Hardcover, 176 pages
English language
Published March 7, 2023 by Tordotcom.
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.
A good read with a hero who might be considered to be neurodivergent today that kept me interested all the way through.
I've just reserved the sequel - The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles
Imaginative setting with a steampunky feel to it. I liked all the travelling around on railcars. It's quite a page turner. But the characters felt a little distant despite the first-person perspective. Perhaps a tad too short. I'd love to read another story set in the same world, though.
Here's a book that doesn't have an over-complicated plot full of twists you can't believe in. Rather, the world-building is smart and to the point, it has just enough explanations and backstory, and you're never bored.
This was fine— this flavor of sapphic is not the kind I swoon for, but it was nevertheless a nice puzzle in a delightfully bizarre setting
I love the world Malka Older created and the two main characters are wonderful. But I would have liked the story to be longer. The resolution felt very rushed.
