Mossa & Pleiti
The Mimicking of Known Successes
The Mimicking of Known Successes
Mossa and Pleiti are back! This time, a lot of people are missing from the university where Pleiti works and Mossa needs her help to figure out what's going on. A mystery ensues! Travel around Jupiter and to Io ensues! Woot woot!
Look, this is a lovely series so far. I am enjoying the developing relationship between these two. I feel like the mysteries strike the right balance of important, but not too outrageous. The setting is simply delightful. Who's not interested in what the academic factions will be once humans destroy the Earth and are forced on to other galactic objects?
Thumbs up. 4.5/5 stars
Lines of note:
It was the sort of lecture I liked: a topic that I knew enough about to follow easily, but little enough to feel like I was learning. (page 5)
Yes!! It's not repeating something I already know, but not so far above my head that I don't understand what's going on. This is great observational writing.
I found myself humming under my breath - the second aria of Murderbot. (page 133)
Is this an homage to Martha Wells? It has to be, right? There's not a real opera about a Murderbot? I LOVE the cross-pollination of women in science fiction!!
It wasn't until the ceremony was well under way that I recognized that it was no kind of sacrifice to her: immune to the undercurrents of guilt, resentment, and injustice that so perturbed me, she was observing the social rite with a bass note of fascination. (page 144)
Ha ha. Anyone else go to church ceremonies with a bit of a feeling like you an anthropologist studying a foreign culture?
Things I had to look up:
mutatis mutandis (page 2-3) - (used when comparing two or more cases or situations) making necessary alterations while not affecting the main point at issue
herpentine (page 9) - I don't know, everyone. It keeps telling me to look up "serpentine," but I listen to Guns 'n' Roses and know that word. The context is: (describing a building) metal walls beaten into the textured, herpentine patterns popular during the era when much of the university's physical plant was built.
fallecimiento (page 45) - death
copine (page 78) - girlfriend
bathetic (page 115) - producing an unintentional affect of anticlimax
acurrucada (page 123) - curled up like a cat or dog
namkaraned (page 133) - to name (seriously, I couldn't figure this out?)
Hat mentions:
None. This is the second book with a hat on the cover and no mentions in the book. I am starting to feel like Older is trolling me.
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What does herpentine mean? Do you think Older is referencing Martha Wells? What do you think a Murderbot aria would be like? Why is Older trolling me with the hats on the covers of this series?
Absolutely referring to Martha Wells! A number of people on social media have responded to the mention of the second aria of Murderbot demanding that they must have it. Hopefully someone will come up with it soon. I know I've seen Wells and Older together on zoom panels, though I don't know if they're friends or just friendly colleagues.
ReplyDeleteI don't recognize herpentine, but I found something referencing "Herpentine Triskeles, Ruler of the World of the Dead" in Discworld (an online game based on the Terry Pratchett series, which I haven't read), so maybe that's another nod to an outside series.
Let me join the chorus of people demanding to hear the second aria of Murderbot!!! Also, I feel like Murderbot would not be happy to learn about an opera in their name - they're all about low culture!
DeleteI'm enjoying Older's subtle references to all these other authors. What a lovely way to give tribute to your favorites!!
Ooh! I read the first book in this series and really liked it- I'll have to get this one. The cover art is puzzling- in the first book I thought the main character was a man for at least half the book. In this one, the character definitely looks more feminine, but still- why does she look like a woman trying to look like a man? Is it the hat? Or is that just me.
ReplyDeleteI remember you saying that you thought Mossa was a man. I think it's interesting how we immediately put sex/gender on people unconsciously. I was responding to ccr's comment above and almost referred to Murderbot as "she" because even though Murderbot is a ROBOT, I think of it as having more feminine traits. It's hard to undo years of societal training.
DeleteI don't think either character on either cover looks like a man (or a woman trying to look like man), but it's all in the eyes of the beholder!
Oh wow! Those words! I only knew three (Mutatis and "bathetic," which I think of as pathos/pathetic falling on its face; and "namkaraned," which sounds like the hindu naming ceremony nam-karan. Because of their shared language tree, sanskrit words are so close to latin/greek/english/etc. sometimes.)
ReplyDeleteI think the namkaraned I inferred from the word nam-karan. It also made 100% sense in the context, so I should have been able to figure that one out! Bathetic came up in the next book I read, too! I wonder how many times I've read it and not paid attention to it.
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