(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia)
While doomscrolling through social media is generally a compulsive activity with few, if any, productive outcomes, it can sometimes, algorithms be damned, offer up some real gems.
Such as coming across a fellow book lover on Bluesky who is waxing lyrical about the books of Malka Older and in particular her trilogy featuring the characters of Inspector Mossa and academic Pleiti, onetime girlfriends who reconnect in the first book, The Mimicking of Known Successes, over a puzzling connect assigned to Mossa.
Crucially, the Bluesky user included screenshots of all three covers which not only revealed the playfully evocative and colourful artwork, but also the quirkily fun titles which immediately intrigued this reviewer, a reader who not only loves a damn good, immersively exciting story but an offbeat articulate title to go with it.
In fact, as a good friend of mine and fellow passionate booklover has observed many a time in many a bookshop, give me a quirkily engaging title, colourfully clever artwork and a premise which promises narrative riches and inspired writing and I am picking up the books and striding towards the checkout without a second glance.
Given I discovered this trilogy online, I raced to place the order at my favourite online provider and in no time flat, I had the immense pleasure of holding the three novellas in my hands; the extraordinarily good thing is the stories contained within are every bit as good as the covers and blurbs suggested.
‘Was he feeling low, lately? Depressed?’
‘Oh no. Arrogant as ever. Can’t really believe he would deprive us all of his company, to be honest.’
In that, everyone we spoke to concurred: Bolien had shown no signs of melancholy.
The Mimicking of Known Successes is that gem of a story that exists in a very tight and constrained novella form and yet somehow feels as expansive and fully told as the usual 400 page-plus tomes that are the usual stock in trade for sci-fo space operas.
Augmenting a story which is both languorously rewarding and yet character rich and narratively intense, is Older’s gift, for that is surely what it is, for world-building that, in no time flat, presents a complete futuristic human society so fulsomely that you feel immersed in it and aware of what it is and why it is in ways that belie the fact that you’ve just been introduced to it.
Set in a future where humanity has fled a poisoned Earth and settled on planets and moons around Jupiter in constructed environments which seek to mimic the best of their home planet in an entirely artificial setting – save for the gas planet around which and through everything is constructed – The Mimicking of Known Successes has a fantastically enticing retro steampunk feel to it, which emphasises the Victorian aesthetics of a society that accepts its present circumstances but which pines for the green, greem grass, and much else, of home.
Humanity may have left Earth behind physically, to the great regret of many, but the planet looms large in the consciousness of many, including Pleiti who works in the Classics department of Valdegald University which seeks to find ways to clean up the planet of origin and restore it to ecosystem-rich liveability.
(courtesy Macmillan Publishers)
But not everyone loves the idea of winding the clock back to go forwards.
While a great many people love the idea of recreating a lost Earth, courtesy of substantial animal and plant samples and genetic libraries sourced from what was left of the ruined ecosystems of the planet and brought to Valdegald, others, known as Modernists, want to leave the past where it is and move on to a future among the stars.
So when Mossa turns up at Valdegald seeking Pleiti’s help to solve a case where someone may have died by falling off a transit platform – an act which compresses the unfortunate soul’s body very quickly into car wreckage levels of squishiness – and it’s possible it’s connected in some ways to the rivalry between the Classicists and the Modernists, not only is sleuthing needed about who the perpetrator is but also insight on what is driving them to act.
Because if it is this rivalry that is pushing people to act in murderous ways, and Mossa is not ruling it out, then the future of humanity is on the line in what might otherwise be an ordinary case of suspected murder.
Combining sapphic Agatha Christie-ness with a thoughtful treatise on where humanity belongs, and the cost of not acting on the current climate changes beseting us, The Mimicking of Known Successes is a wholly original piece of sci-fi storytelling that gloriously brings the past and future together in some quickly told but expansively rich storytelling.
‘I’m not sure it’s correct,’ Mossa replied. ‘But I’ll tell you if it comes off.’
‘All right then,’ I said. ‘Meet back at my rooms in a few hours?’
With a nod, we were each on our way.
Adding to the immeasurable riches of the book is the richness of the two protagonists.
Older does an exemplary job of contrasting Mossa’s brilliant mind and often obsessive lack of emotional intuitiveness with Pleiti’s more emotional academic outlook and her regret that their onetime burgeoning relationship did not survive their shared student academic years nor Mossa’s obsession with determining what happened to the exclusion of all else.
These two characters are wonderfully verdant and alive, and Older brings their slow return to some sort of intimacy from its abandone remnants to vivid life with the closeness of case solving and the time together that requires fuelling a series of conversations that might otherwise never have taken place.
You want these two to fall in love again, or at least to commit to trying at least, and even though they are vastly different people, seeing how they seamlessly mesh together again is a joy, with this sci-fi murder mystery and possible conspiracy merging beautifully with a love story built on attraction but also a shared need for intimacy that neither woman possesses at the start of the story.
The Mimicking of Known Successes has it all – quirky title, substantial premise, gorgeous artwork, a playful messhing of old and new and vivaciously alive characterisation and dialogue that powers a storyline rich in thoughtfulness, emotion and world-building, and which touches your mind, heart and soul in equal measure as it takes you on an adventure that is as thrilling as it nuanced and which reminds us that while we need the satisfaction of vocation and intellectual curioeity, that we need people too if the world, whichever one we are on, is to ever feel like home.