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The Mimicking of Known Successes

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The Mimicking of Known Successes

By: Malka Older
Narrated by: Lindsey Dorcus
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About this listen

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.

©2023 Malka Older (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing Romance Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera Fiction Interstellar

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All stars
Most relevant
A great sci-fi mystery with Sherlock Holmes vibes and a touch of sapphic romance that I expect to develop more in the next book. I had no problem with that narrator's accent as it's set in the future where I assume accents would be different to the ones we currently have.

Enjoyable novella

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This is a futuristic gender flipped Sherlock Holmes story in all but name. It’s a fun story and the two main characters are likeable. The narration does let the side down a bit as it’s spoken in an English accent by an American. It’s not as bad as Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins but sounds painful at times when she speaks some of the flowery dialogue written for the characters.

A fun tale..

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I liked parts of this. The premise is intriguing: a future society exiled from Earth due to some natural disaster (unspecified) and now inhabiting platforms orbiting Jupiter, which for some reason is only ever called Giant. A disappearance occurs and an investigator arrives. So far so good, but the basic physics had me tearing my hair out. The platforms are in geosynchronous orbits, which is fine, but the author doesn't seem to realise that this implies they are a weightless environment unless there is some kind of artificial gravity, which is never mentioned, and at one point a ship departs for Earth by firing rockets to take off rather than just drifting away first. Furthermore, despite the very advanced hand-wavy tech required to establish and sustain the environment, communications are limited to unreliable phone lines and telegrams(!). It's also not established what authority the investigator has or who they report to, or even if there is a central government, so poor world-building on that score as well. I'm afraid the willing suspension of disbelief was stretched to breaking point.

It's also a bit disheartening that every single negative character in the story is male, and the only male character who isn't an antagonist is a victim. I have no issue with the sapphic undercurrents of the central relationship, but some balance would have been welcome.

The performance is adequate. The narrator has for reasons not entirely clear has tried to adopt an approximately British accent which is not entirely successful. It occasionally sounds Australian and some American pronunciations slip in from time to time. There doesn't seem to be any narrative reason for this. The blurb uses terms like "Holmesian", which this definitely is not - though there's a deal of fog and people drinking tea - so perhaps the publisher asked for the accent.

A Curate's Egg

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Whilst the description above sound like a fun premise, none of it is done with anything but passable mediocrity. The characters don’t talk like real people, and the sapphic romance is pretty one dimensional slop with no heat. It’s short and decent mystery that doesn’t overstay its welcome, but the world and sci-fi aspects are paper thin and forgettable.

Sapphic romance mystery with a sci-fi backdrop

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its a good sci fi crime story, good characters, well read it is worth a listen

worth a listen

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