Malka Older's The Mimicking of Known Successes is a fascinating addition to the SFF canon. I really enjoyed the readthrough, and hope for more from Older in the future!

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.

While I was mostly confused on the world-building in the beginning of this story, this was a very unique and incredible book. I think I might just be a sucker for sapphic sci-fi books but I found myself speeding through this after I picked it up, and it helped that it wasn't very long. Overall, I had a very good time reading this and I wish there were more books like this out in the world.

Esta última historia de Malka Older sirve como muestra perfecta de lo que es su obra, una autora que es perfectamente capaz de crear todo un nuevo mundo con muy pocas páginas pero con gran trasfondo.


La humanidad tuvo que dejar atrás la Tierra y ahora está establecida como colonia en nuestro gigante gaseoso cercano, Júpiter. Por las propias características del planeta, los humanos viven en distintos niveles que están a bastante distancia de la superficie planetaria, en una suerte de ciudades flotantes interconectadas por raíles. Es en este interesante escenario donde se desarrolla una investigación de asesinato, por parte de unas investigadoras que no hace falta ser muy observadora para identificarlas como Watson y Holmes, solo que son mujeres y en el pasado fueron pareja.

Me gusta como Older crea nuevas palabras, especialmente uno de los escenarios más visitados el Mauzooleum, una especie de parque temático con algunas especies animales que se pudieron rescatar de la Tierra y un recordatorio constante de lo que se dejó atrás. Creo que es mucho más atractivo el mundo que nos deja entrever la autora, sobre todo por el énfasis en el ámbito universitario, que el misterio en sí.

El mensaje ecologista también es predominante, pero a pesar de haber tenido que dejar la Tierra atrás la Humanidad no ha desesperado y parece que se está intentando avanzar para volver a terraformar la Tierra.

La relación entre ambas protagonistas también está muy bien llevada, cada una con sus peculiaridades que acaban complementándose de forma muy satisfactoria. Además, la novela es muy corta, tanto que se puede leer fácilmente de un tirón o dos. Es una lectura perfecta para limpiar el paladar entre dos novelas de mayor envergadura.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The funny thing about Mimicking of Known Successes is that it feels more fresh and original than most books! I loved a lot of things about this book, but the original and fantastic world building was, in my opinion, the star of this show. This tight novella takes gas lamp mystery to new heights by setting the action on a human refugee colony in orbit around the gas giant. The characters are fun, the solution to the mystery clever, and the end surprisingly substantive for what I had incorrectly pegged as a cozy novella. The characters are charming and the subtle romance added a nice subplot without eclipsing the main plot. I can’t wait for everyone to read this delightful novel. If you like academic vibes, hopeful and thoughtful climate fiction, lesbians solving crimes in space, or trains, hurry to pick this one up. #bookstagram #bookrecommendations #bookreview #clifi #sapphic #academia #cozymystery

I was provided with an advance copy by the publisher in exchange for this honest review.

In a distant future where Earth is no longer hospitable, humanity has moved to another planet. One scientist working to restore Earth goes missing, presumed dead. Fellow researcher Pleiti leads the search, along with an investigator, who also happens to be her former classmate and past lover, Mossa.

The publisher describes this novella as a "sapphic Sherlockian space murder mystery". That's a lot to fit into one slim book! I think I would have enjoyed this book much more if it had given me a little more at the beginning to (1) settle me into the dystopian scene, (2) make me care about the missing man, and (3) give me a better look at Pleiti and Mossa's past relationship and dynamic. It felt like it started too far into the story. But there are so many interesting themes going on here that I'm glad I stuck around to the end!

Fast paced, interesting story. Imaginative worldbuilding with a mystery that builds to a satisfying end.

Not a huge fan but it’s a fine book if the plot synopsis catches you. It’s very true to that, it just wasn’t my thing. I did think it was very unique and well written.

As always, Tordotcom delivers on the promise of a novella. A solid SFF mystery with a satisfying conclusion, great for fans of Becky Chambers (particularly those who enjoyed To Be Taught, If Fortunate). The wlw romance was a small side bit, but always nice to see.

A lovely Sherlockian mystery told in warm prose and set on a habitable Jupiter. Older's worldbuilding is wonderful in this; as a fan of trains, the rail system was well thought out and a delight to read. The commentary on paying train fare had me laughing, and Older's experience in academia shows in the characters she has inhabiting the university. Similarly, there are several laugh-out-loud moments in this even though the tenor of the book itself is composed and precise. I enjoyed this rather much.

I didn't realize this was an LBGTQ novel. The main character and narrator, Mossa- spoke of herself with the She pronoun, so I naturally assumed she was a woman. Her ex-lover, Pleiti, I had no idea about. It really isn't central to the story.
You see, Mossa, Pleiti, and the whole of humanity is living on a planet called GIANT, which is mostly made of energy and gasses, so everyone lives on belts that traverse the planet in different ways, intersecting in various platforms that have small cities built out from them. To get from one place to another, you take the tram. Similar to subways in NY or the Tube in London. But if one steps off the platform, it is assumed that suicide is their intent. Or homicide, if they've been pushed.. It is up to Inspector Mossa to determine how the victim ended up dead, or, in this case, missing.
Like I said in the beginning, I didn't realize this was an LGBTQ novel, and that's as is should be. I mean people are people. They love who they love.. He. She. They. It doesn't matter. The Mimicking of Known Successes is a wonderful novel. End of discussion.

I’m not normally a murder mystery fan - but add in a sapphic romance and a splash of futuristic “dark academia” and I’m all in. This was a delightfully quick read and a well plotted story - I didn’t guess whodunit correctly but I did thoroughly enjoy the way that two queer individuals were the center of a story without their romance being the center point too. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

3.25, rounded down
I liked this book, but it suffered from a lot of the same problems that many mysteries have, mostly with pacing. It started out pretty quickly (albeit with a steep learning curve as you're thrown into this universe with a lot of new terminologies you just have to pick up as you go), but the middle really dragged before the end sped by. My investment in the story really dipped for the middle 50ish pages.
The pacing issues weren't helped by Mossa's relatively dry personality, although Pleiti's narration was good at dissecting what Mossa's actions and words meant. Their characters balanced out each other well, and I liked following them along on this journey. Their relationship was definitely a little underdeveloped, but that's largely because this is so short. I still liked that they got together, and the last chapter wrapped up their story really nicely.
The mystery itself, though, was the star of the show. It was clearly well-thought-out, and I was guessing what was going to happen until the final answer was revealed. Malka Ann Older did a great job of replicating the core of Holmesian mystery while still making it very much a unique story. If anything, pick this up for a fun murder mystery set in space and enjoy just a little bit of romance with your crime scene analysis.

A cozy mystery set in a sci-fi future, plus its sapphic, AND Older managed to find a way to make it a world without instant communication in a way that made complete sense... I'm here for every bit of it! I would describe this as a lesbian Sherlock Holmes-esq story told from the prospect of Watson... aka just a step behind the brilliant investigator 9 times out of 10. The whole concept of mankind colonizing a strata of atmosphere around Jupiter, forced thereby climate collapse and meticulously plotting a way to bring our home back to life was probably my favorite element of the plot (and not a spoiler I promise!)

Loved this, will definitely need to check out more of the author's catalog, and honestly, I would love for this to be a series. I'd happily revisit this dynamic duo again.

This wild novella was truly intriguing read. Blending a retrofuturistic setting with a Sherlock Holmes style mystery, it was unique and compelling. I really loved the dynamic of the main characters - you could tell why their relationship had not initially worked out, but you could also easily see how they had grown enough to reconcile, and why they would want to. This book in many ways is about compromise, and shows the folly of being too set in one's ways or beliefs to the point of potential harm (on a micro-interpersonal level, and also on a macro-species affecting level). This book was fun to read, but left me thoughtful, even chilled.

I requested this book because it was by Malka Older and then slammed the download button without re-reading the marketing copy, which means I went in cold, with no conscious knowledge of the concept, length, or premise. It's novella-length; if you want to recreate my experience of reading the entire book in one joyful Friday evening of discovery, hit the pre-order button now.

Mimicking of Known Successes is the kind of book you get when a really smart person makes a list of their favorite tropes and then writes them all simultaneously. (In that sense, Aliette de Bodard's novellas are a good comparison.) To give you an example, at one point two characters visit their favorite restaurant:

"Slow Burn was, most exceptionally, in the center of a small but dense wood. The owner had purchased soil, and saplings, and cultivated the fastest-growing firewood species she could find, all within her small allotted plot on Valdegeld platform. Tiny paths led through the trees to a slender building, and within the visitor found a long hearth..."

There are layers on layers here: a joke about the book's central relationship, a cozy fire, an example of the crafted ecological management/historical recreation that forms the viewpoint character's career, and a reference to the platforms along rails above a gas giant that form both story setting and mystery structure.

The one major element of the premise you can't extract from this piece of gleeful scene-setting is that in addition to being a gaslights-on-a-gas-giant ecological adventure, Known Successes is a lesbian riff on Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe it's as fair to say, a queer riff. The Holmes character is clearly a woman, but for a while I thought the Watsonesque narrator's gender was deliberately ambiguous in the style of the Hilary Tamar mysteries. That was a misapprehension on my part, but the rumpled academia readings are certainly comparable to the Hilary Tamar books. You'll also find hot scones and levels of hurt/comfort you could scoop up with a spoon--and background musings on ecological disequilibrium.

The description of this book totally pulled me in, as did the cover. But this was the first book by this author that I’ve read, and unfortunately their writing style just didn’t work for me.

I won’t hesitate to suggest this book to other readers, because by no means did I think the writing was bad, just some writing styles work better for some than others and I think the story sounds so intriguing. I’m really disappointed that it didn’t work for me!

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book!

Thank you Tor and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

A nice enough book that unfortunately was lacking in both the mystery and romance departments. Character development could have been better too.

Read this over the course of a few nights, and it was a fun read. You have a combo of hard sci-fi, retro futurism, noir detective/mystery fiction as you unravel everything, and, of course, the longing of working a case with your ex girlfriend who reminds you of how great of chemistry you had, and the possibility of reconciliation besides. Jupiter sapphic noir, really, and it's a wonderful read besides. At the point that I'm writing this, it doesn't come out till '23, but it's still a wonderful read besides and will be a fantastic treat as you edge into spring. Pre order this now, you won't regret it.

Thank you to Tor and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

This was a very fun Sherlock-Holmes-esque murder mystery on Jupiter. I wish that it was longer, as more could have been explored, and the world building was so interesting! Mossa and Pleiti are are interesting, but again, the length made it difficult to fully connect to them. Generally, very fun, quick, low stakes murder mystery with interesting main characters.