Galley copy received from NetGalley, thanks for the read and I don't believe it has influenced my review.

I'd give this book 3.5, and look forward to the next book in the series - I would expect that one to grow the character more, after the great scene setting in this book.

I liked the world building, although am confused as the building methods in the gas giant atmosphere - are there metal rings going around the entire planet? How much metal would that take?

It's the coziest mystery novel set on a gas giant that I've ever read!

The concept of this book is super unique! I loved the setting of Mars. However, I found the writing a bit off putting? Maybe it was too formal for me, so I couldn’t really connect with the characters. Overall, mixed feeling, but I would still recommend for scifi fans who like a short read! Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

"The Mimicking of Known Successes" was a struggle for me. The writing, particularly the dialogue and romance sections, were stilted and unnatural. The pacing is slow for a sci-fi and cozy mystery story. It was less than two hundred pages, but it felt long.

Based on the description, I expected this book to be one of my favorites of the year. I enjoyed the setting, idea of the platforms, and cli-fi aspects. Other than that, it was a slow plot with stiff, underdeveloped characters.

This really had potential! The style just wasn't my cup of tea. I love a good run-on sentence and/or list as much as the next guy, but it was too much of that for the sake of making a statement rather than saving those particularly long sentences for moments that felt more appropriate. Love the concept, not super in love with the execution.

Argentinean literary critic Ricardo Piglia described, in one of his many essays, his personal theory of short fiction: every plot contains two plots. This is most evident in the detective genre, where the protagonist's tale (the investigation) is about unveiling an earlier tale (the crime). So reading detective fiction (and, according to Piglia, all fiction) is a dual task: to follow the protagonist's thought process is to simultaneously discover the two stories contained in the text.

By that standard, Malka Older's new novella The Mimicking of Known Successes is twice as ambitious as the typical detective mystery. Set in a network of metallic platforms where future humankind clings to survival among the clouds of Jupiter, it presents, instead of two, four stories to unveil: an investigation on the sudden disappearance of a university professor, the scholarly endeavor to reconstruct the last years of life on Earth, a rekindling romance between our detective and an old flame, and the project to bring homo sapiens back to a livable ecosystem. Once put on the page, these four stories become four mysteries that drive the reader's curiosity: What happened to the missing professor? What made humans leave Earth? Why did the two lovers break up years ago? And how can catastrophic historical failures be repaired without causing more damage? Upon reading it, one can intuit that the biggest structural challenge of this book must have been to write it in such a way that pursuing each separate question leads to answers for all the others.

To give proper praise to the way Older weaves these questions around a unifying theme, it's necessary to spoil at least part of the answer. This is a story about the dangers of misplaced nostalgia and the need to learn new forms of compatibility. Here Older resorts to a helpful literary device by which the larger conflict mirrors the inner conflict; that is, the civilizational question about the compatibility between human beings and their environment is explored in parallel with the personal question about the compatibility between the protagonist and her former lover. And for both conflicts the resolution is the same: you need to stop wishing things could return to the way they used to be. A totally new compatibility is possible if you're willing to adapt.

This is the meaning contained in the book's title: there's little to be gained from just repeating what worked before, because when the circumstances no longer allow that outcome, you become stuck. And Older reinforces that theme with her faithful, but not subservient, homage to Sherlock Holmes. The narrative style is clearly inspired by Watson's observations of Holmes's work, but doesn't try to replicate it. The floating colonies built in Jupiter are prone to atmospheric disturbances that make radio waves unreliable. So this is a cold and foggy world of scarves, coats, and cozy fireplaces, where people have to rely on telegrams and travel by railway between isolated structures because there's no solid ground. The result is a book that evokes the flavor of Victorian detective novels, but doesn't share their worldview—a happy synergy of genre, aesthetic and setting.

It is remarkable to find such complexity in so brief a wordcount. Although the plot flows with effortless readability, it rests on an intricate scaffolding that enables all the literary elements to bolster one another's strengths. The intriguing backstory emerges in hints scattered through the blend of colloquial and erudite prose, a sign that this civilization has lost continuity with Earth culture; the first-person narrator laments the impossibility of pairing recovered accounts of life on Earth with their physical referents; the core argument about the pitfalls of yearning for a lost past resonates with the narrator's characterization, the villain's masterplan, and the contemporary reader's circumstances. Like the platforms linked by railways, all the parts of the story are meticulously interconnected. The Mimicking of Known Successes is not only a potent environmental and political parable, but a major achievement in storytelling technique.



Nerd Coefficient: 9/10.

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.

I was initially drawn to this book based on the premise (sapphic detectives in space?? investigating a crime at a zoo?? incredible) and I wish the writing had followed through. I was most excited for the dynamic between the two main characters, but I felt that the connection between them was told to me rather than shown, and Mossa's characterization especially felt inconsistent. The plot never really seemed to reach a compelling level, and I simply wasn't invested, which is a shame. The world-building definitely had potential, and I think the author could have had more fun with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book sold me on its conceit, and I think that is it. I adored the general world-building, especially the concept of utilising Jupiter's rings as a way to settle the planet after the ecological collapse on Earth. I also really enjoyed the conversations on re-inhabiting Earth, and the philosophy and ethics involved.

However, I feel the narrative choices undermine a story that could become really interesting. I realise the book is written as a sort of homage to the original detective story, especially Sherlock Holmes, but I can't help but be struck by how the technological future of humanity and 19th-century language doesn't mix well, how unrealistic it feels, and as a result, how it makes the narrative harder to access.

As an extension of the writing style itself, I find who the point of view character is, is somewhat flawed as well. Pleiti is the Dr Watson to Mossa's Sherlock Holmes, but I'm not sold on their relationship, and as consequence, instead of working as a framing device, it ends up keeping the reader at arms-length - hindering any real engagement with the narrative. The framing device ends up feeling ineffective and left me feeling like I was engaging with the story behind a sound-proof glass. It became tiresome after a while, especially because the time that should be spent dedicated to the mystery and investigation (if you're emulating a Sherlock Holmes novel), instead was spent on Pleiti's feelings towards and thoughts on Mossa, and her resulting spiralling.

This book was one of my most anticipated releases for 2023, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed it didn't live up to its potential for me.

Malka Older's new book is a delightful combination of science fiction and mystery. The narrator, Pleiti, is sort of a Dr Watson to the investigator Mossa's updating of Sherlock Holmes. Pleiti and Mossa used to be a romantic (lesbian) couple, but they broke up a good while ago. Pleiti is now a professor, while Mossa is a detective, who calls on Pleiti's help with her latest case. What seems to be either a murder or a suicide turns out to be a conspiracy that may (literally) have world-shattering consequences.

Which brings me to the science-fiction aspect of the book. We are hundreds of years in the future; human beings have so hideously destroyed their native ecosystems as to have rendered Earth uninhabitable, not only for human beings but for nearly all forms of life. In a throwaway, we are told that human beings also tried colonizing Mars, but ruined everything there as well (so much for fools like Elon Musk). Now human beings are reduced to living exclusively (and relatively precariously) on orbiting platforms that surround the planet Jupiter (presumably; the planet itself is only referred to within the novel as Giant; it is a gas giant with lots of moons). As predominantly a science fiction reader, I was especially drawn to Older's world-building, which is superb -- both detailed, and thoughtful and convincing in how it is set up.

The lifestyle of human beings on their orbital platforms is not entirely penurious, but it is not particularly luxurious either. At the university where she is a professor, Pleiti is one of many researchers concerned with finding out as much about Earth's pre-disaster ecosystem as possible, in order to allow it to be re-established at some future point, so that human beings could move back there. Widespread genetic libraries have been preserved, and various animals and plant have been brought back into existence.

But in the meantime -- and it is a meantime that has already lasted for hundreds of years -- human beings are confined to the platforms. Their lifestyle there is not particularly high-tech; in many respects it seems rather Victorian. The platforms are filtered and heated, but not entirely closed off from the environment of the planet; remember that gas giants have fuzzy boundaries, with gaseous envelopes that extend quite far out. The people have sufficient oxygen to breathe, but they are not entirely shielded from the planet's gases, and the storms that roll through them. There is also a strong sense of finitude, of limited space (something that we do not particularly feel on Earth, which is one reason we have been so recklessly destroying it).

I am trying to say this in a way that avoids spoilers, but by the end of the novel the crime plot and the world-building come together in a very satisfying way. Mossa an Pleiti must face the question of what blend of reparation and innovation is possible, if human beings are to have a less constrained future. We have to work on the basis of what functioned well in the past, but the novel also suggests that "the mimicking of known successes" may be too cautious and conservative a way to proceed. You can't really go home again, and no precise replication of the past is possible.

The novel, therefore, gives us the pleasing combination of a crime discovered, and a relationship tentatively repaired or restored; but at the same time, it remains philosophically open, because it does not resolve the ecological crisis with which we are actually faced in the present, and which has been utterly ruinous by the time of the novel's future. In giving us a retrospective look at a catastrophe that is still in our future (and hopefully still capable of being mitigated), the novel does what science fiction at its best always does: it displaces temporality in such a way that we get a new perspective on actual technical and social problems, and at the same time presents its situation in ways that are reflected in particular characters, and hence remains experientially graspable, in ways that more scientific or social-scientific discourses all too often are not.

While I did not remember what this book was about by the time I got around to reading it, I can see why I requested this. It is described as 'a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance.' That premise did call out to me, though in the end, I can't say that I was invested in it. The story was fine, but because of the short length, there was a lot of context or narrative missing that I needed.

For example, it is already known that this is a sapphic romance, but we don't get to know Mossa and Pleiti enough, both as individuals and as a couple, so I didn't end up caring about them. I also wished that the sci-fi elements were a little less subtle. They are there, undoubtedly, but not as complex as I would have liked.

Overall, the story was fine, but not really memorable and I know that I probably won't be reaching for the next installment. This just wasn't for me though, but I can see this appealing to fans of maybe Becky Chambers.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor, for giving me the opportunity to review this in advance.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book early! As always, I am such a fan of tordotcom’s novellas, and Mimicking of Known Successes did not disappoint! In a tight 176 pages, this book fits in not only a rousing mystery and adventure, but a second chance romance as well. And it does it with grace and without forcing it. Each of the characters were complex and watching their character development, especially as romance blossomed once more, was wonderful. In addition, setting the mystery on another planet years in humanity’s future sheds additional light on how humanity got there in the first place and served as a commentary for how we live now.
I know that I will keep my eye on Older’s works from now on!

This story was such a delight! It’s the queer, sci-fi, Sherlockian cozy mystery I didn’t know I needed. I really enjoyed how the two main characters’ personalities and quirks were slowly revealed as they investigated the mystery. The tension between them made it clear they had a last, and I really wanted them to address it. I loved the bits about the planet they were on and how they were trying to figure out how to heal and repopulate earth. I couldn’t stop reading this, and I can’t wait to read more books in this series.

A theory I’ve long held is that if you put the words “in space” after anything, it instantly becomes cooler. Try it. You’ll see that it works. But if you don’t believe me, then you can add The Mimicking of Known Successes to the list of evidence that supports this theory. This excellent novella is Malka Older’s take on “Sherlock Holmes in space,” and it‘s the coolest, most refreshing adaptation of a Holmesian mystery I’ve come across in absolutely ages.

The setting: Jupiter. The mystery: It’s up to Investigator Mossa to solve the disappearance of a man who seemingly jumped to his death from one of the many platforms which cover the planet.

Mossa makes a noble Sherlock. Cerebral, detached, focussed. She steps into the role of ‘deductive genius’ admirably. But it’s Pleiti, the Doctor Watson of this tale, who really shines.

Pleiti is vulnerable, relatable, capable, and always ready with a pot of tea just when it’s needed. She’s an academic, stagnating in the perpetual fog of Jupiter as she tries to determine the best ways to revive a dead Earth. She also happens to be Investigator Mossa’s ex. Their reuniting after years apart adds an extra dimension to the whole case, and the two of them together are every bit as dynamic as the classic pairing of Holmes and Watson.

In fact, ‘classic’ feels like the most appropriate word for this novella. It’s written in a style that could happily sit alongside a collection from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Intricate sentences laced with exquisite phrasing capture the charm and invention of the golden era. However, it doesn’t revert backwards in its scope or relevance, and it doesn’t shy away from issues we’re facing as a society right now. It’s cutting edge, and life on Jupiter has rarely been painted so clearly. The story succeeds as a rejuvenation of classic sensibilities that feel authentic, but also modern, in all the right ways. It’s familiar, comforting, and addictive to read. You’ll be hard-pressed not to devour it in one sitting.

As far as mysteries go, it’s a satisfying one. It easily rivals any detective book out there. The solution is concealed so cleverly that it’ll keep you guessing right up until the climax, but then seems obvious once revealed. It boasts plenty of those “of course” moments which almost make you picture Malka Older adjusting her deer stalker and saying “elementary, my dear reader” as she was writing it.

The pacing of the story feels natural, with no twists or character moments coming over as forced. It lingers on the world-building just enough to provide a staggering picture of Jupiter, but not so long that the story drags. The dialogue is snappy and fun. There’s a playfulness about the whole atmosphere of the book that’s joyful to read. Every page put a smile on my face, and it felt like a tonic to the dread and drudgery that so often accompanies a good mystery these days.

The novella is the perfect length for this likeable, finely balanced tale, which even manages to sneak in enough speculative elements to keep you thinking about it long after the final page. This isn’t a reinvention of Sherlock Holmes. Nor is it an homage. It’s a story with its own unique flavour, made from ingredients that you know you like. If Holmes and Watson style mysteries are a known success, then this is not a mimicking. It’s a revitalisation. And it’s absolutely glorious.

Oh, and it also happens to be in space. How cool is that!

Rating: Meh, 2 stars

This was a DNF at 56%, unfortunately

I thought this sounded perfect! A cozy mystery in space. Unfortunately I just could not get behind the writing style. Usually writing style doesn't bother me, but there were a couple things that didn't work for me.

The main thing was that this felt like it was written with everything being held at a distance, despite being first person. I felt like I didn't care about the characters at all because they were written with such emotional distance. Which is a shame because I think they were meant to be charming.

The other thing was the language and the way that the sentences were crafted. It felt like it was supposed to be evocative of a more classic style, but it just felt overwritten and slightly pretentious. There were unnecessarily obscure words for pretty common adjectives that just irritated me because I didn't have the characters to fall back on.

I am sad about this because I like the world, I like the concept, and I'm intrigued by the mystery. Unfortunately that's just not enough for me to keep going. I have read right around 100 pages, and it has taken me a week and a half to get that far, and I am avoiding picking it up. So all those things are pretty telling that this book is not for me.

Look, the fact of the matter is there is nothing better than lesbians solving crime. Really, all I have to say is if you like this kind of thing (Sherlock Holmes retellings, cozy mysteries, 1800s London, detectives who solve crimes while secretly pining for each other), you will LOVE this.

Should I describe what the book’s about? Honestly, I didn’t need to hear anything other than “lesbian Sherlock and Watson in space” to know I *needed* to inhale this as quickly as possible, and turns out I was totally right - it was exactly what I hoped for. The SF setting (Jupiter, essentially) is chef’s kiss perfection, a gorgeous futuristic version of spooky, smoggy late-1800s London. The eerily empty train cars, the guttering gas lamps, the deserted railway platforms… the vibe was exactly what I wanted and more. This book was less than 200 pages; I could read a million pages of this without coming up for air. (Don’t worry, I won’t forget my trusty atmoscarf!)

Pleiti’s narration was also perfectly pitched - just the right level of detail to be interesting and soothing at the same time. (If anything, I maybe would have switched the prologue from Mossa’s perspective to an unidentified third person omniscient-type narrator because I don’t think having Mossa’s POV added anything and Pleiti’s was SO strong.) I really liked the premise of Mossa and Pleiti’s relationship - they are exes who dated and then broke up in college - and the way it slowly evolved over the course of the book. Honestly it could have been slower and I would have been just as happy! Which is a rare sentiment from me haha. But this is apparently the first book in a series - I would happily just coast on vibes for at least the first several books of this tbh.

I enjoyed the plot - as long as the details are there in this type of mystery, I’m happy to just let the names and dates and places wash over me and this was a perfect book for that. There were a couple descriptive scenes near the end that could have been a bit clearer, and again I would honestly have happily accepted a more subtle ending! I’m very interested to see where things go from here…

(I *will* just quickly note here that the reason why so many authors write private detectives rather than… public detectives… is that there are many things where if the private detective does it it’s quirky and fun but if the public detective does it it’s bad and illegal and a major ethical red flag. Like, say, restraining a suspect, bringing them to your home, and then keeping them trapped there for many hours so that you can interrogate them at your leisure. For example.)

I dropped everything as soon as this one was approved - sapphic cozy Sherlock Holmes-esque novella taking place off-planet? YES PLEASE. I'm delighted to say that my eagerness paid off - this is really something charming and unique that will likely be enjoyed by a large cross-section of readers. Yes, it wears its Doyle influence on the sleeve of its spacesuit: this is absolutely sapphic Watson and Holmes with its eager and friendly scholar, and its and terse and brilliant investigator - and the mystery itself of the missing man likewise was intriguing and fun. Jupiter felt like the seedy, chilly, gaslit version of London, but you never quite forget that you're on another planet. The details here were wonderful - the worldbuilding was thorough but light-touched. I particularly enjoyed the notion of a "mauzooleum" dedicated to species long since perished as humanity left Earth behind.

Perfect for people who just want to grab a cup of hot tea on a chilly day and fall headfirst into something unusual.

The blurb for this novella calls it “a cozy Holmesian murder mystery and sapphic romance, set on Jupiter,” and that pretty well sums it up.

Our protagonist is a researcher in “Classical Studies,” which in this context means a researcher into the ecology of Earth from before we wrecked the place and the survivors of humanity had to decamp to platforms suspended in the upper reaches of the atmosphere of Jupiter (now known as Giant). The goal of the research of Classical Studies is the ultimate repair of Earth’s environment so that humanity can return home, though they’re taking it slow and determined to get it *right*.

None of that is what the book is about, though. One of the protagonist’s colleagues (one she doesn’t particularly like) has gone missing, to all appearances having jumped off of a remote platform into the Giant’s depths in an apparent suicide. The person in charge of the investigator happens to be an old flame of our protagonist, from their college days.

This book was delightful to read. Most of what I loved about it was the careful re-establishment of a relationship between the two, as both of them are uncertain of where things stand and are very delicately feeling things out. The investigator, for her part, is presented (though not described explicitly) as neuroatypical, which in this case means subtle signals on both ends are a challenge to interpret. Which is where the “Holmesian” really comes into play, for better and for worse. Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant investigator, but also cold and dismissive of relationships. Here, the investigator isn’t cold and dismissive, exactly, but very focused on her work and doesn’t express emotions in way apparent to others.

The science fiction elements are a good background. Malka Older does an excellent job of presenting humanity’s existence on Jupiter as a status quo, something all the characters simply accept without really thinking about, while still informing the entire story to a large degree.

All in all, this was a delightful quick read, and strongly recommended. Comes out on March 7.

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older is a captivating murder mystery set in a remote outpost on Jupiter. The setting is immersive, transporting readers to a fascinating world.

The romance between Pleiti and Mossa is a standout element of the story, the mystery of their romantic history adding depth alongside the murder mystery plot. The main plot is well-crafted and engaging, made more fascinating by the dystopian setting.

Highly recommended for fans of sci-fi, murder mysteries, and sapphic romance! Many thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an audiobook ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review

Malka Older mashes classic crime fiction detective tropes with a science fiction premise and some ferocious world building in her latest book The Mimicking of Known Successes. Crime fiction provides both a familiar structure and a reason for exploring a new milieu. Older’s new book has been described as “cosy”, a form of crime fiction usually set in quaint English villages, which is odd given its setting in the atmosphere of Jupiter. But in riffing on Sherlock Holmes it does invite that comparison.
The book’s prologue involves a missing person. Investigator Mossa has been sent to the platform at the end of the rail car line where a man has disappeared into the fog. The colony that she is part of is built on platforms that orbit in the atmosphere of Jupiter (called Giant by its inhabitants), each joined a series of railways. When Mossa discovers that the man was an academic at the university she knows that she needs to reconnect with her old lover Pleite, herself an academic. The rest of the book is narrated by Pleite as she becomes instrumental in helping Mossa with the case but also finds her attraction being rekindled. The case itself will take them across the colony, and intersect with the work that Pleite and her colleagues are doing to support the eventual return to a damaged Earth.
Mossa is an intuitive and insightful investigator, while Pleite is more methodical and works to keep Mossa grounded. The unresolved attraction between the two, complicated by Mossa’s apparent lack of emotion, adds to the dynamic of the relationship. This set up (now used more and more in crime fiction duos) is pulled straight from the Holmes and Watson dynamic. At one point Pleite needs to do her own investigating not to solve the crime itself but just to keep up with Mossa. But the reason it is used so much is because it works.
The narrative gives Older a chance, through her characters to explore her futuristic gaslight-noir milieu. Yes this is a colony in orbit around Jupiter but it still has train lines, tea shops, a kind of strange zoo and a fusty university.
There are few better genres for really digging in to a place and a time than the crime genre. As far back as Isaac Asimov’s robot detective books (The Caves of Steel (1953) and The Naked Sun (1956)) science fiction authors have been using the genre to support their world building. The set up usually allows a detective to move around a society, engage with people and make observations about how it all works. Some recent examples of this approach include John Scalzi’s Lock in, Chris Brookmyer’s Places in the Darkness, Alastair Reynold’s The Prefect and Elysium Fire and Eddie Robson’s Drunk on All Your Strange New Worlds. And when the two genres come together well (as they do here), they support each other – giving an expansive view of a particular milieu but also a structure on which to hang the plot.
The challenge with mashing science fiction and crime is getting all of the elements of both genres right. And it is here that this book suffers a little in that while the solution is clever and partially set up, there are some elements missing that would allow readers to make all of the connections they need. Part of this is that the solution relies on a deeper understanding of the world, and particularly the academic world, in which the action is set. But this is a minor quibble in what is an enjoyable introduction to new characters and a world that it seems Older is likely to explore further.

I thought this had a very strong beginning, but it, unfortunately, lost me toward the end. This is about Mossa, an investigator on Giant (the planet where humans now live on various platforms that circumnavigate Jupiter) who gets called to investigate a potential suicide on a sparsely occupied platform. The clues she uncovers there lead her to Valdegeld University and she seeks the help of her ex-girlfriend. The story is told by Plieti, Mossa's ex, a researcher at the university. She hesitantly decides to help even though they haven't seen each other since their own college days.
As I said I enjoyed the first half of the book, the world-building was fascinating, and enjoyed the idea that humans were trying to figure a way back to an Earth that was possibly slowly recovering <spoiler>also the idea of how nothing would be perfect enough for those in charge to finally push the button and restart Earth's ecosystem, which is what the "villain" argues. </spoiler>. Even the murder-mystery aspect had started out strong. After the strong prologue and chapter one, I wished that the perspectives would switch between Mossa and Plieti but unfortunately not. Plieti had her moments but I would have liked to have seen some of Mossa's thought process. As the story progressed Plieti felt a bit annoying to me (which was valid, she didn't know a lot of what was going on since she wasn't an investigator) and Mossa was just one-dimensional which didn't really help with their relationship either. Maybe if this was longer (it's only 176 pages) that could have been fleshed out more.

Overall it was an interesting sciences fiction mystery read and I would definitely give the next book a try.