James Nicoll Reviews

Malka Older’s 2022 The Mimicking of Known Successes is a stand-alone science fiction mystery, one of the Holmes and Watson variety. 

Thanks to humanity’s communal quest for profit, Earth is uninhabitable. Indeed, such was human diligence in this matter that even Mars was somehow made even less habitable. Only on a single giant planet¹ do the remnants of humanity survive. They have finally embraced more responsible behavior; the alternative is total extinction.

It’s no utopia. Thus, police. Thus, missing persons cases — possibly murder cases — for said police to investigate. 

A stranger vanished from a remote railcar station. No railcar had arrived to bear him away, suggesting he plummeted from the station into the giant world’s depths. Did he commit suicide? Was he murdered? In either case, why? Investigator Mossa is determined to find answers.

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Malka Older’s Infomocracy is the first volume in her Centenal Cycle. 

Twenty years ago, the people of the world came together in an unprecedented step to form a new international order. Since the first global election, war among participating jurisdictions has been eradicated, and prosperity and trade have spread. 

Key to the new status quo: Information, the organization that ensures everyone’s access to reliable information. 

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Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, and Curtis C. Chen’s 2018 Ninth Step Station is an anthology of serial shared-world cyberpunk fiction. It is published by Serial Box, who (to quote their site):

Serial Box is a publishing company and mobile app that produces and delivers team-written serialized fiction. We blend story production and distribution practices from television, book publishing and narrative podcasting to create professionally crafted serials that fit your life. 

Following earthquake and Chinese invasion, Tokyo is divided between Chinese occupation forces, American forces, and of course the Japanese themselves. Crime is still a fact of life. It is up to Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers like Miyako Korida to deal with it. Because there is no job that cannot be made more complicated, Miyako has the privilege of partnering with Peacekeeper Lieutenant Emma Higashi of the US Navy.

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