The second in The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series, Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka Older comes out February 13. I'm looking forward to discussing the first book in the series The Mimicking of Known Successes during my February Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Discussion Group. Although both books clock in around novella length they are packed with interesting world building and fun mysteries. Mossa is a detective while Pleiti is a professor who studies the classics, as in the classical way things were done on Earth and that the human's who are now living in Space hope they may be able to return one day. Platforms built around Jupiter, a Gas Giant, as well as life on IO one of the moon's is detailed in the story with clever details like a bunker home being referred to as a "Hobbit" style. Although a couple in their younger days, the two women, have only have become reunited after Mossa's last case and the tentative attempts between them to develop their relationship further add another sweet element to the plot. I hope we will see more adventures starring the couple in the future.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I enjoyed the first in the Mossa & Pleiti series and so I continued. The main characters are two women. Mossa is an investigator who is good at her work, but very uncertain in social circumstance. I'd almost say she is autistic but Pleiti also has the hesitation about things in their relationship. Pleiti is an academic studying how things might be reintroduced on Earth to revive an ecosystem there. The setting is another planet.

In The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, there is a missing student. They discover there are actually many missing students. The strategy and working of the case is a bit vague. As an investigator, Mossa is allowed to be very independent.

The relationship is a key piece of the story. The women care about each other but seem afraid to express too much or commit. They did already have a break up of sorts previously. They are careful to honestly state what they want or mean to say. It was good to watch them get to know each other even better.

I really enjoyed the wording and style of the story. I appreciate when different layers make up the whole which is more realistic. Although, Pleiti did just leave her work and go off investigating with Mossa. But the work overall in this world seems more individually determined. I'll look forward to more of these characters and their clever minds.

ARC Review + #WorldbuildingWednesday
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older

Genre: science fiction mystery
Jupiter, sometime in the future

Human civilization has left the earth destroyed by climate change. The Mars colony was a failure. People now live on platforms around the moons of Jupiter. Pleiti is a classics scholar at a prominent university; classics study meaning that one studies the history of earth! Her girlfriend, if that’s what label they can put on their relationship, Mossa, is an investigator. Recently, students have started going missing in larger than usual numbers from Pleiti’s university, and Mossa turns to her to help her solve this case.

If you are new to science fiction, I absolutely recommend picking up a crossover-genre book like this series. There’s comfort and familiarity to picking up a murder mystery with a touch of romance in any kind of new setting. If you’re new to science fiction, the worldbuilding is light touch enough that you can kind of picture* how things are organized. If science fiction is a genre you thrive in, you’ll appreciate the deep contemplative questions our POV character Pleiti tackles.

Book one, The Mimicking of Known Successes, does the bulk of the worldbuilding and introduces the characters of Pleiti and Mossa, so I do recommend starting there. However, the mystery in each book stands alone quite well. One thing I love about Older choosing to set this on Jupiter is that we never talk about terraforming the planet, because you simply can’t. Known Successes tackles the concept of ecosystems, and what flora and fauna could and should be introduced to their platforms. In a sense The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles addresses social ecosystems. Platforms and the separate moons function semi-independently and with their own customs and even dialects.

There’s an * on “picture” above, because I’m not a visual reader at all, and I rarely imagine scenery while reading. That said, while reflecting, I realized that an easy corollary for a visual reader might be a bit like Cloud City in Star Wars. The platforms are connected by rail, and rather than try to explain the physics of it all, Older draws you into the story, talking about the extracurricular activity of riding on rails.

Each of the books in this series are bite size, Unnecessary Obstacles is just over 200 pages, and they feel satisfyingly complete with their mystery arcs. Thank you to @tordotcompub for an eARC for review. The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is the Sapphic SF mystery you didn’t know you needed for Valentine’s Day, and is out 2/13/24.

A detective and a professor solve mysteries on Jupiter. What's not to like. This is the second book in the series, so there is definitely some back story you'll be missing if you start here, but it's not insurmountable. The primary mystery is interesting and the resolution works reasonably well. I do wish the romance/pining was handled a little better. It runs as a side plot, but one that occupies a good chunk of the thoughts of the main characters. It's a lot of pining that feels a smidge off, since it's fully reciprocal. In another book or two Mossa and Pleiti and going to be confident in their relationship, which will make the mysteries they are solving basically perfect.

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles follows the reader's two beloved characters from the first book in this series: The Mimicking of Known Successes. Both books are incredibly fun, and I loved the direction that Unnecessary Obstacles took. I appreciated how Mossa and Pleiti's romantic dynamic continued to develop over the short novella while they were racing to solve the mystery of the missing university students and faculty. As a long-time fan of short mystery classics like Sherlock Holmes, I found this to be along the same vein while also bringing in its own Sci-Fi flair. Mysteries on the planet Jupiter make for a fun adventure, and it's a great time following these two and seeing how they piece everything together. I definitely recommend this book if you enjoyed the first; and I recommend both books to anyone looking for a quick but fun sci-fi mystery.

A huge thank you to Tor Dot Com and B2Weird for both the physical and eARC of this book in exchange for my review and participation in the tour closer to publication. Be on the lookout for my tour post of this book on publication day at https://www.instagram.com/ariel_reads/ .

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available to me.

This is a bit of a sapphic romance/sci-fi/mystery book, second in this series of novellas. I enjoyed the first book, and this one even more. It was very enjoyable seeing how the two main characters were trying to move forward in their relationship even though neither of them were very good about verbally expressing that desire to each other. That was at least as large a part of these books as the mysteries have been, and the mysteries have also been pretty well thought out. This book has one extra bonus though: a throwaway reference to Martha Wells' "Murderbot" series. If you loved that series as much as I do, then you'd want to read this book just to get that one little reference.

THE IMPOSITION OF UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES
by @infomocracy [published by @tordotcompub]
I really loved THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES when I read it last year, equal parts Sherlockian mystery, futuristic dark academia, and subtle sapphic romance. So when I found out Mossa & Pleiti were back in a follow-up whodunit, I was thrilled!

I felt immediately seen in the very first page of this novella, watching Mossa practice reciting what she was going to say to another person to be prepared to speak with them. This is something I do on the regular as an #AuDHD person and to see it so casually included in a book was amazing!

I’m already craving a third entry in this series! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I love these characters and this world! I listened to the first in this series on audio and either didn’t notice the use of language as much as I did reading with my eyes. Pleiti possesses an expansive vocabulary which seems to be a mix of invented language for the future, terms pulled from a variety of cultures from our world, and advanced vocab words from our time that a scholar or academic might use. It did get a little wordy at times but made for a believable voice for an academic from the future.

I found Mossa’s rehearsal of conversations very relatable in her prologue and wish we’d gotten more of her perspective. Pleiti’s insecurity and journey to learn to ask for what she wants was also very relatable and I enjoy her as a narrator.

The mystery was fun, though the pacing dragged a little for me between the 30-50% mark. The ethical considerations of a humanity in diaspora attempting to establish new societies and repopulate Earth’s ecosystems—and particularly the complexity with which the author handles those ethics—is well done. I would read several more of these!

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for the ARC.

This series of novels (or novelas) is truly wonderful. They are science fiction, and mystery, but more than that, they are the story of two people deciding to be together and how that will work. To me, that is the compelling part of this book and the first in the series.

Pleiti is recovering from the rector's betrayal in the last book. But when Mossa comes to investigate several disappearances in her college, Pleiti gladly joins her as she travels around Giant and Io, just to be with her. And she is just as invested as Mossa is in finding out where these people are. After all, there's not many places to hide on platforms above a gas giant, is there?

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

I love this duo, and I love the futuristic mysteries that they solve! I love the complexity of Pleiti’s narration and her emotions warring with her scholarly rationality. This was a great read.

The further adventures of Mossa and Pleiti sees our duo investigating a series of disappearances (and a murder) while navigating their professional and personal relationship. Fans of the worldbuilding of the first instalment will enjoy the expansion of Giant’s politics and culture, while romance lovers will also find themselves satisfied. Although I have rated both books in the series so far the same, I enjoyed this second instalment a little more and am looking forward to seeing where it goes next.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstactles as much as The Mimicking of Known Successes with Mossa & Pleiti. It took a couple chapters to get in the flow of reading Malka Ann Older's style of writing, but then you get into it and the mystery sweeps you up into its out of this world charm. I hope that there are more to come in this series because I'd quite like to see how the characters relationship develops along with the planet.

I love the concept of this novella, a cozy sci-fi mystery but unfortunately it was not a good fit for me. I think many readers will enjoy Older’s light and easy writing style and even the book itself. Personally, I had difficulty connecting with the characters and found that I did not entirely care whether they solved the case or not.

A brilliant return to Giant and the planetary mystic of Pleiti and Mossa’s romance. Seeing things from Pleiti’s perspective this time around was a great structural bookend to the story, her neurotic and adorable insecurities giving us insight into her her desire for truth and justice, her Classical mind, and her relentless love of Mossa.

What impresses me most about this series is that ephemeral quality of excellent sci-fi short story: to capture an entire world in only a few pages, to give you a real grasp on hundreds of years of development from our familiar world to this deceptively unfamiliar one. Excellent!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

3.5 ⭐’s |  PUB DATE: 13 February 2024

Read if you're looking for:
- A noir, mystery novella in a sci-fi setting
- A touch of dark academia
- A missing persons case
- Sapphic relationship between the two main characters
- A verbose writing style that cleverly plays with words

This is a sci-fi, noir, mystery novella, with a little touch of dark academia thrown in. The second book in the Mossa & Pleiti series, we follow these two characters as they work together to solve the mystery of several missing persons. In the far future, Earth’s ecosystem has failed and humanity has removed to a system of platforms around Jupiter (called Giant in the book). Pleiti is an academic at an Oxford-like University where she met Mossa during her student days. Mossa left academia and became an Investigator. In the first book of the series the pair re-kindled a romance that they had years ago, and this relationship grows somewhat in the second book.

You really need to have read the first book in order for this one to make sense, as there are many references to what happened previously. You also get much more world-building and explanation in the first novella. I enjoyed this second outing, as these two solved another mystery. However, I found myself somewhat missing the world-building of the first book.

The writing style is verbose as we are in the first person with Pleiti, who is an academic. Be ready to check the dictionary, as there are many infrequently used and antiquated words in the text, as well as some that were made up by the author, ostensibly due to the evolution of language over many years and into the future. I enjoyed the author’s clever use of language. The writing style may not be for everyone, but those who enjoy denser dark academia or sci-fi will most likely have a good time with it.

I also appreciated the queer representation, and neurodivergent representation, although I’m not sure if the latter was intentional by the author. I found Mossa to read as neurodivergent. There are some cute quips and banter between Mossa and Pleiti, however, I found their love story to be a little bit flat and not quite as believable as it could have been. Although there is a sapphic relationship in this series, I wouldn’t go into it looking for a lot of romantic content, as that isn’t the focus.

Overall, this is a solid sci-fi, mystery story with an interesting setting and quirky characters. It’s an interesting mix of genres, and readers who enjoy sci-fi, murder mystery, and academic settings would probably be keen on this series!

CW: Murder, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Homophobia, Classism, Bullying, Chronic illness

NOTE: I received this ebook for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Sci-Fi Mystery, Science Fiction
Sub-Genre: Romance
How hard is the science? The world building is pretty technical. The plot less so.
Representation: The primary characters are lesbians
Series: This is book 2

I'm a great reader for soft sci-fi. Now that you know that, the world building was a bit much for me.

The premise for the mystery portion is interesting, and I liked both the main investigator and the professor who is roped into helping. (But the introspection of Pleiti went a bit overboard for me.)

This story escalates from one missing person to many will keep readers vested The death of the rector was revisited too, and I wanted to see how it might connect with the missing students.

When you read: "Pituitary Hall" in the Speculative campus, know that this made me chuckle. There are other moments like this through out. Here's another: "We have another missing person to add to our constellation." These moments of levity or "space-like" lingo propelled me to turn the page. I'm a sucker for great words.

I think this book is perfect for the right audience.

I'm not the idea reader because I wanted this to be more of a cozy sci-fi mystery. It's more technical than I expected, and that bogged me down—tell me if you wanted it to have more science in forensics or in the world building.

Happy reading!

Makia Older is a new author for me and I loved this book. Second in a series The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti,. Set in the future after humanity has left Earth, it follows the duo Mossa and Pleiti as they investigate missing staff and students at a university in orbit around Jupiter. A wonderful and engaging read!

thank you to netgalley and tor for the ARC in exchange for a review!

i read the mimicking of known successes all of three days ago and immediately added it to my favorites shelf, so my delight at being approved for this book was unmatched. my dearest wish, to see mossa and pleiti again IMMEDIATELY instead of having to wait 20 days, granted. incredible email to receive.

if it wasn't clear, i love these space detectives. i love their complex relationship and mossa's amazing deductions and pleiti's sharp observations. they miscommunicate often!! but they are clearly so fond of each other and it is wonderful.

this book borrows a lot of words from other languages, and uses words from english that might as well be from other languages for how much i understand them. i did a bunch of definition googling while reading, because i like knowing new words, but i do think the story is understandable even if you don't want to look up every single word you don't know (and there will be words you don't know). most, if not all, are pretty obvious in their meaning from context clues. i know some people don't like pleiti's extensive verbiage, but as someone who has read every single sherlock holmes story i feel qualified to say that it only adds to the sherlockian (is THAT a word?) charm.

the only thing i really wanted from this book was more of it. i will be thinking about these guys for far longer than the time it took me to read the book :D

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is like the synopsis says a cozy space opera detective mystery. When I first was approved for this I didn't realize it was the second in the series, so I went and read that one first. I had a bit of a hard time getting into the first book, so wasn't sure how I was going to feel about bk 2. But I can say that I really enjoyed this second installment and started to get a feel for the characters and the world where Mossa and Pleiti are living.
In this book, we get to delve more into Mossa's life and see where she lived before becoming a Detective, and it was great to see this other side of her. We are following Pleiti more than we did in the first book, and I liked being in her head, especially in the tender moments between her and Mossa. They were really sweet and heartwarming.
I liked seeing Mossa and Pleiti work together to solve the case and enjoyed where the story went and how it all played out. If there are more books in this series I will definitely check them out.

This is a truly impressive book, a wonderful follow-up to The Mimicking of Known Successes. I actually like this one a little bit more than the original, actually; there is a lot more world-building detailed out here, though again, the author doesn't hold your hand while doing it. But I appreciated all the additional detail, personally. I am also intrigued by the way the author uses language in the book. There have been other words that have noted that the author is quite verbose and expansive in her vocabulary, but rather than coming across as pretentious (as some have said), it struck me as a nod, instead, at how language has evolved in this post-Earth society. There is a mix of languages throughout the book, indicating how the language spoken by the people of Giant and, presumably, Io still reflects different countries of the original Earth. Given that Pleiti is a Classics scholar, who spends most of her time studying ancient Earth texts (which include Murderbot, delightfully, albeit in a transformative format!), it makes sense that her vocabulary would be directly influenced by that - as would the language of everyone else, who are relying on old texts to shape their education and knowledge. (There are also several different cultural and religious traditions as well as foods referenced, helping expand those ideas in different directions.) I really enjoyed these little nuggets of how the world has evolved and changed from the original colonists of Giant.

The mystery is enjoyable enough, but the heart of the book is really Mossa and Pleiti's relationship, as well as how they've been changed by the events of the first book. I was very impressed that there was no reset button; nothing was forgotten from the previous book, and Pleiti in particular is still parsing through the fallout from what happened. It impacts a lot of her decisions, and she may come across as less decisive or capable in this story, but she isn't - she's just struggling. I thought the tentative work that both Pleiti and Mossa are doing to make their relationship work was interesting to watch, and I thought Pleiti's occasional misgivings very accurate, if painful - I am probably a bit more of a Mossa, myself, and it hurt to read all the signs that she just adores Pleiti for Pleiti while in Pleiti's head, her own thoughts focusing on how she doesn't know if Mossa really likes her. (Heaven forbid anyone just... ask.)

I really hope we see more in this series. It's not quite a cozy sci-fi mystery, I don't think, as it is exploring some complicated issues and doesn't shy away from the impact of events and decisions that happen in the book. But it's exactly the right kind of cozy for me, being so character focused. I loved this, and would highly recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC; all opinions are my own.