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1vyanne 's review for:
The Mimicking of Known Successes
by Malka Older
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty much what it says on the tin: a Holmesian sci fi mystery set on a post-earth world with a little sapphic romance.
I found the story interesting and the mystery entertaining, though I do agree with other reviewers who say that the book resolves a bit too quickly. Another 50-100 pages would have helped with the pacing.
I both enjoyed the archaic voice of the narrator, as it's certainly quite evocative of classic Holmes stories, as much as I sometimes struggled with it. I struggled within the first chapters to get a sense of the setting. Obviously with genre fiction you get a lot of new words for things tossed your way, but I just found some of the descriptions of the railcars or the platforms to be confusing and difficult to visualize.
The relationship between Pleiti and Mossa (our Watson and Holmes, respectively,) created a similar feeling of ambivalence. On the one hand, I appreciate that this was a rekindling of an earlier romance. I don't feel I've seen many examples of this, and certainly not of sapphic romance. On the other hand, their characterization sometimes felt too close to the source material, and so I found myself just picturing BBC Sherlock but in space. I think there's another book in this series, so I hope that the characters become more distinct from the original IP as the series goes on.
Overall, I liked the world and the themes of whether or not returning to Earth is worthwhile venture, and so I'll likely pick up the next book in the series. Good for a bit of escapism and mystery, and finally got me out of my reading slump!
I found the story interesting and the mystery entertaining, though I do agree with other reviewers who say that the book resolves a bit too quickly. Another 50-100 pages would have helped with the pacing.
I both enjoyed the archaic voice of the narrator, as it's certainly quite evocative of classic Holmes stories, as much as I sometimes struggled with it. I struggled within the first chapters to get a sense of the setting. Obviously with genre fiction you get a lot of new words for things tossed your way, but I just found some of the descriptions of the railcars or the platforms to be confusing and difficult to visualize.
The relationship between Pleiti and Mossa (our Watson and Holmes, respectively,) created a similar feeling of ambivalence. On the one hand, I appreciate that this was a rekindling of an earlier romance. I don't feel I've seen many examples of this, and certainly not of sapphic romance. On the other hand, their characterization sometimes felt too close to the source material, and so I found myself just picturing BBC Sherlock but in space. I think there's another book in this series, so I hope that the characters become more distinct from the original IP as the series goes on.
Overall, I liked the world and the themes of whether or not returning to Earth is worthwhile venture, and so I'll likely pick up the next book in the series. Good for a bit of escapism and mystery, and finally got me out of my reading slump!