I think this sequel went along with the first book almost seamlessly, where the aspects I liked (and a few that irked me a bit) were consistent in both books. The world building continues to be fascinating, and I love that we got more background into life on Giant, as well as life on Io (one of Jupiter’s moons). I still like both Mossa and Pleiti, and their relationship is layered and realistically lovely yet flawed. They remind me a bit of a sapphic Holmes and Watson, if they were written with reminiscence of Agatha Christie.

I do continue to be baffled by how cumbersome much of the vocabulary is throughout this series, though. I generally have a pretty complex vocabulary and would consider myself pretty adept at figuring out words based on context clues, but so many of the words used in this book felt like they were used only for the sake of sounding overly erudite. There were multiple pages where I found myself having to look up several words, and this detracted quite a bit from my enjoyment. It’s one thing to sound Victorian steampunk-ish, and it’s another to unnecessarily confuse a good portion (I assume) of the readers.

Overall I did enjoy the book and will plan to read the next installment. I hope that we’ll get more of Mossa’s perspective in the next book, as I think it would give us more insight into her feelings and motivations.

Thank you so much to Tor/Forge for the advanced copy of this book!

Having enjoyed the first novella in the Mossi & Pleiti series, The Mimicking of Known Successes, I was looking forward to continuing this cozy-ish sapphic gaslamp sci-fi story. Unfortunately, while some elements shone, The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles fell flat for me.

If you consider this series a blend of science fiction, mystery, and romance, only one of those elements worked for me, which is the science fiction parts. The worldbuilding and prose continues to stun in the second entry. I’m fascinated by the lore of Giant, especially as we expand to see more locales in this installment and the chewy hints of political conflict. It’s so atmospheric in both concept and description.

The prose continues to impress as well. I adore the stylistic commitment to an expansive vocabulary and the mix of ‘Classic’ and present-day (in terms of Giant) references. There’s a charming amount of humor interspersed between elaborately crafted sentences and descriptions.

What made this a miss, though, was the repetition of both plot and character beats from the mystery of the first novel. It follows too closely in the footsteps of the conundrum from the first book; I sense this could be setting up for a bigger reveal in subsequent novellas, but in the interim, it made for a dull sequel. The climax of the story is practically non-existent—if you blink, you’ll miss the unsatisfying, told-not-shown resolution.

The other part that didn’t work for me was the romance. This second novella re-treads many of the same character and relational beats from the first. At times I found myself confused because… well, didn’t we already cover this in the first part? Mossa and Pleiti spend the entire novella in a static holding pattern where Pleiti is still grappling with the nature of Mossa’s feelings for her despite them being unequivocally in a relationship. If this is supposed to be a compelling conflict, it doesn’t read as such. What might have helped is having access to Mossa’s internal world and thoughts, but unfortunately, we only get one side of this issue, which leads to it feeling unwarranted and unjustified.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles reads more like a subsequent act in a novella rather than a complete story that can stand on its own, which is a key element of a successful novella series to me. While the worldbuilding and prose charmed me, the characters and plot fell flat, and I likely won’t be continuing with the remainder of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

Mossa's case in this book is another missing person. This case leads Mossa to discover that there are approximately 17 people who have gone missing from Valdegeld recently. Although people aren't kept track of very closely on this settlement, the number is high enough for concern. And since many of the missing are affiliated with the university, Pleiti is called in to help again.

Again in this book, Mossa's POV is the first chapter and Pleiti narrates the remainder of the book. I confess that I like Mossa better than Pleiti and would prefer it the other way around. Pleiti spends a lot of time agonizing over whether Mossa really, really likes her and analyzing Mossa's behavior in order to ferret out the answer to that question. The answer seems obvious to me- Mossa likes spending time around Pleiti, values her opinions, and is protective of her.

Pleiti lampshades how much time she spends on this investigation in this book by wondering if perhaps she should just become an investigator full time, and I wonder if this is where the series will eventually lead. Pleiti passionately cares about people (although she has some blind spots) and has strong feelings about justice. There is fallout from the previous book in this one; the dean who rocketed off to Earth in the last book has been declared dead. There will be a funeral and Pleiti is expected to attend. Pleiti has all sorts of feelings about this and does not want to go since she feels it will tacitly condone the deceased's actions. Mossa, for all her living in the mind instead of heart, seems to have a much better grasp on the politics of the situation than Pleiti does.

The railways around Giant figure strongly in this book as well both in the narration of the story and the solution of the mystery and I have to wonder why the railways, so utterly vital for the survival of the stations upon them, aren't better monitored. Yet again, the theme of the book seems to be blind spots and assumptions. The book was rather slow for me at the start although I read faster and faster toward the end of it. The cozy setting is emphasized again repetitively. There was more about foods from different cultures than Anglo this time, which was neat.

Although I think that the first book was a bit stronger, perhaps because everything was totally new and fresh in it, I'd like to keep going with this series.

Before I even start trying to review the story, I must make clear how much I love both the characters and the world-building, and most especially the relationship between academic Pleiti and investigator Mossa.

Shortly after the events in The Mimicking of Known Successes, we find ourselves back on Giant (Jupiter), a Victorian-flavored world of gaslights and fog, innovation and stagnation, where Humanity has sought sanctuary from Earth’s devastation while not addressing its underlying causes, as our intrepid protagonists embark on a new case, in this second entry in the Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series.

Beware: don’t start reading late on a Sunday, and don’t read while hungry.

Like the first book, this story starts with a prologue narrated in third person, past tense, from Mossa’s point of view. As she reflects on her reasons to, once again, visit the university and Pleiti, the scene shows her consciously masking (here meaning, the way autistics and people with ADHD often do in social situations), as she’s not alone in the train carriage, and she’s aware that she must present herself in a manner that doesn’t make other people uncomfortable.

The rest of the story is told in first person, present tense, by Pleiti; an academic working in Giant’s most venerable university, she’s still grappling with the fallout from the last time she helped Mossa; not just professionally, though of course there are repercussions there, but more importantly, personally. Her worldview has been shaken off its foundations, and even as time and routine mask this unmooring, her own character leads her to questions about her career, her life, and herself, that she’s uncomfortable asking, let alone trying to answer.

I love the author’s use of language in these stories; while the main tongue is English, the characters constantly drop words in other languages, in a way that is delicious to a language nerd, and that embraces the idea of vast human diversity becoming culturally relevant for everyone. (Dueña, doña, don, dean) There’s poetry in the economy of her writing, and how much is revealed about both of the main characters in just one paragraph, such as here:

“I had to breathe deeply though it: the sudden inrush of warmth that Mossa had poured that much attention into the details of my life; then the downswing of recalling that such details, for her, were as easily imprinted as a Classical quotation for me” (Chapter 1)

Dr Older writes both about the foibles and sins of Humankind, and how wherever we go, we take all those burdens with us; and about the fragility and beauty of Pleiti’s and Mossa’s developing relationship. Physical intimacy and a previous romantic history do not reassure either of them about the other’s feelings; they are both the same and yet vastly different people now than who they were then, and so both strive not to make unwarranted assumptions about where they stand with each other.

On the macro level, the disappearance of seventeen people from Valdegald University in a relatively short period of time, with essentially no one noticing (most being shrugged off as “couldn’t hack it, went back home”, and the few reported absences unconnected due to varying jurisdictions), immediately brings to mind both the thousands of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls reported (and promptly forgotten), every year, as well as the thousands of marginalized people living “outside society” who also disappear every year, the victims of gangs, trafficking, or serial killers over decades, also without anyone around them, let alone society at large, noticing.

While the explanation for these disappearances is different on Giant than it is in our reality (addressing yet other difficult and unfortunate aspects of human societies that tend to repeat themselves), the very fact that people can vanish in such a way, unnoticed and unremarked even by the people they routinely cross paths with, forces Pleiti to think about prejudice and privilege in ways that make her uncomfortable as much as they help her grow.

There is also the vivid and incisive portrayal of academia, with all its levels, and levers, of power, and the inevitable conflicts and corruption present in any large enough organization, as individual ambitions clash with the ostensible all-encompassing mission and goals.

On balance, I found the mystery thread entertaining, if not necessarily in the fair play category; and I vastly enjoyed the nuanced complexity of the worldbuilding, so richly full of everyday detail, from the logistics of time and space to the evolution of seemingly unavoidable social constructs; but it’s Mossa and Pleiti I read for.

Between the setting and a superficial look at characterizations, the Holmes and Watson comparisons are inevitable, but while Mossa is very like Holmes, what with her towering intellect, observation skills, and talent in pattern recognition, Pleiti is very much not like Watson, beyond being the one immortalizing their collaborations. She’s as intelligent, in her own way, as Mossa, and as effective an investigator.

Their interactions are lovely to read; the mutuality of their care and affection is evident to the reader, but Pleiti’s resistance to make assumptions is not just warranted by the history between them, but also a marker of growing emotional maturity, and I’m definitely here for it.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles gets 8.50 out of 10.

Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a new mystery in the follow-up to the cozy space-opera detective mystery The Mimicking of Known Successes, which Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders called “an utter triumph.”

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this e-ARC. I am anticipating reading this soon and reviewing on my socials.

I loved this installment in this really quirky and wonderful series. This is a fun genre mash-up with Sherlock Holmes, industrial London vibes transported to a planet, and the world-building is super intriguing, but not distracting.

The relationship between the two main characters, even after two books, is still a little confusing to me. The drawback of the novella form is that their romance doesn't get quite enough attention to be fully developed which means when it does get attention, it can feel confusing and out of place.

That being said, this is a book about the vibes and atmosphere, and the character development and plot is often a little secondary to start with - if you like little fun stories, and interesting worlds, this will likely appeal to you.

Alas dear readers, I did not enjoy this sequel much, which is very upsetting and disappointing, as I really liked the first book. The writing was good and whatnot, But let’s get into what irked me, shall we?
Firstly, there is not much of a climax to this book. It felt like it was really building up to something and then it just fell completely flat. That constant build up with no pay off was very frustrating to read.
Secondly, the relationship between Pleiti and Mossa. WHAT WAS THAT. I loved how their relationship developed in the first book and was elated when they kissed for the first time but their relationship in this book was not good. Pleiti spends the whole book thinking that Mossa isn’t really into her and Mossa doesn’t really show that she cares about her. They never discuss this or any of their problems and instead just ignore them, and quite frankly they didn’t read as a couple at all. Overall 3/5 stars because I really like the world building and the writing is good.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles was another great novella in this lovely, cozy little series. I really enjoyed revisiting Mossa and Pleiti's dynamic and this far-future human civilization. I'm excited to see where this series goes, as this installment needed a little more growth, both with the characters and the story. I'm dying to see some development and change in Mossa and Pleiti's relationship, and for more information about this world. The mystery here felt similar to the first book, though it feels as though there is a larger storyline building in the background.

Crossing my fingers this might be on a one-novella-per-year publishing cycle, as I will definitely be keeping up with this series, if there are more to come!

Malka Older returns to a Jupitor where humanity has settled on giant platforms after Earth became uninhabitable. Investigator Mossa is investigating a missing student from Pleiti’s university, and he becomes involved with the case, especially after it is discovered that numerous students have disappeared. Then one of the students is found murdered. The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles (hard from Tordotcom) makes the case harder than it should, and shows off more of the universe, like the settlement on Ios. I'm enjoying this mystery series and look forward to future cases.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
★★★★★
Genre: Novellas & Short Stories, Romance, Sci Fi & Fantasy

Welcome to a sapphic genre bender, a sequel who delivers a punchy blend of romance, environmentalism, and cosmic intrigue. “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles” by Malka Older invites readers to embark on a thrilling journey into the vast expanse where moons and mysteries intertwine.

Meet Mossa. An investigator who is working on a missing person’s case. Appearances can be deceiving and 17 students and staff members have vanished from the University… yet no alarm bells have rung.

Meet Pleiti. A scholar, is grappling with her own uncertainties. Her faith in the past, once unwavering, now wavers. This new case threatens not only humanity's future but also her personal dreams.

Older's prose is succinct yet evocative, and strikes a delicate balance between environmental stewardship and adaptation that resonates throughout the narrative. Older tells a tale full of old-timey aesthetics, futuristic technology, and thought-provoking themes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for a temporary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Plieti is once again helping Mossa with an investigation, this time a disappearance of a academic student. When Mossa asks her directly for her help, Plieti jumps at the chance, even as she is trying to figure out what kind of relationship they have. As the investigation continues, she learns more about Mossa and the two get closer. When the investigation takes a turn they are once again put into a dangerous position.

This second book in the series was easier to get into as the complicated world was already established in the first book. The writing also is very Sherlock Holmes-esque, which can take a minute to get used to. It also distances the reader from the characters and story in a way that I don't love. But I really enjoyed seeing Plieti and Mossa get to know each other more and continue to experience Plieti's uncertainty about their relationship. I want her to get it together, though! I also enjoyed the mystery about the disappearances, especially Mossa's reaction to them. The end was a little rushed, but also if it has been slower it might have dragged on.

Thank you so much to Tordotcom Pub and the author for the advanced copy of the book.

I’m a bit betwixt and between on Malka Older’s Jupiter-based novellas, though I did enjoy the newest — The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles — more than the first, The Mimicking of Known Successes. Overall, both books left me somewhat cold, though there’s a lot to praise here as well.

Beginning with the positive, I love the setting and the backstory of how we’ve arrived here, as well as the way in which that backstory is dripped out bit by bit rather than handed over in large infodumps. That setting is “Giant”, a large colony established around Jupiter, with various “platforms” connected by rings and railcars acting as the colony’s various settlements. The oldest and largest is also home to the most prestigious university — Valdegeld — where the two protagonists Pleiti and Mossa met and where one now works as a scholar (Mossa has become an investigator). The story of how Giant was created, why humans had to leave Earth, and what Earth is like now and parceled out a tidbit at a time in wonderful fashion. Meanwhile, the Giant setting is conveyed efficiently and if it isn’t as richly detailed in worldbuilding as books three times as long as these, that doesn’t mean Older doesn’t serve up some nicely sharp details that make Giant feel fully realized, such as an architectural phase where buildings were built to look like escape pods The setting is somewhat expanded in book two, as we travel further afield, both on the Giant ring system and outside of it, with a side trip to a settlement on Io, where Mossa is from.

I also quite enjoyed the smaller setting-within-a-setting of Valdegeld University, with its fascinating competing schools/disciplines: The Classicists, who mine ancient literature for ideas of how to resettle Earth, the Moderns, who as their name implies think the Classicists are too focused on the past, and the Speculatives, who used their “flights of imagination to engineer the chain of inhabitable space stations” and would be asked to do the same to implement any return to Earth.

The mystery at the heart of The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is the mysterious disappearance of a number of people from the university. The mystery itself is interesting and raises some tense questions, and Older does a nice job of increasing both the stakes and the tension when one of the missing is found murdered. As in The Mimicking of Known Successes, the actually unraveling of the mystery, as a process, fell a little flat for me, feeling more than a little perfunctory and with a revelation that seemed well telegraphed in advance.

Similarly, in both books the romantic element also fell flat for me. On one level, I simply found it uninteresting and didn’t want to spend the time we spent on it. I also felt the writing slipped in those sections from sharp and originally phrased insights into people and society to more overly familiar phrasings. On another level, I just never wholly bought into it. I’m told frequently that there is a relationship, one filled with love and passion if somewhat awkwardly so and if somewhat reserved thanks to one character’s personality traits. But unlike the setting it never seemed real to me; I read of it but didn’t feel it (and not simply because of that reserved aspect). That said, from all I’ve seen in terms of responses to these stories, it’s clear lots of people find the relationship a draw, so YMMV.

I’d certainly pick up a third Pleiti and Mossa book. One to further explore the stories’ setting and culture and two because the prose is certainly highly readable throughout and is peppered with some wonderful phrasings. And finally because as noted I enjoyed book two more than book one and so would hope that improvement continues. But I’ll pick it up hoping for a stronger mystery and either less focus on the relationship or more of a sense of that relationship.

Get ready for new science fiction mystery to be solved by a couple Mossa and Pleiti. Malka Older is celebrated for her thought-provoking and intricately crafted narratives, often exploring themes of governance, technology, and the complexities of societal systems. "The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles" continues in this vein, offering readers a deep dive into speculative scenarios that reflect and critique current sociopolitical realities. For those interested in speculative fiction with a strong emphasis on social science and political theory, any new work by Malka Older, including a potentially insightful and challenging book like "The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles," would be eagerly anticipated. This is a second book in "The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti" series and follows the first one "The Mimicking of Known Successes".

I love me a good cozy sci-fi sapphic mystery. This series has created such an interesting world and set of characters. It is a short book, and I found myself breezing through it because I didn't want to put it down. It's hard to talk about this as it is book 2, but I think we get to see both the development of the relationship between the two main characters and also our point of view's character's growth after the fallout from book 1.

I have no idea if this is just a duology or if there will be future installments, but I hope there's more to come.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles takes place in the future. It is a time after humans used up Earth so they colonized Giant (in this time, we call the planet Jupiter).

Mossa is an investigator on a missing person’s case. Pleiti is a scholar studying classical earth to determine what is needed to restart life on Earth. The investigator enlists the scholar’s assistance thinking she might be able to provide some insight and some connections. Plus, they have a thing for each other.

This second book in the series of unique mystery/scifi mashups is fascinating. The author expands the Giant setting to include one of the moons while adding to the social and political background that Mossa and Pleiti work in.

I am enjoying these characters. Their relationship continues to evolve as they become fixtures in each other’s lives. I keep looking for more details on their lives, but this is not really that kind of a story. The characters tend to take a back seat to the setting and the mystery. These books are not long which may be one reason why, despite the lack of character development, I still enjoy them very much. Mystery and scifi are united to appeal to the readers looking for something just a little different!

Wonderful story, great character development, great writing! Highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is an enjoyable continuation of The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, as the series is called. I didn’t find it as striking as the original, being already acquainted with the world and the characters, but that may have been hard to avoid. Happily, for anyone who longs to return to the gas-fire rooms and dumbwaiter-delivered scones, the academic bureaucracy, the ecological speculations, the journeys, and perhaps most of all, the intermittent, somewhat difficult but definitely rewarding relationship of the first book, this one should also be rewarding.
...
If you loved The Mimicking of Known Successes, you will almost certainly find pleasure in The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles too. However; I do NOT recommend diving into the series by starting with this second book; the worldbuilding and character development in the first book are necessary to get the full enjoyment out of the second.

Thank you @b2weird for setting up a book tour with Malka Older (@infomocracy) and Tor (@tordotcompub) for "The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles."

What do you do when your work doesn't resonate the way it used to? Scholar Pleiti is having difficulty focusing on her studies to find the right ecosystems. Doesn't help that some of her coworkers at the university want to have an event for the person who threw all their work out the window possibly. So when Mossa is back with a missing person case, that expands to persons she is all aboard looking into that instead of academia (I feel this). Their investigation will take them to the moon Io and a glimpse at the early settlements. Considering the limitations of humanity at the time where have all these overlooked folks gone?

Reasons to read:
-Telling off annoying coworkers
-Mossa and Pleiti are just a delight when they are in sync
-History of the initial colony after the evacuation of Earth
-Nice to know that even in the future folks being bad with paperwork can cause so many issues
-Great clapbacks that are polite

Cons:
-I got so hungry reading it!

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles continues Older’s cozy mystery series on Jupiter marvelously. The character development of our main characters Pleti and Mossa is wonderfully well done. Throughout this story Older further expands the world she created in the first book and the problems within that world. I’m incredibly interested in seeing how she further develops this series and this world in future books. The mystery at the center of the story was not as much of the focus to me as compared to the last one, but the character work more than makes up for. I highly recommend this book for those who loved Mossa and Pleti in the first book and are excited to see more from them and their world to pick up this book as soon as possible.