DNF
I'm kinda getting into mysteries in space-- The Spare Man had a unique setting, and although Dead Space turned out to be more horror than mystery, some of the aspects were neat. Mickey7 has got mystery/conspiracy elements and Wormhole was complete with police officers and detectives. So I was down for this murder mystery on a colonized planet somewhere out in space.

I was pretty interested during the prologue-- lots of hints about the setting, new technologies sprinkled in but not fully explained yet, etc. The writing once the chapters started, though, was a hard no. I made it through 2 chapters. The prologue is third-person narration, maybe a little stiff but it felt fine given the subject and setting. The chapters are first-person narration, told by a character in love with his own intelligence. From the vocabulary to the sentence structure, this character refuses to use a few every-day words when a complex description could be shoehorned in instead. His character-- narration, dialogue, and also mannerism and interests-- are like if a group of people played telephone, but the message is a caricature built of the stereotypical(ly negative) traits of an out-of-touch university faculty member. He's kind of a doofus, likely redeemable, and there's a backstory between him and the investigator that might turn out to be interesting, but I couldn't image listening to (reading) this narrator any longer.

eARC from NetGalley.

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When you pitch something to me as 'Holmesian' my guard goes up. Sherlock Holmes and the associated story beats/tropes have been used so much and let's all be honest - so badly - so many times it makes me flinch. I adore them when used correctly, I'm a big fan of the original, and am very aware of where they failed and where they can fail in the modern sense so I always go in with trepidation. This paid off though and has the promise of being a new favorite Holmesian mystery series!
Set on Jupiter this novella throws us in with little fanfare to the mystery of a man missing of one of the rings/rails that humanity has built around the gaseous plant. Mossa, our 'Holmes' of the story, sets out to reunite with an old friend. Pleiti, the friend in question, is our Watson and the narrator of our story from there on. The two are old friends from college, once lovers now distant friends and they begin to work the case together. Pleiti is Mossa's way and guide at the university at which she studies and works.
The mystery itself had me guessing (an impressive feat) and I enjoyed the reveals and the structure. It felt very much like the story telling style of Mr. Arthur Conan Doyle but with a much improved and modern flair. There was also a current within the story of our past on Earth and why Jupiter was the home of humanity which I enjoyed a great deal. My only complaint was the difficulty I had in visualizing the seemingly elaborate structure that was used to house humanity around Jupiter but as I continued to read this fell more the back of my mind. I do hope to see some concept or fan art of the place however - if someone finds some or makes it let me know!
What little romance is there is simple and doesn't distract from the overall plot though I'm interested to see how that carries through to the next book(s). A great SF mystery novella I'd highly recommend for my Holmes fans out there.

TL;DR

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older is fun and shows that Older is an author to watch. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

Two genres that I don’t read much of are: cozy mysteries and romance. I have an inherent bias in me that’s unfair to the writers working in those areas. I’d like to say that I requested The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older to push my boundaries, but that wouldn’t be true. When I saw that Older had a new book coming out, I requested it solely based on the author. I didn’t know it was a romance or a cozy until I sat down to actually read it. To be clear, even if I had known this, I would have still requested because Older is an author I have on my list of new-to-me writers. Her other books have been recommended to me in that past but never found their way to my TBR pile. So, I requested this to check out Older as an author, and I’m glad that I did. The Mimicking of Known Successes is a lovely mystery/romance with one of the best settings that I’ve read all year.

Pleiti is returning to her home and job at the university from a trip to see her parents. Waiting for her is her ex-girlfriend, Mossa, who is an Investigator confirming a potential suicide that may actually be a murder. Mossa seeks Pleiti out because the victim was a researcher at the same university as Pleiti. Naturally, the researcher agrees to help her ex, and as they begin to investigate what looks more and more like a murder, they spend time together and old feelings begin to reawaken. Their investigation takes them to various parts of the colony, including the Preservation Institute. As they dig into the academic’s disappearance and potential murder, Mossa and Pleiti are attacked. Another murder takes place, but this time near the university. Something sinister is taking place, and the two women attempt to unravel secrets and their complex feelings for each.

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older is a first person point of view cozy mystery and sapphic romance mixed together. Pleiti is the narrator for most of the book; though, the prologue is from Mossa’s point of view, but it’s in third person. This is short for a science fiction story. The publisher lists it as 176 pages. It reads fast with plenty to enjoy.

Setting

The Mimicking of Known Successes is set in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, though the colony calls it Giant. Older uses this setting so well. In places, it reminded me of frontier towns in westerns, and the adaptions that her characters have made to life on Jupiter is fantastic. The weather was enough to never let me forget this was a different planet, but neither was it intrusive. Parts of the colony are built from scrap metal, others – richer areas, of course – are nicer. Due to limited space, area allotments are highly prized. Yet, the colonist make room for the Preservation Institute as a zoo. It’s a beautifully thought out setting that adds just the right amount of extra spice to a fantastic story.

The reason that humans are in a colony on Jupiter is because we ruined Earth. Researchers at the university, including Pleiti, are studying how to terraform Earth so that humans can return someday. But they are also researching how to create a balanced ecosystem. This is another bit of setting that flavors the story so well. I like the idea that we seek to return to the planet we devastated. Clearly, humanity is capable of colonizing space; so, it says something that significant effort is spent looking back.

Pushing My Boundaries

As I said earlier, I don’t read much cozy mysteries or romance – sapphic or otherwise. So, I might not be the person to review how The Mimicking of Known Successes works within those genres. But what I can say is that those aspects made for a very entertaining story. The mystery had importance and danger yet lacked constant tension. When Mossa and Pleiti were off duty, they were off duty. This was refreshing for me. Rarely in mysteries do we see down time for the investigators, and it can lead to a sense of burn out because everything is tense all the time. Older ramps up and eases down the tension as needed in a way that rang true. After all, cops and detectives all have shifts and off duty time. They’re not on the case 24/7/365. This downtime allowed Mossa and Pleiti to uncover some of the old feelings that brought them together. Pleiti’s attraction is plain as day (thanks first person narration), but Mossa’s isn’t. Yet Older allows her moments of tenderness that surprise Pleiti, and these were very touching to read. Their courtship was always tentative and subdued with the past hanging over it and causing doubt. This also felt true to me. It felt like something I’ve experienced before. I enjoyed the cozy and romance aspects much more than I expected.

Does this mean I’ll give more cozies and romances a shot? I don’t know. Hopefully, this book undoes some of my bias. Older has created a lovely story that pushed the boundaries of my reading habits. I’m grateful for that.

Mossa

Mossa is the Sherlock Holmes-esque character of the investigative duo. She’s smart, observant, and makes connections that others wouldn’t. But I think comparing her to Holmes is a bit unfair because she’s much more human than Holmes. While I did find her mysterious and maybe a little odd, she wasn’t far fetched. Her deductions and connections were what I’d expect of a investigator who’d been at their job for a long time.

She surprised me in some spots, and I had to wonder what she was like before becoming an investigator. Pleiti says that she’s changed. It’d be interesting to know how; yet, Mossa doesn’t believe she has changed. But it’s in the way she surprises Pleiti that we do get a sense that she’s not the same person. Because Pleiti is remembering the younger Mossa, how she surprises Pleiti shows how Mossa has matured.

Conclusion

Malka Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes is a lovely story about humanity. Through the cozy mystery, the sapphic romance, and the science fictional elements, Older gives us a story that entertains, delights, and makes us think. What more could any reader ask for? Highly recommended.

TL/DR: a delight that I was unable to finish, but would heavily consider revisiting.

I want to preface beginning with my thanks towards author Malka Older and the publisher, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, for allowing me to view this book in lieu of the publication date! Thank you very much for this opportunity!

A sapphic romance (complete with the incredible “former lovers” dynamic to boot) set on the surface of Jupiter, the book opens right off the bat by throwing you right into the mystery that the novel is centered around. Both of these aspects were very compelling to me! This book had compelling characters and built a compelling world, in which I could tell a lot of love and time was put into. I commend the author for this!

This book read, at least in my mind, like a black-and-white noir detective film complete with dialogue voice-others throughout, which I found very endearing!

At times, though, picturing what exactly was happening, and this world in my head proved to be challenging for me, but this was not necessarily on any error by the author: I’ve had this issue with Dune before as well. Admittedly, I was rather lost in the first half of the book and was not entirely sure of what was going on. As such, I found that the book was hard to get into and unfortunately (though this was at no fault of the author’s and due to my own time-constraints) I was not able to finish this book. However: the positive reviews that have been left on this book are well-deserved. I hope, some day, to pick up a copy of the published book from the local library and attempt to dive into this universe once more!

Given the general themes of this novel surrounding the very nature of humanity (for both better and worse), it seems to be a thought-provoking one that will sit with the reader long after they continue to read it.

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.

<b>The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older is the first adventure of Mossa and Pleite, your new favourite detective duo!</b>

*Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for the advance copy of this book.
I enjoyed it a lot and it was a fresh and quick reading.

<b>On a colony in Jupiter a man goes missing and the enigmatic investigator Mossa is in charge of finding out the reasons behind this. In this journey she will cross paths with her ex, Pleiti, who will help her solve this mystery.</b>

The story is full of enigmas and has a <u>strong resemblance to the detective stories I loved as a child</u>. But, what’s new about it? It happens in Jupiter and it has a sapphic romance, which makes it even better!

It was a very <b>fast paced reading that kept me guessing and wondering</b> who was the murderer and what were they reasons why did they did it. It was very fun and enjoyable. Even when it’s a short novella (over 100 pages) <b>the worldbuilding is great and is full of small details that create a complete overall image</b>, which was one of my favourite things about it. The Jupiter colony was alive in my mind and it made it so much easier to understand the story.

I also really liked <b>the characters</b>. Pleiti is the main narrator of this story, and her point of view explains a lot of things about Mossa’s character as well as her own. You learn about their love story and their past bit by bit, which I found natural and easy to understand. They are both complex characters with different backgrounds that complement each other in a perfect way.

The author uses the first half of the book to expose the mystery and to present the characters. However, I found the second part of the book slower and with less plot-twists than I was expecting. I didn’t expect the ending and even though I believe it makes sense in the story I was somehow disappointed as I felt that something was missing.

Overall, this was a great read. Fun, fresh, quick, and easy. The characters were well-written and believable. The author’s style is easy to understand and that’s why I think this book is a <u>perfect introduction to science fiction and space operas.</u>

For all these reasons, I believe this novel is a great start for this new world where the author could explore different mysteries. I can’t wait to see what’s next for these characters and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did.

Rating 4* / 5*
Rep: Queer main characters

well…that was TOUGH to get through. a real sludge, unfortunately.

genuinely, it was just a dense writing style that never got easier to consume. to the point where i had to purposely and actively put down what i was reading. all to give myself some time away. i’m not one who usually does that outside of when life gets in my way, you know? so i feel like that says a lot for how i personally felt about the book.

but lets get into it. i think the other main issue besides the writing style was how disconnected i felt from either character. and yeah, it could definitely be a fault to the writing style too. but deeper than how the writing impacted my ability to connect with pleiti and mossa was the fact that i just didn’t believe their relationship. we’re told time and again that they had something previously. that they actively still have romantic feelings for each other. but where? it truly felt like it was just repeated by pleiti. that mossa has these romantic feelings. like she’s justifying it to herself as much as the reader. and besides one time when they kiss, it just… didn’t feel like there was really anything romantic occurring between them. which made their romantic scene feel even more off to me.

as for the mystery. that was fine. in true holmes fashion, it made me feel like i was always a step behind. but sure, it had an interesting enough concept. will the sequel(s) follow the fall-out of the events from this mystery? or a new case? i guess we’ll see, with time. but… will i be reading it? probably not.

Great mystery, reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. The setting is fascinating and sobering. Enjoyable, quick read. Would love to read more about these characters. This book will likely be featured on a future episode of Your Rainbow Reads podcast.

I was provided with a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this, but I didn't love it. Space settings are typically hit-or-miss with me; in this instance, I wanted a lot more space than we got. There were places where the setting description really helped me to get a feel for this location, but in other places that description felt sparse. I also think that the author relies too much on the comparisons to Holmes and Watson, and so the expectation that the reader will just project those character types onto her characters exists and that results in weak characterization.

Basically, with everything, I felt as though we were just plopped down in the middle of this place and in these characters' lives and they just started in with this new activity. I wanted more backstory, more world-building -- and I wanted both of those things to be bigger, so that they could sustain a series of novels. I just felt like both things were too spare for my liking.

As soon as I read the blurb that this is gonna be a Holmesian f/f mystery, I knew I was gonna read it. And this was a quick delight.

This is a story that’s taking place in a far future on Jupiter, so the author drops a lot of information about this world and how humans came to be here from earth at various moments in the narrative, so it never felt info dumpy but we also only get little necessary information that moves the plot. The pacing was pretty quick and I really thought I was on the verge figuring it out all out when the final twist came completely out of left field, which was a fun surprise.

But the beauty of this book is definitely the two main characters. Mossa and Pliete are such a contrast to each other - Mossa being an investigator, definitely a more reserved workaholic, while Pliete is a bit more impulsive and livelier Classics scholar - but theirs is a very interesting dynamic. The initial hesitation and discomfort because they are meeting after many years but then the easy camaraderie and trust that gradually seeps is very well depicted and I loved their deepening intimacy as the story goes.

Overall, this was a very fun and entertaining murder mystery in a still developing sci-fi world, and some very sweet sapphic romance in the making. I finished it in one sitting and now I’m even more excited because this is gonna be a series. I can’t wait to meet our couple again.

**Please see content/trigger warnings at the end of this review**

This book has the bones of everything I like: a mystery (advertised as being Holmesian), set on another planet, future Earth and a sapphic romance. Talk about buzz words! There were a lot of interesting pieces, and I REALLY wanted to love it.

Unfortunately, the story didn't quite work for me very well. If they hadn't told me it was "Holmesian," I wouldn't have identified it as such, I had questions about how living on the (new) planet worked that weren't ever explained, and the romance was almost non-existent except at the very end (in fact, I spent most of the book thinking that it was an unrequited crush one of them had on the other in college. Not that they actually dated.). It just didn't quite come together for me.


Content/trigger warnings: violence, mentions of possible suicide and homicide

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.
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*AKA culture -- see Wikipedia, "animal culture"

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fascinating little novella. I loved the combination of mystery and sci-fi, as well as the setting of a colony on Jupiter. This is a book that will fit nicely with other "cozy" sci-fis like those of Becky Chambers. I also loved the complicated sapphic relationship at the center of the story, which is what drew me to this book in the first place. Personally, the worldbuilding and setting was more compelling than the mystery, but I think it depends on the reader - I like sci-fi more than mysteries, so it makes sense I would prefer that part of the story. I only wish there was more of the worldbuilding about Jupiter and humanity's history included. All in all, I will be looking forward to the sequel!

What do you get when you mix a Victorian-era cozy mystery with sci-fi? This book.

The Mimicking of Known Successes was a super fun, cozy mystery set on Jupiter. We follow our main characters, Mossa and Pleiti, as they have to solve a case together - while also navigating being exes. With this only being a novella, I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough time to set up the world, but Older did a beautiful job of expertly crafting this futuristic world while still keeping to a vintage aesthetic. Older also manages to weave in the big questions without overly bogging down the narrative - change and the environment being the biggest one.

This releases today and I would highly recommend, can’t wait to see what Mossa and Pleiti do next!

I think I’m finally starting to appreciate novellas for what they are — it takes talent to write such an intriguing story that wraps up well in a short amount of time, and this one was a lot of fun. As usual, I felt a little bit adrift in jumping into this world, but the focus on the two characters and the mystery they were trying to solve helped to narrow my focus a bit. And then I thought the big solve was such a great insight — did I want to see where the story went next? Yeah, but that’s not what this is! It’s just a hint of the possibilities that are out there, and I loved it. Plus I was able to read most of it yesterday afternoon in my front porch rocking chair, and that’s hard to beat. Out today!

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

<i>The Mimicking of Known Successes</i> charmingly blends a Holmesian-style cozy mystery with a film noir detective aesthetic, and then sets itself in a future colony on Jupiter after Earth is rendered uninhabitable. Mossa and Pleiti are endearing characters, and their former-lovers-turned-awkward-partners dynamic as they investigate the disappearance of one of Pleiti's colleagues had me genuinely smiling several times throughout the story. Mossa has all the wit and single-minded determination of Holmes without any of the same callousness.

And yet, while all of that remains true, I couldn't help but feel frustrated with this story. At its core, it is a mystery. At the same time, the brilliant world-building surrounding humanity's desperate flight to Jupiter, all the while leaving Earth in its ruinous wake, was far more compelling. Every time the text revealed more about the world, the plot would just as quickly be pulled back into a mystery I found myself less and less concerned about.

To complicate that already difficult balancing act, Mossa and Pleiti's love story never really hooked me either. It felt, at times, like I'd begun reading the second or third book in a series and missed the groundwork laid before. I wanted to spend more time just getting to know them both and learn their past before settling into their present. Flashbacks might have helped with this, but weren't featured. Their concern for each other was sweet, but ultimately felt shallow as I struggled to care with them.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book, and appreciated reading something with all the comfort of a nice warm cup of tea. I just hope that, one day, I can also read the book that solely focuses on humanity's struggle to survive on a colony on Jupiter and confront the sins of their past that is also hidden in that warm cup of tea.

If you're a fan of cozy mysteries with futuristic settings, this book is absolutely for you. If you enjoy speculative musings on the drastic consequences of humanity's attitudes towards consumption and the biological world, this book is also for you!

Many thanks to Tor/Forge and NetGalley for providing me with this digital advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own, honest thoughts about this book.

The Mimicking of Known Successes is a Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance set on a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter. When a man goes missing, lead investigator Mossa works to solve the case along with her former girlfriend and scholar Pleiti.

The first book in the series, Mimicking does a fantastic job of building this world piece by piece. While it wasn't explicitly clear how things worked on this planet for quite some time, you got little nuggets of how the settlement came to be throughout the book. It became a bit frustrating at times since this is a short novella and not a full length novel.

The underlying mystery throughout the book gets resolved in a satisfying way, but what the book does well in delivering a compelling mystery it lacks in engaging and developed characters. I found a lot of the interactions between the two main characters stiff and while this is a Holmesian story. Mossa's quirks and behavior do not make you as the reader endeared to her that you would towards her comparable counterpart.

Recommend if you're looking for an easy and short sci-fi murder mystery.

The concept and subsequent worldbuilding in this story are incredible and so creative. I couldn't get past the superfluous writing style and frequent run-on sentences. I feel this book was more like an early draft piecing together the story and characters and less like a published final copy. The characters were, again, a fantastic concept, but lacked dimension and likeability. Overall, I would have loved to read a more fleshed-out and edited version of what could be a beautiful and impactful story.

I received an eARC from Netgalley. The book will be out 3/7/2023.

The Mimicking of Known Successes accomplishes what it sets out to do by being a cozy sci-fi story, despite the tragic world building. Humanity now living on Jupiter after Earth has been destroyed by climate change (why Jupiter and not Mars? Well because Jupiter is cool as fuck). I liked how this discussed how humanity would react to this change and how detailed the world building was. However, the characters are lacking in personality and chemistry which made me not care about either the mystery or the romance.

TWs: climate change discussion, murder investigation.

In this story, we're introduced to Mossa, who is living on what seems to be Jupiter and is tasked with solving a missing persons situation. Thing is, it is pretty hard for people to go missing on a planet where everything has to be contained in a veritable bubble. As such, Mossa is perplexed, and heads to find her former partner, Pleiti, who is a historian of Earth. And from there, the story involves the two of them trying to figure out not just the disappearance of the man Mossa is tasked with figuring out, but some sketchy stuff happening at Pleiti's workplace too.

They're also trying to navigate their own relationship, as they clearly have some unresolved feelings. And the rest of the story is basically these two trying to figure out what is happening around them, but also what is happening between them, too. I liked the story, especially the intricacies of the world. It was pretty intriguing how much this society valued old Earth mores and history, and their goal was less to expand their colony on Jupiter, but to go "home" to Earth. I also really liked Mossa and Pleiti and their confused feelings. I mean, who can't relate to confused feelings, right?

The only real downside here is, it's awfully short, and I didn't feel like I had enough time to connect to either character as much as I'd have liked. However, it was recently announced that there will in fact be more books with these characters forthcoming, so I feel like I can forgive it much easier now, heh.

Bottom Line: It's crime solving and angsty romance on Jupiter, how could you not be here for it?