The Mimicking of Known Successes
The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series, Book 1
Malka Older
Tordotcom
Fiction, Mystery/Sci-Fi
Themes: Cross-Genre, Diversity, Girl Power, Space Stories
***+
Description
It has been generations since humanity was forced to flee a dying, poisoned Earth for a floating colony in the gaseous
atmosphere of Jupiter, but some things never change. People squabble over resource allocation. University scholars argue
over the best use of research time and money. And people still have a way of disappearing... or becoming victims of
violent crimes.
University scholar Pleiti has spent her career studying old Earth texts for clues on lost biomes and ecosystems, part of
an effort that might eventually restore the old world for habitation. One day, she's surprised by a visit from her former
girlfriend, Mossa. Now an Investigator, Mossa is looking into the disappearance of a university professor. The most likely
explanation is suicide - a plunge over the platform railing into the crushing depths of Giant - but Mossa doesn't seem to
think the case is that cut and dried. With Pleiti's help, Mossa digs deeper into the man's contacts and studies. Soon, the
pair unearth a much deeper, more tangled mystery, one whose implications could alter the future of the colony.
Review
The story melds the familiar Sherlock Holmes dynamic - a dispassionate, calculating, driven genius investigator with a humanizing sidekick trailing along in their wake to give the audience someone to relate to - with a far-future setting on a Jupiter colony, a many-tiered system of metal platforms and monorail trains. It's an interesting world, a different way to visualize an interplanetary presence, but at times I found it hard to visualize. The mystery wends through the halls of Pleiti's university and the schism between the Classisists, who look to the past and focus on restoring a perfect Earth, and the Modernists, who embrace "Giant" as their home and work to build a new future on the planet. Sometimes I felt a little left behind, not uncommon in Sherlockian mysteries as the detective is invariably far ahead (and only rarely bothers to clue in their partner, and thus the reader, though at least Mossa doesn't resort to the condescension the original character sometimes displayed), but also not helped by the sometimes-confusing setting and society. Still, I was intrigued, and might have given it a higher rating, except for the ending. The baddies, when unmasked, act like cardboard cackling villains, and their plot reminded me too much of the plot from a bad movie I saw once (which I won't elaborate on as it would constitute a significant spoiler, but once I realized that connection, darned if I could shake the image). I also am just plain tired of the whole Sherlock pastiche thing - Sherlock in space! Sherlock in Narnia! Sherlock in Heaven! Sherlockosaurus and paleontologist Watson! - as a gimmick. It starts feeling cheap and overused, or like a crutch to prop up another, weaker idea. There are other ways to do the whole detective thing, other team dynamics to explore, than yet another "Sherlock in..." iteration, and it was just one more of those little irritants that wound up chipping away that extra half-star. That said, it's a decent enough story for what it is, but it just wasn't quite what I hoped for, or quite what I wanted at the time.