This seems like a book that would bring delight to many Cannonballers.
Malka Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes was a perfect listen to transition from 2023 to 2024. Just over 4 hours long, I listened to Lindsey Dorcus’ narration instead of the booms of neighborhood fireworks, and then finished up this morning with my first coffee of the year. I knew going in that Known Successes was a sapphic scifi Holmsian mystery set on a human colony on Jupiter. What I love is that it is exactly that.
In the prologue, we meet Mossa, an Investigator, sent to find out more about an apparent disappearance of a visitor from one of the outlying platforms. The assumption is suicide, and the disappeared person is from the University platform – Valdegeld. This gives Mossa an opportunity to get in contact with her ex-girlfriend, Pleiti, a Classics scholar at Valdegeld. Mossa is our Sherlock Holmes – a brilliant investigator who is distant and focused on work to the exclusion of personal relationships. Pleiti, who takes over the narration in chapter one, is our Dr. Watson, smart and capable in her own right, and somewhat in awe of Mossa. Pleiti is our window into this world.
Beyond the boundaries of the investigation, we don’t get a whole lot of explanation about the world. I love it when a writer does this well. Pleiti’s job as a Classics scholar is our biggest context for this human colony. She is studying classic Earth texts with the intention of bringing life back to an Earth destroyed by humans. Pleiti is focusing on texts that describe the flora and fauna of pre and early industrial Northern Europe with the ultimate goal of recreating a sustainable ecosystem on Earth. While this endeavor is central to the mystery, it’s pretty clear that Mossa contacted Pleiti because she wanted to see her.
A personal moment of amusement came in the prologue when Mossa was eating at the remote platform’s pub. The pub owner’s ancestor had sequenced the genome for heirloom Haricots. When I was talking with my friend about desired vegetables for our Christmas dinner, haricot vert were the most desired. Which led to a discussion about the correct pronunciation of haricot (my pronunciation was wrong). Listening to Lindsey Dorcus correctly pronounce haricot was delightful. The second book, also a novella, comes out on February 13. Just FYI, February 13 is going to be a big day for books. I have eleventy arcs for books coming out on February 13.
CW: animal attack, violence, murder off page, speculation about suicide.