The Imposition of Unnessecary Obstacles does a phenomenal job of building on the first book in this series. There are many more little details that build the setting and act as brushstrokes drawing the steampunk world Pleiti and Mossa inhabit.

I’m way ahead of the publication date for this one, but I couldn’t resist jumping right into The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by the remarkable Malka Older. This is Book 2 of the Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, my favorite detective couple since Holmes and Watson, and it’s another beautiful and charming story. As in The Mimicking of Known Successes, this short novel begins with a prologue from the point of view of Mossa, the supersleuth, that sets out the basic story.

People have been disappearing from Giant, the new home for humanity constructed on vast rings around Jupiter, and Mossa is on her way to Valdegeld, the university town where the missing persons live. It is also the home of her friend and lover Pleiti, who is a scholar at the campus. The prologue lets us know that an equally strong motive for the trip is a chance to spend time with Pleiti. The rest of the story is told in first person by Pleiti, who is always most interested in interpreting every gesture and tone of voice by Mossa to see if her brilliant friend really wants to be with her.

Their relationship is, of course, the heart of The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, but it is skillfully interwoven with the investigation of the missing persons. Pleiti’s narrative, couched in her fairly academic style, captures the full range of her endless and endearing analysis of every detail of Mossa’s behavior as she tries to interpret whether her lover wants to stay with her or only needs her to assist in an investigation. And Mossa is equally careful about not making assumptions about Pleiti. For example, when Mossa raises the idea of Pleiti possibly helping her in this, their second investigation together, she phrases it abstractly about a policy for investigators working with people who do not have the same training. Naturally the elements of this policy, as she carefully lays them out, fit Pleiti perfectly.

Since the story unfolds as Pleiti’s narrative, it is her careful gathering of facts about the missing that we get closest to. Mossa’s method seems more intuitive, and she can find the patterns in Pleiti’s data, often keeping her conclusions to herself until she can reveal a major piece of the puzzle. Like any good mystery, the search for clues about the whereabouts of the missing persons brings out a great deal about the society and the structures that have permitted humans to live in the most hostile settings of the solar system.

.............
I could spend hours listening to Pleiti’s worries and distractions about her relationship with Mossa. At one point, she compares it to the romances of Modern love stories – Modern in the sense of the period of Giant settlement. Was separation necessary for romance, she wonders, as it featured heavily in stories about lovers longing for each other across great distances between space stations and moons or platforms around Giant. Of course, Mossa and Pleiti are separated only by a much shorter rail journey between Valdegeld and Sembla, where Mossa now lives. She catches herself going round and round wondering if obstacles, real or imagined, were necessary for love to flourish. Perhaps that explained why she could never feel satisfied, even when they were easy together, and she was clearly happier than when they were apart? I suppose that’s the way of most relationships, that doubts persist despite all evidence to the contrary, but there is a kind of Chekovian humor in Pleiti’s reflections and worries that draws me in completely.

If there is any flaw in The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, it’s that the story is a little too short and the mystery in this case a little less complex and dangerous than its predecessor. But I still loved it and hope to read many more investigations of Mossa and Pleiti. It’s a brilliant series.

I am obsessed with the cover.

I'm embarrassed to say I started this at least two weeks ago (I think it was the day I was approved for it), made it 8%, put it down, and apparently never went back to it. I didn't remember any of it. It apparently just didn't grip me at all. My sincere apologies to Tor that I don't have much to offer here.

I went back and skimmed chapter 1. It's heavy on the worldbuilding and exposition, which I personally have a difficult time getting into because I as a reader don't understand why I'm supposed to care - so I don't and then it doesn't stick. It's just how my brain works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

I love all things Sherlock and Sci-Fi is my go-to genre, so Sherlock-style adventures in Space should have been a winner, but not for me. Maybe it is more engaging to those from a different background than I, but the story seemed slower to me than I would have liked (and I like a good, plodding British/European drama as have 2 Commonwealth streaming services to prove it), but it was hard to engage in either the mystery or the personal relationship. To be fair, I did not read the first book in the series, which may have been elemental in connecting with the author's narrative style.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So, the author has added a lot of whimsy that makes this series a bit difficult for me to get into. The vocabulary alone stops me more often than not as it's difficult to get context clues.

I think the atmosphere is cozy & endearing. The love aspect is awkward but all the more enjoyable for it.

The mystery itself is good!

I always enjoy mysteries and The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles was no different.

TIoUO expands on the world of Giant much more and the influence of Earth culture is much more evident. The first book did not have as much world-building, and it was fun to see the references to our modern, 21st century culture. (Also, is that a Murderbot reference I see?)

Also, central "villain" is more involved in the TIoUO than in The Mimicking of Known Successes. I felt that like the perpetrator came out of left field in the first book, so having the perpetrator involved more and earlier made it stronger.

I also loved watching Mossa and Pleiti's relationship evolve more! It was surprisingly tender in some parts.

However, the cat slander was too much. I will not stand for it. Cats have done nothing wrong, ever. Smh...

Sapphic scholar Pleiti and her mystery-solving girlfriend Mossa are back again to solve yet another missing persons case, and in this installment we see the story expand to Jupiter's moon Io.

The world building is my favorite part of this series, it's creative and different without being overwhelming. If you want some smaller scale sci-fi, this is for you. Novellas can be difficult to get into because they often feel too short to really sink into the story and characters, but this one succeeds in having just the right pacing and depth to the world that it feels like the perfect length for the story.

One thing I would change about this is having alternating chapters from Mossa's point of view. I find her to be very intriguing and relatable, and I would love to be directly in her mind for at least part of the story.

Another thing I would warn potential readers about is that the main character and the prose are extremely pretentious (I mean just look at the title, that's a good indicator of what to expect). That being said, I like everything else about this enough that I can ignore the over-the-top prose :)

Another super cozy read. Love these books for the world building and their consideration of big societal questions in personal stories. Malka Older makes you feel like you’re living on a gas giant, isolated, lonely, warming only with tea, a plush robe, and the possibility of human connection. The university structure is fascinating and a bit jarring - our current day is their classics. While I like the characters, I missed the emotional connection in the romance subplot in this book as much as the first. My guess is that’s because Mossa can be such a remote character and we only get to be in her head for the prologues if I recall correctly. I came away from each book thinking Pleiti deserved better and not seeing a bigger emotional arc where Mossa can give her that. Will still read more of their investigations, though. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read early

Thank you to NetGalley and Malka Older for giving me this free eARC in exchange for a review.

Simply put: Disregarding the fact that this needs further editing and spelling corrections, I didn’t like this one. I feel like there’s a way that Sci-fi can be done while being inclusive to those exploring the genre and this didn’t do that. It was so technical and wordy that I often had to stop reading to look up the definition of words. It didn’t slow me down as much since I was reading on kindle, but if it was a physical book I can imagine how annoying that would be. I wish the intricacies of the world would’ve been better explained.

Now let’s get to the FMC, Pleiti. Girl please, want better for yourself! She was so insecure and downplayed her own abilities because she was in love with Mossa. Every thought she had involved Mossa and whether or not Mossa was as interested in her as she was in Mossa. It was so annoying to read.

Then the plot didn’t do it for me. There was waaaay too much going on before we got to the climax. And when the reveal finally came it was tremendously underwhelming. It just felt like too much attention was being given to trying to make the book sci-fi and romance that the mystery aspect of it fell flat.

This series isn't easy to categorize--it's a sci-fi/fantasy with a touch of romance and a dollop of detective story thrown in. At times, there's almost a steampunk feeling as it takes place in the future on the planet Giant (which apparently is Jupiter as two Jovian moons are named in the book) where the citizens live on platforms connected by tracks and travel by rail cars, and use telegraph to communicate over long distances. The book is primarily told from the perspective of Pleiti, a Classical Scholar who pores through historical tomes to understand the ecosystems of Earth before humanity had to escape, who in some ways acts as Watson to Mossa. Aside from the allusion, the story never falls prey to the Holmes-Watson stereotypes, and Mossa-Pleiti are distinct characters.
I absolutely devoured this book in a day and already can't wait for another!

Thanks to Tor for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley.

Malls Older has produced a fine sequel to her first short novel featuring Investigator Mossa and academic Pleiti, The Mimicking of Know. successes. I have seen that book (and by implication this one) described as an homage to Sherlock Holmes, and I suppose it is. But Olders characters feel much more fleshed out, particularly Pleiti, who has much more agency than Watson. The is a murder mystery, sure, but it is also a story of evolving love between the protagonists. More, it seems to me that the series is a slow build to a revolution of some kind; a tectonic shift in both the lives of the characters (particularly Pleiti) but also in the fabric of society of Giant, the future Jupiter colony where the story is set. I look forward to a sequel, or more than one, to see if I am correct.

This is a fantastic follow-up to the story of The Mimicking of Known Successes. Following the same duo, Mossa has recently returned to Giant to pursue a missing persons case and enlists Pleiti, her ex-girlfriend and current love interest, to help, as most of the missing people are from the university Pleiti works at. This sequel expands on some of the already great worldbuilding from the first book, and in particular gives more insight to Pleiti's research as a Classicist (who read old Earth novels as a means of trying to recreate Earth's environs and species) which I really enjoyed. There was also a bigger focus on the romance. The book is from Pleiti's pov for the most part, and she spends a lot of time musing on the nature of her relationship with Mossa, who is a bit harder to figure out but less so here than she was in the first book. The mystery part was fairly standard and similar to how the first book played out, though it really didn't need to be anything more. This is a great series and i'd love to read more about Pleiti and Mossa's adventures.

Mossa and Pleiti are back. Mossa, an Investigator on Giant (Jupiter to you and me), is looking into a student who has disappeared. Because Pleiti teaches at the university, Mossa has once again asked for her help.

There is much to love about this book. The world building, characters and plotting are all superb.

It’s a pleasure to be back on Giant. Older has created a fascinating world, but at no point does it overwhelm the storytelling. Instead, we learn more and more about the settling of Giant and its moons as the story progresses.

The relationship between Mossa and Pleiti is equally fascinating. Although they are clearly attracted to one another and in an affectionate relationship, there is always a doubt in Pleiti’s (who narrates most of the book). The relief when Mossa shows up both lovely and tender.

The central mystery of the book is very well paced. As each piece of the puzzle is solved, we’re lead into another question or set of question to be solved.

Older has created something that mixes sci-fi, romance and a cosy thriller. I’m not sure what to call it. To be honest, I don’t care what it’s called as long as I get to spend more time in this world that Older has created.

A solid follow up to the first book in the series that expands on the world building in some interesting ways and deepens the main characters' central relationship. "The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles" finds Mossa and Pleiti dealing with the fallout from the events of book one while tackling a new mystery that takes them to the far reaches of Giant--and to one of its moons.

I didn't love this one quite as much as the first, but I would definitely still recommend it and read more of the series!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!