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3.5 

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

By Malka Older
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Named a Best Sci-Fi Book of 2024 by Esquire

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.”


Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight. Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University—yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case may lie on the moon of Io—Mossa’s home—and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements during humanity's exodus from Earth.

But Pleiti’s faith in her life’s work as a scholar of the past has grown precarious, and this new case threatens to further destabilize her dreams for humanity’s future, as well as her own.

The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti
The Mimicking of Known Successes
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

The Centenal Cycle
Infomocracy
Null States
State Tectonics

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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132 Reviews

3.5
“Another enjoyable Sherlock-esc adventure - but make it queer and sci-fi. I do like the unique sci-fi setting and the way terraforming / resettling space is handled.”
“I wish less of this book was about making tea and eating while traveling. It’s honestly impressive how boring a missing persons case was made to be. Consider me done with this series. FF, Holmesian, set on Jupiter, second chance, academia, climate collapse “Well…” Mossa hemmed. “I have realized, over the past few months that, while solitude is far preferable to most people, discussing case narratives with you is both more pleasant and more useful and … well, in short, I would rather do that.””

About Malka Older

Malka Older is an author, a humanitarian, a sociopunk, and a practitioner of speculative resistance and evidence-based creativity. Her political science fiction thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, and The Washington Post, and with its sequels, Null States and State Tectonics, was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Series. Her new series of mysteries set on a gas giant planet, begins with the acclaimed The Mimicking of Known Successes and continues with The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. She has also written numerous serials, short stories, poetry, and essays, and published the collection …And Other Disasters. She is a faculty associate at Arizona State University, where she teaches on predictive fictions and hosts the Science Fiction Sparkle Salon. Her opinions can be found in The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and NBC THINK, among other places.

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