
"Now, we know well that someone who steps off a platform is likely to arrive, sooner rather than later, at a depth of the planet that will see their mortal remains utterly crushed and compacted. Naturally they would have already frozen to death at that point”
Warning: There is, as required in all sci-fi written after 2019, copious amounts of tea.
Three and a half cups of tea, rounding up.
"My recollection of the melancholy reason for referring to him did not arrive in time to contain my habitual response to the name."
The backdrop is a situation where humans were forced to leave Earth after destroying it, but bringing with them all the genetic material they could.
"I always thought, because many of the species in the mauzooleum had more space to wander around in than most human residential platforms offered. If they were in captivity on this inhospitable planet, then so were we."
No parallels here; no, not at all. I liked the backdrop quite a bit, though it was perhaps a bit simplistic and feels more like the hand-wavy version of sci-fi. Still, kudos for being the first book I've ever read that had humans on a gaseous planet (thinking about Peter Watts, which might be the exception).
"Now, we know well that someone who steps off a platform is likely to arrive, sooner rather than later, at a depth of the planet that will see their mortal remains utterly crushed and compacted. Naturally they would have already frozen to death at that point”
Warning: There is, as required in all sci-fi written after 2019, copious amounts of tea.
Three and a half cups of tea, rounding up.
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August 23, 2022Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: We are Twitter moots and occasionally have bants. This author was invited by one of my editors to blurb one of my own books in the past.
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
*******************************************
I liked this tremendously. I sometimes think the Holmesian riff market is oversaturated (and I say that at someone who once wrote a Holmes riff and would write more Homles riffs like a shot given half a chance) but then I read a good one and I remember, no, I just fucking love this stuff. Because there’s so much you can do with the dynamics, the setting, the particular type of detective story that the original Homles typified, especially when you leave all the Victorian nonsense behind.
In this case, we’ve left it so far behind we’re on Jupiter.
The basic premise of The Mimicking of Known Successes is that our greed and selfishness have wrecked the earth—so far so plausible—and that what remains of humanity as a species is eking out a more careful existence on the gas giant, with people essentially living upon platforms attached to a planet-spanning rail system. When a man disappears from a remote railcar system, we have our mystery, and the story begins.
Our Holmes and Watson analogues are both women and former lovers: the former, an independent-minded investigator called Mossa, the latter, Pleiti, academic, who is working on a project to reconstruct Earth’s lost ecosystem. It’s a restrained take on both characters, with Mossa retaining some of Holmes’ methodology and emotional distance, and even a bit of his arrogance, but she’s infinitely less obnoxious. Pleiti, similarly, is neither as obsequious nor as horndoggy as the original Watson, but she is loyal and resourceful in the way that Watson is loyal and resourceful. And I’m aware this is probably coming across as unnecessarily spiteful about the original Holmes and Watson But they’re straight white Victorian men, written by a straight white Victorian man. That’s like ground zero for awfulness. Not that I’m trying to cancel a dead Victorian, or anything: I’m not disputing the value of Conan Doyle’s work, but it’s work that is (inevitably) a product of its day. And the advantage of reworking these stories with modern values is that they can be a product of … well … our day.
Anyway, I really loved this take on Holmes and Watson. Like Holmes, Mossa is brilliant, but frustratingly oblique, often declining to explain her thought processes until already proven, which evokes the atmosphere of one of those Holmes stories where Holmes is constantly out and about and will—at some point—deign to explain himself to Watson, probably over breakfast. But, unlike Holmes, Mossa is not an abstract figure of patriarchal genius: she is very much a whole person and, if you’re willing to pay attention, a person with strong and specific feelings. There’s an extent to which I think Mossa can be read as non-neurotypical but it is never the focus of the text, nor something that is posited as a romantic or personal obstacle for her. Pleiti and Mossa’s re-kindling of their relationship has nothing to do overcoming or addressing Mossa’s non-neurotypical ways: it is simply about both of them learning how to better recognise each other’s needs and expressions of care.
This isn’t the sort of detective story you can play along with at home, but Conon Doyle isn’t Agatha Christie. There is, however, an element of puzzle solving offered to the reader in terms of Mossa and Pleiti’s relationship. In typical Watson fashion, Pleiti can be quite a coy narrator and, because Mossa and Pleiti already know each other, there is a lot that goes unspoken between them. This doesn’t mean it’s not romantic, though. In fact, I found it deeply romantic, precisely because of its quietness, the way it belongs to Mossa and Pleiti in ways the reader (as an external observer) can only partially access.
Also, I’ve just realised I’ve spent most of my review of a detective story talking about the people. The mystery is … interesting and has some excitingly outlandish twists to it (there’s a bit where Mossa and Pleiti are attacked by a caracal). By the end, the stakes are pretty damn high, but I do wish I’d understood fully what they were before, and who was involved, before we reached the point of villain monologues and fisticuffs. I don’t want to spoil anything but the role of Pleiti’s department becomes quite significant: there’s hints throughout of intra-academic conflict (but does any academic institution not have intra-academic conflict?) as well as potential conflict between those who, y’know, work for the institution and believe in its cultural value and those who would maybe like to do something more directly useful for a broader range of people with the platform-space that has been given over to the ecology project. But I think, given the nuances of the setting, I would have liked just a little more cultural context and maybe to have spent more time with the villain before I learned he was the villain? Of course, some of this is simply detective story personal preference: in most of the Holmes stories, the villain is whoever has size eleven feet and smokes a particular brand of tobacco. And the mystery—for all I would have like a bit more emotional connection to its various participants—is well constructed and well paced.
The setting, though, I found it super fascinating. It’s evoked with depth, detail and genuine thoughtfulness—quite an achievement given the fact The Mimicking of Known Successes novella. It’s kind of weird that “everyone is stuck on a hostile gas giant with no life of its own” could come across as … cosy? But somehow, between the trains rattling about, Pleiti’s scholars rooms, the links to academia, and the foggy 19th century London vibes of a planet where you literally can’t breathe, it does. Of course, the fact we have left Earth a fucked up ruin behind us does cast a gentle melancholia over the text. The trauma of this is occasionally referenced—its impact undeniable—but, mostly, people are just getting on with their lives as best they can. There’s something especially bittersweet about this, I think, especially in the wake of a global pandemic. But there’s still a sense of hope here; an implication that change is always possible should we simply care enough.
Relevant disclaimers: We are Twitter moots and occasionally have bants. This author was invited by one of my editors to blurb one of my own books in the past.
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
*******************************************
I liked this tremendously. I sometimes think the Holmesian riff market is oversaturated (and I say that at someone who once wrote a Holmes riff and would write more Homles riffs like a shot given half a chance) but then I read a good one and I remember, no, I just fucking love this stuff. Because there’s so much you can do with the dynamics, the setting, the particular type of detective story that the original Homles typified, especially when you leave all the Victorian nonsense behind.
In this case, we’ve left it so far behind we’re on Jupiter.
The basic premise of The Mimicking of Known Successes is that our greed and selfishness have wrecked the earth—so far so plausible—and that what remains of humanity as a species is eking out a more careful existence on the gas giant, with people essentially living upon platforms attached to a planet-spanning rail system. When a man disappears from a remote railcar system, we have our mystery, and the story begins.
Our Holmes and Watson analogues are both women and former lovers: the former, an independent-minded investigator called Mossa, the latter, Pleiti, academic, who is working on a project to reconstruct Earth’s lost ecosystem. It’s a restrained take on both characters, with Mossa retaining some of Holmes’ methodology and emotional distance, and even a bit of his arrogance, but she’s infinitely less obnoxious. Pleiti, similarly, is neither as obsequious nor as horndoggy as the original Watson, but she is loyal and resourceful in the way that Watson is loyal and resourceful. And I’m aware this is probably coming across as unnecessarily spiteful about the original Holmes and Watson But they’re straight white Victorian men, written by a straight white Victorian man. That’s like ground zero for awfulness. Not that I’m trying to cancel a dead Victorian, or anything: I’m not disputing the value of Conan Doyle’s work, but it’s work that is (inevitably) a product of its day. And the advantage of reworking these stories with modern values is that they can be a product of … well … our day.
Anyway, I really loved this take on Holmes and Watson. Like Holmes, Mossa is brilliant, but frustratingly oblique, often declining to explain her thought processes until already proven, which evokes the atmosphere of one of those Holmes stories where Holmes is constantly out and about and will—at some point—deign to explain himself to Watson, probably over breakfast. But, unlike Holmes, Mossa is not an abstract figure of patriarchal genius: she is very much a whole person and, if you’re willing to pay attention, a person with strong and specific feelings. There’s an extent to which I think Mossa can be read as non-neurotypical but it is never the focus of the text, nor something that is posited as a romantic or personal obstacle for her. Pleiti and Mossa’s re-kindling of their relationship has nothing to do overcoming or addressing Mossa’s non-neurotypical ways: it is simply about both of them learning how to better recognise each other’s needs and expressions of care.
This isn’t the sort of detective story you can play along with at home, but Conon Doyle isn’t Agatha Christie. There is, however, an element of puzzle solving offered to the reader in terms of Mossa and Pleiti’s relationship. In typical Watson fashion, Pleiti can be quite a coy narrator and, because Mossa and Pleiti already know each other, there is a lot that goes unspoken between them. This doesn’t mean it’s not romantic, though. In fact, I found it deeply romantic, precisely because of its quietness, the way it belongs to Mossa and Pleiti in ways the reader (as an external observer) can only partially access.
Also, I’ve just realised I’ve spent most of my review of a detective story talking about the people. The mystery is … interesting and has some excitingly outlandish twists to it (there’s a bit where Mossa and Pleiti are attacked by a caracal). By the end, the stakes are pretty damn high, but I do wish I’d understood fully what they were before, and who was involved, before we reached the point of villain monologues and fisticuffs. I don’t want to spoil anything but the role of Pleiti’s department becomes quite significant: there’s hints throughout of intra-academic conflict (but does any academic institution not have intra-academic conflict?) as well as potential conflict between those who, y’know, work for the institution and believe in its cultural value and those who would maybe like to do something more directly useful for a broader range of people with the platform-space that has been given over to the ecology project. But I think, given the nuances of the setting, I would have liked just a little more cultural context and maybe to have spent more time with the villain before I learned he was the villain? Of course, some of this is simply detective story personal preference: in most of the Holmes stories, the villain is whoever has size eleven feet and smokes a particular brand of tobacco. And the mystery—for all I would have like a bit more emotional connection to its various participants—is well constructed and well paced.
The setting, though, I found it super fascinating. It’s evoked with depth, detail and genuine thoughtfulness—quite an achievement given the fact The Mimicking of Known Successes novella. It’s kind of weird that “everyone is stuck on a hostile gas giant with no life of its own” could come across as … cosy? But somehow, between the trains rattling about, Pleiti’s scholars rooms, the links to academia, and the foggy 19th century London vibes of a planet where you literally can’t breathe, it does. Of course, the fact we have left Earth a fucked up ruin behind us does cast a gentle melancholia over the text. The trauma of this is occasionally referenced—its impact undeniable—but, mostly, people are just getting on with their lives as best they can. There’s something especially bittersweet about this, I think, especially in the wake of a global pandemic. But there’s still a sense of hope here; an implication that change is always possible should we simply care enough.
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December 12, 2022
I kinda thought this was a debut novella...imagine my surprise that this is a Hugo-nominated author.
Okay, that's harsh.
This novella is a very queer murder-mystery with a heavy neo-noir dystopian steampunk feel. The concept is brilliant; the execution, not so much. The sentences were often ponderous, and the characters were razor-thin.
As an experimental piece in trying something new, it works well, but as for being published...I dunno. It felt unexplored and unfinished, not unusual in a novella-length piece that is trying to tackle this much: former-lovers-turned-reluctant-partners, academia, off-Earth dystopia, ecosystems, murder, a wealth of world-building and intrigue crammed into 176 pages that's filled with descriptions of gas and fog and wind instead of human connection.
Anywho, I did like the concept of human survival on Jupiter itself, instead of, say, one of its moons.
I feel like the title kinda sums up my feelings? And not in a good way.
I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley
Okay, that's harsh.
This novella is a very queer murder-mystery with a heavy neo-noir dystopian steampunk feel. The concept is brilliant; the execution, not so much. The sentences were often ponderous, and the characters were razor-thin.
As an experimental piece in trying something new, it works well, but as for being published...I dunno. It felt unexplored and unfinished, not unusual in a novella-length piece that is trying to tackle this much: former-lovers-turned-reluctant-partners, academia, off-Earth dystopia, ecosystems, murder, a wealth of world-building and intrigue crammed into 176 pages that's filled with descriptions of gas and fog and wind instead of human connection.
Anywho, I did like the concept of human survival on Jupiter itself, instead of, say, one of its moons.
I feel like the title kinda sums up my feelings? And not in a good way.
I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley
February 20, 2022
Hot damn, I am in love with this book. Mossa and Pleiti are two amazing characters, and I stan them forever. I want to read several more books about their adventures. Basically, The Mimicking of Known Successes is a "cozy murder mystery" set on Jupiter, with a lovely relationship at its center. The highest praise I can give this book is that it reminded me of Dorothy L. Sayers. I got serious Gaudy Night vibes here and there. A few things amaze me about Older's accomplishment here: First, she creates a mystery that actually works as a mystery, with lots of twists and turns and clever reveals, and it all makes sense in the end. (As a long-time fan of mystery books, I'm often disappointed by murder-mystery storylines in science fiction and fantasy novels/novellas.) Also, the worldbuilding is top notch, with an arresting and complex vision of a human settlement on Jupiter that feels lived-in and believable. This is one of the best stories about humans on another world that I've read in ages. But most importantly, the relationship between Mossa and Pleiti is just note-perfect and made me gasp out loud at several points in the story. It's always extremely understated, which only made me more obsessed. I kept having to go back and re-read some of the perfect little moments between them and go, "how did Malka Older DO that???" Mossa and Pleiti deserve to be mentioned among the all-time great characters of science fiction. Every once in a while, a book comes along that is both a comfort read and a rousing, fist-pumping adventure, and The Mimicking of Known Successes absolutely is both of those things. A utter triumph. More please.
April 2, 2025
She had turned one of the wall panels into a storyboard for the investigation, plotting the little she knew and what she wanted to find out. It didn’t require a review of the paltry first and the much more extensive second to figure out where she needed to go next, however. And when she considered who might be helpful there, she found the optimal, alluring, inconvenient name immediately. Valdegeld. And Pleiti.
The Mimicking Of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older is a Sapphic and Sci Fi take on the Holmesian mystery genre, where the lead characters Investigator Mossa and academic Pleiti investigate a weird disappearance while navigating the awkwardness of working together years after they broke up with each other.
The world-building is a futuristic setting - on a colonized planet, with work being done to restore Earth's environmental balance after it's destruction and retake it. The plot moved quickly and the novella is a fun light read. The writing is quite detailed and a bit clinical, and this worked in giving it Holmesian vibes.
What I liked most are the character development of Mossa and Pleit, and their renewed relationship with each other while working together. We see the story, and Mossa through Pleiti's POV, and I enjoyed seeing them trying to work on developing their relationship again after years of no contact. On the whole, the book is an interesting take on the beloved classic.
🌟🌟🌟
[Half a star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters; Half a star for the story; 3/4 star for the story; 1/4 star for the world-building - Three stars in total.]
The Mimicking Of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older is a Sapphic and Sci Fi take on the Holmesian mystery genre, where the lead characters Investigator Mossa and academic Pleiti investigate a weird disappearance while navigating the awkwardness of working together years after they broke up with each other.
The world-building is a futuristic setting - on a colonized planet, with work being done to restore Earth's environmental balance after it's destruction and retake it. The plot moved quickly and the novella is a fun light read. The writing is quite detailed and a bit clinical, and this worked in giving it Holmesian vibes.
What I liked most are the character development of Mossa and Pleit, and their renewed relationship with each other while working together. We see the story, and Mossa through Pleiti's POV, and I enjoyed seeing them trying to work on developing their relationship again after years of no contact. On the whole, the book is an interesting take on the beloved classic.
🌟🌟🌟
[Half a star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters; Half a star for the story; 3/4 star for the story; 1/4 star for the world-building - Three stars in total.]
September 9, 2022
This sounded awesome. Whoever wrote the official description did a great job. Whoever wrote the actual book…less so.
I mean, yes, it is a murder mystery set on a distant planet and yes, there is a romance, although it’s so weirdly gender-neutral, if I hadn’t read the description, I wouldn’t have placed it as sapphic.
And there are objectively some good things about it, mainly the world-building, which is precise and elaborate and interesting.
But overall, the book really didn’t do much for me.
The writing itself was fine, but the language and the dialogue was oddly stilted and ponderous, like the future suddenly decided to emulate a distant past and get all precociously eloquent. (A disclaimer: I’m all for eloquence, this just wasn’t the right kind. I understand that these are meant to be University intellectuals, but still…)
And then…the pacing left something to be desired and the romance was just…silly and clunkily written like a shabby play with cardboard actors.
Kudos to Tor for being so aggressive about drumming up representation in fiction that these days they seem to exclusively publish stories with LGBTQ+ love stories, but can we make them good? Like Passing Strange or something, at least.
Anyway, quick enough of a read, mildly diverting, left a lot to be desired. Nowhere near as exciting or fun as the description promises. Thanks Netgalley.
I mean, yes, it is a murder mystery set on a distant planet and yes, there is a romance, although it’s so weirdly gender-neutral, if I hadn’t read the description, I wouldn’t have placed it as sapphic.
And there are objectively some good things about it, mainly the world-building, which is precise and elaborate and interesting.
But overall, the book really didn’t do much for me.
The writing itself was fine, but the language and the dialogue was oddly stilted and ponderous, like the future suddenly decided to emulate a distant past and get all precociously eloquent. (A disclaimer: I’m all for eloquence, this just wasn’t the right kind. I understand that these are meant to be University intellectuals, but still…)
And then…the pacing left something to be desired and the romance was just…silly and clunkily written like a shabby play with cardboard actors.
Kudos to Tor for being so aggressive about drumming up representation in fiction that these days they seem to exclusively publish stories with LGBTQ+ love stories, but can we make them good? Like Passing Strange or something, at least.
Anyway, quick enough of a read, mildly diverting, left a lot to be desired. Nowhere near as exciting or fun as the description promises. Thanks Netgalley.
March 8, 2023
Holmes-ish character investigates a death, accompanied by ex-GF who isn't especially Watson-ish if you think of Watson as a bit dim.
It's not a good sign if while you're reading a science fictional murder mystery, you keep getting distracted by thinking, "Hold up: the planet where all these humans are living post-environmental-apocalypse on Earth sure sounds a lot like Jupiter, and it has a moon named Io, so why is the author calling it Giant?" (Like, if you're trying to avoid being West-centric, which I could understand, why retain the name Io?)
Additional and more serious distractions are afforded by the worldbuilding. The "Classicists" on Giant have as a long-term project the reconstitution of Earth's ravaged ecosystems, to which end a huge inventory of individual(?) members of Earth species is maintained. But, like ... all these species would have existed as part of ecosystems in the first place, so how are you keeping them alive in habitats suitable for individual species (and, it's implied, single members of the species)? Even zoos on Earth have trouble doing this with many species. How, on a planet where every inch of habitable space has to be constructed, are you supporting enough prey animals to feed your apex predators? (Or even your wee obligate carnivores, like domestic cats.) How do you propose to rebuild Earth's ecosystems without oceanic and other aquatic species, or alternatively where are you keeping the damn whales? What about the fact that many animals ranging from gorillas to corvids demonstrate socially transmitted learning about each other and their local environment,* and that even now, on our Earth, this is a problem for people wanting to preserve any given species -- because when you keep them in isolation and unable to express natural behaviors, their offspring no longer know what to do on, say, the savannah?
This book desperately needed input from an environmental scientist, if even I, a casual reader of natural history, found myself staggering from "But ..." to "But ..." to "But ..." so much that I could hardly spare attention for the relationship between the MCs or for the mystery.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
----------------
*AKA culture)
It's not a good sign if while you're reading a science fictional murder mystery, you keep getting distracted by thinking, "Hold up: the planet where all these humans are living post-environmental-apocalypse on Earth sure sounds a lot like Jupiter, and it has a moon named Io, so why is the author calling it Giant?" (Like, if you're trying to avoid being West-centric, which I could understand, why retain the name Io?)
Additional and more serious distractions are afforded by the worldbuilding. The "Classicists" on Giant have as a long-term project the reconstitution of Earth's ravaged ecosystems, to which end a huge inventory of individual(?) members of Earth species is maintained. But, like ... all these species would have existed as part of ecosystems in the first place, so how are you keeping them alive in habitats suitable for individual species (and, it's implied, single members of the species)? Even zoos on Earth have trouble doing this with many species. How, on a planet where every inch of habitable space has to be constructed, are you supporting enough prey animals to feed your apex predators? (Or even your wee obligate carnivores, like domestic cats.) How do you propose to rebuild Earth's ecosystems without oceanic and other aquatic species, or alternatively where are you keeping the damn whales? What about the fact that many animals ranging from gorillas to corvids demonstrate socially transmitted learning about each other and their local environment,* and that even now, on our Earth, this is a problem for people wanting to preserve any given species -- because when you keep them in isolation and unable to express natural behaviors, their offspring no longer know what to do on, say, the savannah?
This book desperately needed input from an environmental scientist, if even I, a casual reader of natural history, found myself staggering from "But ..." to "But ..." to "But ..." so much that I could hardly spare attention for the relationship between the MCs or for the mystery.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
----------------
*AKA culture)
February 13, 2024
The vehicle was comfortable enough, on the basis that its users might sometimes be required to travel for long periods without particularly wanting to. It was well-heated, and there was tea available, and Mossa sat wrapped in the cushions and covers and brooded. She had turned one of the wall panels into a storyboard for the investigation, plotting the little she knew and what she wanted to find out. It didn't require a review of the paltry first and the much more extensive second to figure out where she needed to go next, however. And when she considered who might be helpful there, she found the optimal, alluring, inconvenient name immediately.
Valdegeld. And Pleiti.
What an awesome confluence of ideas this book turned out to be - and the execution was spot on for me, which is always a happy surprise.
The Mimicking of Known Successes takes place on Giant (Jupiter-analogous), where humanity have fled following their destruction of Earths livability. Rails circumnavigate the gaseous planet, with platforms providing living space for the people who made it off-world, and the flora and fauna they were able to bring along. It's an unspecified time, but it reads as roughly 1940s to me - only in space, liberal, and with a determined focus on cosy rooms and tea. Then, of course, comes the mystery - a scholar disappeared and no-one sure if he went over the side of the platforms voluntarily. Mossa is investigating; and how convenient that her investigation has brought her into the path of her old flame Pleiti.
The romance is minimal, but enough to be cute without taking over the story. The mystery was super satisfying, made sense, and wasn't too obvious or too curly. But the atmosphere of the whole book is absolutely what tipped it into five star territory for me - whether it was the scholar's rooms, the railcars, or the brief glimpse at local restaurant Slow Burn, the majority of the book just felt like a chair by the fire on a cold and stormy night. It was a great length - but I'm really looking forward to a) a reread, and b) the next one.
Valdegeld. And Pleiti.
What an awesome confluence of ideas this book turned out to be - and the execution was spot on for me, which is always a happy surprise.
The Mimicking of Known Successes takes place on Giant (Jupiter-analogous), where humanity have fled following their destruction of Earths livability. Rails circumnavigate the gaseous planet, with platforms providing living space for the people who made it off-world, and the flora and fauna they were able to bring along. It's an unspecified time, but it reads as roughly 1940s to me - only in space, liberal, and with a determined focus on cosy rooms and tea. Then, of course, comes the mystery - a scholar disappeared and no-one sure if he went over the side of the platforms voluntarily. Mossa is investigating; and how convenient that her investigation has brought her into the path of her old flame Pleiti.
The romance is minimal, but enough to be cute without taking over the story. The mystery was super satisfying, made sense, and wasn't too obvious or too curly. But the atmosphere of the whole book is absolutely what tipped it into five star territory for me - whether it was the scholar's rooms, the railcars, or the brief glimpse at local restaurant Slow Burn, the majority of the book just felt like a chair by the fire on a cold and stormy night. It was a great length - but I'm really looking forward to a) a reread, and b) the next one.
July 19, 2023
The Mimicking of Known Success starts off as a missing person case originating at the last outpost/stop on the ringed railway around Jupiter. As the story progresses, it evolves into so much more. There are several moving parts that interconnect and suggest something larger is at play.
Mossa is the head investigator and she partners up with her ex from college, Pleiti, in hopes that her connections to academia can help figure out what happened to Pleiti’s missing colleague. The reader gets the sense of their relationship rekindling as the case evolves.
I love mysteries and any story involving Jupiter, so this was my kind of story. I love seeing how authors create their “worlds” for humans that have had to leave Earth. I also find it interesting how authors approach repopulating the Earth after humans have made it uninhabitable (I enjoyed the TV show The 100 and the movie After Earth among the many out there). The author’s explanation of both were quite interesting.
I love outpost type stories. I am a huge fan of Cowboy Bebop and Firefly. At times, The Mimicking of Known Success had the same feel for me. I enjoyed all aspects of the book, but especially the author’s word choice. I learned several new words. No surprise when the main character/narrator, Pleiti, is an expert on classic literature of Earth.
The Mimicking of Known Success is a quick read with something for every reader. I greatly enjoyed it. I’ve already preordered the next installment due out February 2024.
Mossa is the head investigator and she partners up with her ex from college, Pleiti, in hopes that her connections to academia can help figure out what happened to Pleiti’s missing colleague. The reader gets the sense of their relationship rekindling as the case evolves.
I love mysteries and any story involving Jupiter, so this was my kind of story. I love seeing how authors create their “worlds” for humans that have had to leave Earth. I also find it interesting how authors approach repopulating the Earth after humans have made it uninhabitable (I enjoyed the TV show The 100 and the movie After Earth among the many out there). The author’s explanation of both were quite interesting.
I love outpost type stories. I am a huge fan of Cowboy Bebop and Firefly. At times, The Mimicking of Known Success had the same feel for me. I enjoyed all aspects of the book, but especially the author’s word choice. I learned several new words. No surprise when the main character/narrator, Pleiti, is an expert on classic literature of Earth.
The Mimicking of Known Success is a quick read with something for every reader. I greatly enjoyed it. I’ve already preordered the next installment due out February 2024.
January 7, 2023
A mystery set on a future human colony on Jupiter with a heavy dollop of sapphic romance? Yes, please, and thank you! While I felt some of the pacing was a bit off in the middle, overall, this totally delivered and I particularly appreciated the themes around climate change that it interrogates. I'd love for there to be more stories in this world
November 25, 2022
I don't want to be mean, I really don't, but this book was tough to get through. It's a novella that took me a week to finish, and a mystery that I still didn't understand by the end.
The way that people speak in this book is so stilted and unnatural. They have no emotions and no personalities.
The world building in here is excellent, though. It's a society built on platforms in space, encircling earth, with a bunch of trains connecting it all. There's a lot of interesting ideas explored within that, but the characters made it basically unbearable. The definition of in one ear and out the other.
I should have dnf-d, but it's an arc so I stuck it out. Personally I want to give it 1 star, but I can see some merit for others.
I received an advance copy of the ebook via NetGalley.
The way that people speak in this book is so stilted and unnatural. They have no emotions and no personalities.
The world building in here is excellent, though. It's a society built on platforms in space, encircling earth, with a bunch of trains connecting it all. There's a lot of interesting ideas explored within that, but the characters made it basically unbearable. The definition of in one ear and out the other.
I should have dnf-d, but it's an arc so I stuck it out. Personally I want to give it 1 star, but I can see some merit for others.
I received an advance copy of the ebook via NetGalley.
December 24, 2022
This book had a bit of a slow start for me, but once I got past the basic setting up of the world the characters and story started to emerge and they were quite interesting. The setting - we completely ruined earth and fled to Jupiter which has it’s downsides but at least is sustaining human life. A man is missing and an investigator uses his connection to the college to visit with her ex-girlfriend and get her help in investigating. I’ll admit this is a very quick read, more of a novella than a novel, but it was beautiful and worth reading. Overall I gave it 3.5 stars rounded up for the unique idea and setting of the story.
March 12, 2023
3.5 Stars
This is a charming and unique sci fi mystery novella. The characters were my favourite aspect of this story because they were dynamic and well developed. I wish the mystery itself had more compelling but I enjoyed spending time in this world with these characters. I hope there will be more novellas set in this future.
I would primarily recommend this to readers interested in a futuristic mysteries. I believe this one would be accessible for readers who don't normally read science fiction.
Disclaimer I received copy of this book from the publisher.
I review books on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@TheShadesofOrange
This is a charming and unique sci fi mystery novella. The characters were my favourite aspect of this story because they were dynamic and well developed. I wish the mystery itself had more compelling but I enjoyed spending time in this world with these characters. I hope there will be more novellas set in this future.
I would primarily recommend this to readers interested in a futuristic mysteries. I believe this one would be accessible for readers who don't normally read science fiction.
Disclaimer I received copy of this book from the publisher.
I review books on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@TheShadesofOrange
February 21, 2023
The Mimicking of Known Successes is a sapphic sci-fi murder mystery set on Jupiter with a bit of Western flair. The two main characters are women with a similar vibe to Sherlock and Watson, but with more overt romantic tension and neurodivergence. The writing style took me a bit to get into, but I ended up quite enjoying this.
The world-building is pretty cool- how might a human colony on a gas planet like Jupiter function? Well, everything is built suspended in the air and the weather patterns are specific to the gas giant. At the same time, this is a rather cozy story with investigator Mossa and academic Pleiti investigating a mysterious death and its connections to the university. I won't spoil anything but I am pleased to see this is intended to be the start of a series. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
The world-building is pretty cool- how might a human colony on a gas planet like Jupiter function? Well, everything is built suspended in the air and the weather patterns are specific to the gas giant. At the same time, this is a rather cozy story with investigator Mossa and academic Pleiti investigating a mysterious death and its connections to the university. I won't spoil anything but I am pleased to see this is intended to be the start of a series. I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.
August 31, 2023
So… I didn’t actually like this book and I’m a little angry at it. It’s so short, I should’ve finished it in two days tops. This did not happen. This book dragged on to me and put me in a bit of a slump. I had to convince myself to read. It’s too bad, really. What did I like?
It’s a sci-fi mystery with sapphic feels. The romance was minimal, an introduction into sapphic literature which is what I wanted so perfect for that.
I didn’t like the characters. They felt flat and uninteresting to me. Also, the mystery was so step-by-step. I’ve not read Sherlock Holmes, only seen movies and the TV show Sherlock, but it felt like that, with Mossa just understanding things and seeing puzzle pieces that others can’t, and Pleiti coming in clutch to fill in the anti-social bits that Mossa struggled with. In essence, despite it being set on Jupiter's (I think) outpost, it felt like something I had heard before, with characters I already knew. Was the point to be a sapphic science fiction of Sherlock Holmes? Maybe I missed the point. I can be a bit dense, at times.
It’s a sci-fi mystery with sapphic feels. The romance was minimal, an introduction into sapphic literature which is what I wanted so perfect for that.
I didn’t like the characters. They felt flat and uninteresting to me. Also, the mystery was so step-by-step. I’ve not read Sherlock Holmes, only seen movies and the TV show Sherlock, but it felt like that, with Mossa just understanding things and seeing puzzle pieces that others can’t, and Pleiti coming in clutch to fill in the anti-social bits that Mossa struggled with. In essence, despite it being set on Jupiter's (I think) outpost, it felt like something I had heard before, with characters I already knew. Was the point to be a sapphic science fiction of Sherlock Holmes? Maybe I missed the point. I can be a bit dense, at times.
April 26, 2024
There is definitely something going on with lots of mentions of tea in Tor published SF/Fantasy. There were, from word count, 20 references to tea in a 130ish page novella, as well as 9 mentions of scones and some more original 4 references to soup. The word cozy is explicitly referenced three times, and yeah, it leans hard into cozy style, but my problem is that it seems oddly empty of anything other than a moody setting.
In a future where Earth (and Mars) are inhabitable and humanity is surviving in platforms around Jupiter (coily referred to as the giant, to the point I was not sure if Jupiter or Saturn till Europa was mentioned), an investigator pursues a mysterious disappearance and needs the help of an old lover, in the future version of Oxford (quads and libraries full of paper books and carrels, and "cozy rooms" and porters in lodges and so much tea and scones, etc.). And despite my snark (which I have been trying to avoid but might have seeped in), hey, I am susceptible to cozy books with tea, except this, despite being nicely written, felt hollow in all kinds of ways.
The worldbuilding seriously needed a good infodump, it was all coy about details, except a good infodump might make apparent a lot of unlikely fragilities, like this setting was created to be moody and just moody (why are humans weather masochists in this future? And habitats somewhat permeable to Jupiter's atmosphere are, IMO, WTF considering Jupiter´s atmosphere, temperature, and probably pressure. And wait, are we expected to think mammals could grow from frozen mini "seeds" but without that affecting a lot more about their society? But then the rest we see of that society is all retroish mid-20th century British: no emails or phones, porters climbing stairs, and so on. (The book referenced as describing rabbit habitat is totally Watership Down right? That is the tech period this is recreating, except whenever needed to establish we are in Jupiter, or excuse me, the Giant.)
The other part is a quiet rekindling of a romance between the two women characters - but I did not care at all about either of them and often had difficulty remembering which is which (quite something when the main narrative is from the POV of just one of them, but dialogue...) or caring. By the way, just because a story is about a detective and a sidekick, it is not necessarily a take on Sherlock Holmes. There are other detectives with side kicks. I did not see the Holmes theme (but there totally was a Watership Down theme...).
The acknowledgments, mentioning by name a lot of the author's (and mine!) favorite authors, were fantastic.
This is one of the finalists for this year's Hugo Award for best novella, which is why I decided to finally read it after reading friends' reviews and thinking it was not for me. Indeed, it was not for me, and I think I am holding the Hugo nomination against it when it comes to rating it, because it really was kind of empty (and weak SF. Sorry, but it is) and I read better 2023 published novellas which got no nominations for anything. Not my cup of tea, despite all the tea.
In a future where Earth (and Mars) are inhabitable and humanity is surviving in platforms around Jupiter (coily referred to as the giant, to the point I was not sure if Jupiter or Saturn till Europa was mentioned), an investigator pursues a mysterious disappearance and needs the help of an old lover, in the future version of Oxford (quads and libraries full of paper books and carrels, and "cozy rooms" and porters in lodges and so much tea and scones, etc.). And despite my snark (which I have been trying to avoid but might have seeped in), hey, I am susceptible to cozy books with tea, except this, despite being nicely written, felt hollow in all kinds of ways.
The worldbuilding seriously needed a good infodump, it was all coy about details, except a good infodump might make apparent a lot of unlikely fragilities, like this setting was created to be moody and just moody (why are humans weather masochists in this future? And habitats somewhat permeable to Jupiter's atmosphere are, IMO, WTF considering Jupiter´s atmosphere, temperature, and probably pressure. And wait, are we expected to think mammals could grow from frozen mini "seeds" but without that affecting a lot more about their society? But then the rest we see of that society is all retroish mid-20th century British: no emails or phones, porters climbing stairs, and so on. (The book referenced as describing rabbit habitat is totally Watership Down right? That is the tech period this is recreating, except whenever needed to establish we are in Jupiter, or excuse me, the Giant.)
The other part is a quiet rekindling of a romance between the two women characters - but I did not care at all about either of them and often had difficulty remembering which is which (quite something when the main narrative is from the POV of just one of them, but dialogue...) or caring. By the way, just because a story is about a detective and a sidekick, it is not necessarily a take on Sherlock Holmes. There are other detectives with side kicks. I did not see the Holmes theme (but there totally was a Watership Down theme...).
The acknowledgments, mentioning by name a lot of the author's (and mine!) favorite authors, were fantastic.
This is one of the finalists for this year's Hugo Award for best novella, which is why I decided to finally read it after reading friends' reviews and thinking it was not for me. Indeed, it was not for me, and I think I am holding the Hugo nomination against it when it comes to rating it, because it really was kind of empty (and weak SF. Sorry, but it is) and I read better 2023 published novellas which got no nominations for anything. Not my cup of tea, despite all the tea.
September 2, 2024
reading vlog: https://youtu.be/b0mSH9_iMKE
such a fun sherlock telling with super strong world building and a complex romantic through line!
such a fun sherlock telling with super strong world building and a complex romantic through line!
dnf
October 20, 2022DNF at page 96.
The setting of The Mimicking of Known Successes is really cool, especially how Older weaved in little details like the food the characters ate, the animals, the weather, levels of tech and means of conveyance, etc., as Mossa and Pleiti moved along in their investigation. It opened up questions for me about how long it would be before new generations would consider this "place of exile" as their home, and question their entire culture's dedication to .
Unfortunately, the rest left me cold. I'm not a fan of mystery stories, and the main plot is one. I can manage to get through a mystery story if I like the characters, and see them grow through their personal connections and life changes. I could see hints of that, here, but....
I see Mossa and Pleiti as analogues of Holmes and Watson, in so far as there are two of them, and they are in most of the scenes together. But here Holmes's powers of observation, his laser focus on the question at hand, and so on, seem to have been split up between Mossa and Pleiti, with none of Watson's qualities to balance them out. This is not to say that H&W clones were necessary for this to work--not at all. But unfortunately, Pleiti's first-person narration was so formal and distanced that, at the point I stopped reading, I hadn't been able to build a connection either with her, or with Mossa as seen through her eyes.
After about half of a very short book struggling to bring myself to move on to the next chapter because I couldn't care less about either the mystery or the characters' lives, I gave up. Thanks to the publisher, tor.com, for the opportunity to try it. I'm sure there's an appreciative audience for this book out there, and the copy on the inside cover of this ARC makes me think that significant effort will be taken to find it.
The setting of The Mimicking of Known Successes is really cool, especially how Older weaved in little details like the food the characters ate, the animals, the weather, levels of tech and means of conveyance, etc., as Mossa and Pleiti moved along in their investigation. It opened up questions for me about how long it would be before new generations would consider this "place of exile" as their home, and question their entire culture's dedication to .
Unfortunately, the rest left me cold. I'm not a fan of mystery stories, and the main plot is one. I can manage to get through a mystery story if I like the characters, and see them grow through their personal connections and life changes. I could see hints of that, here, but....
I see Mossa and Pleiti as analogues of Holmes and Watson, in so far as there are two of them, and they are in most of the scenes together. But here Holmes's powers of observation, his laser focus on the question at hand, and so on, seem to have been split up between Mossa and Pleiti, with none of Watson's qualities to balance them out. This is not to say that H&W clones were necessary for this to work--not at all. But unfortunately, Pleiti's first-person narration was so formal and distanced that, at the point I stopped reading, I hadn't been able to build a connection either with her, or with Mossa as seen through her eyes.
After about half of a very short book struggling to bring myself to move on to the next chapter because I couldn't care less about either the mystery or the characters' lives, I gave up. Thanks to the publisher, tor.com, for the opportunity to try it. I'm sure there's an appreciative audience for this book out there, and the copy on the inside cover of this ARC makes me think that significant effort will be taken to find it.
July 1, 2024
30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 4
Book 27/30
This was really good! I loved the vibes and the writing and the setting. Definitely reading book two. I'm honestly surprised how much I liked this. It's really hard to find great, vibesy sci-fi these days. A lot of sff authors go for the colder, more depressing, gritty machine-like futures, I think forgetting that humans like to be COMFY. Even though this book is set after humans have colonized Jupiter (of all places); the humans here like their tea and their big warm blankets, and they go apeshit over animals (who are rare bc humans destroyed Earth). The two MCs plan their entire day around going to this special restaurant called Slow Burn that sounded AMAZING.
In hindsight, this makes sense because this book is all about ecosystems, both organic and human-made. Of course the author is concerned with how humans and systems live together on a harsh (groundless!) planet, the same way the characters in this book are attempting to painstakingly recreate the best possible potential ecosystem for repopulating Earth. (The title is actually a gut punch once you realize what it's referring to.)
Anyway, this is actually a murder mystery! And it is definitely in the Holmseian tradition, with a sapphic/sci-fi twist. Our Holmes is Mossa, a definitely neurodivergent investigator who we meet when she is looking into the disappearance of a scholar who appears to have unalived himself by stepping off the platforms that make life possible on Jupiter, directly into the planet, whereupon he will freeze to death and then be crushed into atoms. Her investigation leads her to Pleiti, her old housemate from university, who is also a scholar and who Mossa feels can provide valuable insight. Pleiti, of course, is our Watson, and in grand Watsonian fashion, the story is told from her first person POV. Also, in true Watsonian fashion, she is super gay for her Holmes.
I've already placed a hold for book two at my library and very much hope there is a book three!
[4.5 stars]
Read Harder Challenge 2024: Read a sci-fi novella.
Book 27/30
This was really good! I loved the vibes and the writing and the setting. Definitely reading book two. I'm honestly surprised how much I liked this. It's really hard to find great, vibesy sci-fi these days. A lot of sff authors go for the colder, more depressing, gritty machine-like futures, I think forgetting that humans like to be COMFY. Even though this book is set after humans have colonized Jupiter (of all places); the humans here like their tea and their big warm blankets, and they go apeshit over animals (who are rare bc humans destroyed Earth). The two MCs plan their entire day around going to this special restaurant called Slow Burn that sounded AMAZING.
In hindsight, this makes sense because this book is all about ecosystems, both organic and human-made. Of course the author is concerned with how humans and systems live together on a harsh (groundless!) planet, the same way the characters in this book are attempting to painstakingly recreate the best possible potential ecosystem for repopulating Earth. (The title is actually a gut punch once you realize what it's referring to.)
Anyway, this is actually a murder mystery! And it is definitely in the Holmseian tradition, with a sapphic/sci-fi twist. Our Holmes is Mossa, a definitely neurodivergent investigator who we meet when she is looking into the disappearance of a scholar who appears to have unalived himself by stepping off the platforms that make life possible on Jupiter, directly into the planet, whereupon he will freeze to death and then be crushed into atoms. Her investigation leads her to Pleiti, her old housemate from university, who is also a scholar and who Mossa feels can provide valuable insight. Pleiti, of course, is our Watson, and in grand Watsonian fashion, the story is told from her first person POV. Also, in true Watsonian fashion, she is super gay for her Holmes.
I've already placed a hold for book two at my library and very much hope there is a book three!
[4.5 stars]
Read Harder Challenge 2024: Read a sci-fi novella.
April 3, 2025
This was very much a delightful and unexpected read.
This is a sci-fi mystery in the vein of Sherlock Holmes following Mossa, an Investigator (similar to a detective) and her old college roommate/lover, Pleiti. Mossa fulfills the cold and intelligent Holmes role, while Pleiti fills the story-from-her-POV sidekick role of Watson. We meet the two as Mossa rolls back into Pleiti's life to ask for her help in the case of a disappearance, and we learn their history as they investigate and figure out if and how they can fit back into each others' lives.
All of this takes place on Jupiter. Rather, orbiting Jupiter. Which is just so neat. Older's writing seats us firmly in the comfort and coziness of a Holmesian mystery, but wraps it up in an interesting sci-fi premise. The mystery itself is alright; I found the writing of it very decent and I enjoyed following the threads as they put them together, but what drove this for me was Mossa and Pleiti's characterization and the world building. I don't visualize things very well (if at all) as I read, so my brain was working overtime to picture this colonized orbit of Jupiter because I wanted to learn about it so much. It was so neat!
So, so happy I grabbed this. It felt cozy in the way that slipping into well-known and well-loved Holmes stories does, but also more stimulating with the world building.
This is a sci-fi mystery in the vein of Sherlock Holmes following Mossa, an Investigator (similar to a detective) and her old college roommate/lover, Pleiti. Mossa fulfills the cold and intelligent Holmes role, while Pleiti fills the story-from-her-POV sidekick role of Watson. We meet the two as Mossa rolls back into Pleiti's life to ask for her help in the case of a disappearance, and we learn their history as they investigate and figure out if and how they can fit back into each others' lives.
All of this takes place on Jupiter. Rather, orbiting Jupiter. Which is just so neat. Older's writing seats us firmly in the comfort and coziness of a Holmesian mystery, but wraps it up in an interesting sci-fi premise. The mystery itself is alright; I found the writing of it very decent and I enjoyed following the threads as they put them together, but what drove this for me was Mossa and Pleiti's characterization and the world building. I don't visualize things very well (if at all) as I read, so my brain was working overtime to picture this colonized orbit of Jupiter because I wanted to learn about it so much. It was so neat!
So, so happy I grabbed this. It felt cozy in the way that slipping into well-known and well-loved Holmes stories does, but also more stimulating with the world building.
March 22, 2024
I loved this book! Review on Autostraddle: https://www.autostraddle.com/queer-no....
March 19, 2023
This was my first book by Malka Older and the cover and title brought me to it. I’m a sucker for that kind of title and this one has a really nice ring to it. I hadn’t heard of the author before though now her 2016 science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy is on my TBR.
Set on a gas-giant planet (think Jupiter or Saturn), The Mimicking of Known Successes is a cosy murder mystery and a slow-burn second-chance romance. The sudden disappearance of a man causes Investigator Mossa to reconnect with her ex, scholar Pleiti, five years after they broke up. The two of them have gone on to lead very different lives after university but the connection remains, even if they haven’t seen each other in years.
The prologue is told from Mossa’s POV, then we move to Pleiti’s, which I loved. Mossa is a fascinating character, with a very quick mind and an unparalleled capacity to process puzzles. Because the story is told from her point of view and in the first person, we know how Pleiti feels but not so much who she is, especially as Mossa’s return has a tornado-like quality and Pleiti finds herself assisting her with her investigation, very much the Watson to Mossa’s Holmes. Will we get to know more of Pleiti in her natural environment in the next book, The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, coming out in February 2024? Or will Mossa’s world become hers? Either way, I’m looking forward to more.
Besides the characters, I also liked the worldbuilding very much, though I’m not sure I was able to really see what it’s supposed to look like but that’s not unusual for me. I don’t see, I feel. And I did feel here. Not the angsty feelings I usually look for, but rather something akin to curiosity. About this new world intent on bringing back the old one, about the society’s dynamics, and, obviously, about the characters. I want more of these two and I look forward to the sequel. The ending of this novella didn’t leave me unsatisfied and it can be read as a standalone but it whetted my appetite for more.
I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
Read all my reviews on my blog (and please buy from the affiliation links!): Jude in the Stars
July 5, 2022
This is such a delightful gaslamp mystery set on future-Jupiter, with a wonderfully warm and cozy writing style (once Chapter One begins and the main character takes over the narrative) and an understated, slowburn f/f romance. It's really fun throughout, full of great characters and settings and totally charming, but it also weaves in some really beautiful messaging about climate issues and the difference between yearning for what's been lost and creating something new. I loved it, and I can't wait to read the next story in this series of novellas!
April 20, 2022
A gaslamp murder-mystery set on a gas giant planet, with a backdrop of eco-regeneration and a compelling slow-burn romance? Oh yes please! Malka Older has created a far flung speculative winner that is as much hard science fiction as it is gritty xenobiological noir. What’s more, she’s built a world that feels real and present, with characters you want to see get closer… to the possible killer and to each other. I am absolutely in love with this world and these characters.
(Malka is a friend, colleague, and I received an ARC. No scones were harmed in the writing of this blurb.)
(Malka is a friend, colleague, and I received an ARC. No scones were harmed in the writing of this blurb.)
November 28, 2023
3 Stars for The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older read by Lindsey Dorcus.
The story was alright but I kept forgetting that it was sci-fi. The murder mystery and building romance seemed to be the main focus. The sci-fi part seemed to be just the place names for where they were. I never got a sense of what the world that they lived in was like.
The story was alright but I kept forgetting that it was sci-fi. The murder mystery and building romance seemed to be the main focus. The sci-fi part seemed to be just the place names for where they were. I never got a sense of what the world that they lived in was like.
April 15, 2023
DNF at 56%
I was intrigued and fascinated by the prologue of this book. It had smooth world building and cool details and I was excited to learn more.
And then it shifted from third person in the prologue to first person POV of a different character with no notice in chapter 1, and it was downhill from there.
Major problems:
The stilted, excessively stuffy and big word style of writing. I assume it’s because the character POV is an ivory tower academic, but it quickly grated on me. It also made me feel really distant from the story and characters.
The characters themselves were flat and cardboard to me. I never felt like they had true emotions, and I certainly did not buy into their romance (alleged past romance??) - if it hadn’t been insisted on constantly by the POV character, I would never have guessed it was a thing.
There were a lot of characters for a novella. Maybe this is my fault for zoning out, but I got lost trying to remember who was who and who lied and whatever. Kind of ruins the mystery when I’m drowning in misc characters.
I wish there’d been more time spent on developing the world - the sci fi part was really neat. There was a bit too much time spent on mentioning the gas and the fog and that got annoying.
It shouldn’t have been such a struggle to read a novella. Giving up halfway through since it clearly was not improving.
Maybe it’ll work for other people, but for me I found it fell short on all counts.
I was intrigued and fascinated by the prologue of this book. It had smooth world building and cool details and I was excited to learn more.
And then it shifted from third person in the prologue to first person POV of a different character with no notice in chapter 1, and it was downhill from there.
Major problems:
The stilted, excessively stuffy and big word style of writing. I assume it’s because the character POV is an ivory tower academic, but it quickly grated on me. It also made me feel really distant from the story and characters.
The characters themselves were flat and cardboard to me. I never felt like they had true emotions, and I certainly did not buy into their romance (alleged past romance??) - if it hadn’t been insisted on constantly by the POV character, I would never have guessed it was a thing.
There were a lot of characters for a novella. Maybe this is my fault for zoning out, but I got lost trying to remember who was who and who lied and whatever. Kind of ruins the mystery when I’m drowning in misc characters.
I wish there’d been more time spent on developing the world - the sci fi part was really neat. There was a bit too much time spent on mentioning the gas and the fog and that got annoying.
It shouldn’t have been such a struggle to read a novella. Giving up halfway through since it clearly was not improving.
Maybe it’ll work for other people, but for me I found it fell short on all counts.
March 12, 2023
Update: Happy Publication Week!
What a delight of a novella. It was throughly enjoyable how the author would spread tiny tidbits of backstory about how humanity came to live in Jupiter, and it's future goals, versus large infodumps. The mystery was good, and the suspect's motivation was wholly unique to the story's setting.
**Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for an eARC of this book in exchange for my review. **
What a delight of a novella. It was throughly enjoyable how the author would spread tiny tidbits of backstory about how humanity came to live in Jupiter, and it's future goals, versus large infodumps. The mystery was good, and the suspect's motivation was wholly unique to the story's setting.
**Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for an eARC of this book in exchange for my review. **
May 20, 2024
Postapocalyptic Jupiter buddy cops
I picked up The Mimicking of Known Successes because it is a finalist for the 2024 Best Novella Hugo.
So, yeah. It looks like we finally managed to do it -- wipe out life on Earth. After decamping to Mars for a while and trashing that, too, we are now camped out on Jupiter. We hope one day to fix Earth and go back, but I'd say the real question is whether anything will be left of Jupiter when we're done with it. Over a hundred years have passed since the abandonment of Earth.
These are the main political divisions of the Jupiter colony. One political movement, the Classicists, works towards fixing, repairing, and returning to Earth. Their main political opposition is the Moderns, whose main goal is to make life livable on Jupiter. There are no political conservatives -- indeed, the word "Conservative" has become a slur. (I suspect that is a hint about Malka Ann Older's 2023 political inclinations, but that's just a guess.)
Nowhere in the novel is Jupiter referred to by that name. The inhabitants call it Giant. However, Pleiti mentions looking up and seeing Europa and Io, which are moons of Jupiter, so that's presumably the giant where they're all living. Jupiter is not a planet like Earth with a solid surface -- it's a gas giant. How the colonists engineered a place to live is only sketchily described. It was apparently done by fabricating several steel rings that completely encircle the planet. Trains run on these rings, and they support solid platforms on which people live and work. These rings are given names like "the 4°63' line" or "the 0°30' line". The numbers are the measures of small angles -- a longitude or a latitude, I presume. Latitude would make most sense, since the rings extend primarily East-West, however, the different rings intersect and there are rail stations at the intersections, so that one can get from one ring to another. This is puzzling, since lines of latitude don't intersect. That all this could be engineered strikes me as physically implausible. I would certainly like more information on how Older imagines it all. A map would have been helpful.
OK, I'm nerding out here. Apologies. However, the issues I just raised are relevant to the story. It's basically a mystery -- a brief and simple mystery. It's a novella, and there's not room for involved world-building and a complicated mystery. So, fair enough. I still enjoyed it.
The "buddy cops" I referred to in my title are, as you've already figured out from the series title, Mossa and Pleiti. Pleiti, our main point of view character, is not literally a cop -- she's a researcher at the big University of Valdegeld. (I'm using feminine pronouns for Pleiti, because the publisher's blurb does, but I suspect Older may be pulling a Scalzi here and deliberately leaving Pleiti's gender ambiguous, since I didn't notice any gender commitment for Pleiti in the novel itself.) Mossa IS a cop -- that is, she is an Investigator. She is trying to track down a missing university researcher, and she asks Pleiti to assist. Many years ago, when they were students together at the University, Mossa and Pleiti were an item. They broke up on graduation, but it is obvious that the feelings have not gone away. The romance takes a back seat to the mystery, but it is there.
This was fun, even if it felt a bit sketchy and unfinished. I was pleased to discover that it is the first novel in a series that, sadly, comprises only two books at the date of writing this review, 19-May-2024. I certainly plan to read book 2 (The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles), and probably eventually book 3, etc.
Blog review.
I picked up The Mimicking of Known Successes because it is a finalist for the 2024 Best Novella Hugo.
So, yeah. It looks like we finally managed to do it -- wipe out life on Earth. After decamping to Mars for a while and trashing that, too, we are now camped out on Jupiter. We hope one day to fix Earth and go back, but I'd say the real question is whether anything will be left of Jupiter when we're done with it. Over a hundred years have passed since the abandonment of Earth.
These are the main political divisions of the Jupiter colony. One political movement, the Classicists, works towards fixing, repairing, and returning to Earth. Their main political opposition is the Moderns, whose main goal is to make life livable on Jupiter. There are no political conservatives -- indeed, the word "Conservative" has become a slur. (I suspect that is a hint about Malka Ann Older's 2023 political inclinations, but that's just a guess.)
Nowhere in the novel is Jupiter referred to by that name. The inhabitants call it Giant. However, Pleiti mentions looking up and seeing Europa and Io, which are moons of Jupiter, so that's presumably the giant where they're all living. Jupiter is not a planet like Earth with a solid surface -- it's a gas giant. How the colonists engineered a place to live is only sketchily described. It was apparently done by fabricating several steel rings that completely encircle the planet. Trains run on these rings, and they support solid platforms on which people live and work. These rings are given names like "the 4°63' line" or "the 0°30' line". The numbers are the measures of small angles -- a longitude or a latitude, I presume. Latitude would make most sense, since the rings extend primarily East-West, however, the different rings intersect and there are rail stations at the intersections, so that one can get from one ring to another. This is puzzling, since lines of latitude don't intersect. That all this could be engineered strikes me as physically implausible. I would certainly like more information on how Older imagines it all. A map would have been helpful.
OK, I'm nerding out here. Apologies. However, the issues I just raised are relevant to the story. It's basically a mystery -- a brief and simple mystery. It's a novella, and there's not room for involved world-building and a complicated mystery. So, fair enough. I still enjoyed it.
The "buddy cops" I referred to in my title are, as you've already figured out from the series title, Mossa and Pleiti. Pleiti, our main point of view character, is not literally a cop -- she's a researcher at the big University of Valdegeld. (I'm using feminine pronouns for Pleiti, because the publisher's blurb does, but I suspect Older may be pulling a Scalzi here and deliberately leaving Pleiti's gender ambiguous, since I didn't notice any gender commitment for Pleiti in the novel itself.) Mossa IS a cop -- that is, she is an Investigator. She is trying to track down a missing university researcher, and she asks Pleiti to assist. Many years ago, when they were students together at the University, Mossa and Pleiti were an item. They broke up on graduation, but it is obvious that the feelings have not gone away. The romance takes a back seat to the mystery, but it is there.
This was fun, even if it felt a bit sketchy and unfinished. I was pleased to discover that it is the first novel in a series that, sadly, comprises only two books at the date of writing this review, 19-May-2024. I certainly plan to read book 2 (The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles), and probably eventually book 3, etc.
Blog review.
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