I was so happy to be approved for this book as I love the series! The third installment does have most of the things I loved about the first two, but I admit I have mixed feelings about this one. One of the things I enjoy most about this series is the Mossa/Pleiti dynamic, and Mossa being absent for over half the book threw that off significantly. That said, I do admire the reasons for it and the way the author handled the mental health representation.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

4.5 Stars - This is the best book in the series so far, IMO! A clear homage to The Hound of the Baskervilles, this investigation not only delivered on plot, but also significantly deepened the dynamic between Mossa & Pleiti. Before, I didn't totally understand what went wrong with them the first time around, but now.... yeah. I see it :)
Just a great example of a sci fi romantic whodunnit!

THE POTENCY OF UNGOVERNABLE IMPULSES is an absolute gem of a read. Malka Older’s delightful Holmes-and-Watsonesque pair Mossa and Pleiti are called in to a university on Jupiter to deal with a delicate matter of academic intrigue—before it tips from slander to slaughter. That moment when a series that you already adore suddenly becomes even MORE itself—more complex, more thought-provoking, somehow even more delightful? This book was it. Highly recommend.

This short novel follows Mossa and Pleiti investigating threats made against a scholar at a university across the planet; when what appears initially to be an attack on the scholar’s research takes a turn toward violence and begins to look more personal, the investigators must try to figure out who is behind it while keeping the scholar safe.

I liked how the mystery was slowly unravelled, and the commentary on academic rivalries and interdepartmental politics felt insightful. I also appreciate Older’s thoughtful depiction of Mossa’s depression. What doesn’t quite work for me in this series is the emphasis on Mossa and Pleiti’s relationship; I am fascinated by the world Older has created, the Classicist vs. Modernist dynamics in the universities, and the varying perspectives on the possibility and timeline of humans potentially returning to Earth. I ultimately wish these were more prominent elements rather than the perpetual miscommunications and pining between the two main characters.

This is the third book in the ‘Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti’ series. While the mystery at the core of the plot is entirely self-contained, I wouldn’t suggest reading this as a standalone as a lot of world-building happens in the earlier books.

Many thanks to Tor and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC to review.

Content warnings: violence, mental health struggle, injury detail

My favorite thing about this book was the fact that we got to see a different side of the moon where Pleiti and Mossa live. Pleiti travels to the city where the Modernist scholars have their university. The city feels different and new.

Pleiti is asked by her fellow professors to help investigate who might be trying to sabotage a friend of theirs who is up for a promotion. Pleiti's biggest contribution to this is probably reading through the research of the various suspects and putting together basic personality profiles based on their research articles. Otherwise, I'm not sure she did much.

Meanwhile, Pleiti and Mossa have yet another of their misunderstandings that makes their relationship distant and awkward until they finally communicate with each other. This pattern is getting old, and I'm getting tired of it.

While I sort of enjoyed the politics and infighting among the various faculty members, I don't think that the mystery really played fair with figuring out the perpetrator, and I always am a bit dubious when academic rivalries come to violence. So, plus for the setting, minus for the characters and plot.

The first book of a series is always going to leave world-building questions (unless you are Brandon Sanderson), and subsequent books are when the author gets to enlarge their scope and start showing how pieces fit together. When Older gets a chance to do this, she focuses on the anthropology of the society rather than the science of the world. This, I think, belongs to a category I think of as sci-fi light. I don’t even mean Star Trek-light, I mean lite as in less dense (perhaps fitting since it is set on Jupiter, a planet less dense than Earth). To contextualize, it is the Becky Chambers school of sci-fi; focused on relationships, with world-building that is more creative or parallel than forward. Much like the low calorie version, I find Older’s work sweet, but not particularly fulfilling.

This story continues to take place in the circumscribed universe of academia, and it is easy to imagine analogues to current Earth colleges. It begins when a Modernist (a term used with derision by some) colleague, Petanj, arrives from another campus requesting help. Her brilliant cousin is being targeted by a vicious smear campaign that has threatened to become physical. Mossa is deep in a depressive fugue when Pleiti reaches out, so Pleiti takes on the challenge solo. As events become more serious, she starts sending telegraphs to keep Mossa apprised.

Pleiti represents the Classical (Earth-focused) department of academia, and Petanj the Modernist, a rivalry that sounds more than a little esoteric. However, Older uses it to flesh out different methods of coping with planetary exile. This is an interesting idea–think, to take an example completely at random, of the academic idea of diversity in inclusiveness versus a more preservationist view. Unfortunately, at some points Pleiti’s narration becomes more of a an internal wondering than thoughtful contextual dialogue.

We get a touch more science in this installment as it relates to oxygen supplementation and air purifying: “Atmoscarfs are not, strictly speaking, necessary for survival in Modern times. The atmoshields around each platform provide necessary levels of oxygen, as well as minimum temperature. But these basic conditions are far from ideal.” I appreciated the way this all manifested within the story, with ramifications to clothing and social signifiers. It didn’t go as far as I was hoping.

What I appreciated less were the random Earth-isms, or words/stems left over from Earther language. I definitely didn’t remember these linguistic gymnastics in the first book, and I was struck how these academics were supposed to be publishing professionals and yet sounded like they were trying to be hip teenagers (‘grok‘? Really??). I didn’t appreciate it because it felt awkward and inserted (of course any language this far in the future won’t be standard English. We get it. It’s one of the understood assumptions in literature that we are not trying to account for linguistic shifts). The words drew on a wide variety of languages, and I felt like it was done awkwardly, interrupting the story. When I read the About the Author, I learned Older is “the executive director of Global Voices, a community of writers, editors, and translators… advocating for indigenous and minority languages.” Ah; it begins to make sense, although staying with Spanish, French, and Hindi seems contradictory. This is very much one of those YMMV situations; personally, I think Older’s circumvention of sci-fi conventions (use new, not old) didn’t bring much to the table.

“‘Dafuq?’ I asked, wondering what I had missed.”

The draw to this book–and the series in general, I think–is emotion of the relationship between Pleiti and Mossa. It takes it far beyond the simple ‘Holmes and Watson on Jupiter’ premise. It is a challenging relationship, although Pleiti tends to be very dramatic about it.

“I was doing no good here, and if I was with Mossa… well, I might not do any good there, either, but at least I wouldn’t be constantly concertina’d inside by this awful, inescapable longing; the crumbling conviction that I had mad a terrible error in leaving and must, at all costs, undo it.”

As the third in a series, I think it could stand alone. However, while the mystery certainly confines itself to this story, the relationship between two of the characters is very much reflective on prior events. Additionally, Pleiti has a lot of guilt over events from the first book. On the buy, borrow, toss scale, it is definitely worth a borrow.

Three and a half cups of tea.

Thank you to TOR and NetGalley for the ARC. Clearly, all opinions my own. All quotes subject to change.

"That is, I regret it now; but when I probe the gallimaufry of blurred memories from that night I can still feel the potency of the ungovernable impulse that demanded I place my palms on her bony shoulders, the elation of pouring my strength into the shove, of feeling her weight and solidity shocked backwards by my hand."

The third book in The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses sees Pleiti flex her recently uncovered investigating skills by herself to help out her friend at another university, in the process acquiring a new respect for the Modernist stream of studies, making new friends and renewing old friendships, and solving the mystery with some good old fashioned skills; all while Pleiti and Mossa try to navigate their growing relationship, dealing with their insecurites and learning to work their way to each other.

This book is a great addition to the series in terms of both the world-building and the characters. We see more of the world Giant, as well as a bit of its history and prejudices. It's interesting, to say the least, but perhaps not surprising, to see the tensions that can arise in academia even in a futuristic space settlement society. The plot is slow at first - with the characters mostly reacting to events, but Pleiti steadily makes headway in trying to solve the mystery alone before Mossa joins her, very reminiscent of the plot in The Hound of the Baskervilles. How they each work towards solving the mystery and rationally finding the culprit is a good reflection of their individual temperaments.

Both Pleiti and Mossa grow as characters; Pleiti with her perception of academia and scholars, Mossa with her introspection on the kinds of cases she wants to take up. They also continue to explore their relationship after some angst and more open conversation, especially regarding mental health. While it was good to see them actually talk to each other about their feelings and expectations, the angst and insecurity felt a little off-key when looking at how their relationship grew in the previous two books.

A special note must be made of the author's incredible linguistic skills in envisioning a close knit society comprising people of multiple nationalities and cultures starting from scratch as a new society. It is truly refreshing to see this melding of languages and speech patterns (and food items too), seen even in the first two books, as opposed to simply including some stereotypes bordering on (or invading) blatant racism and calling it representation. However, not knowing these languages don't really stop the flow as a lot can be gleaned from context. As a person who's interested in etymology and linguistics, I enjoyed tracing the various words with roots from different languages, and of course also looking up new foodstuffs. Gallimaufry, if you were wondering, means a confused jumble or medley of things - its origin is old French, but it is actually an English word (ref. Oxford dictionary).

This book, and series, is recommended to anyone who might enjoy a Holmes and Watson kind of mystery in a Sci-Fi world, with female lead characters and a sapphic romance.

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group and the author Malka Ann Older for an ARC of the book, the review is entirely honest.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/4🌟
[3/4 star for the premise and the whole book; 3/4 star for the characters and their growth; 3/4 star for the story and themes; One star for the world-building; One star for the writing - 4 1/4 stars in total, rounded down to 4 stars.]

✨ARC Review✨

Title: The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses
Author: Malka Older

Older is back with another mystery in this book featuring Pleiti and Mossa - albeit Mossa is missing for majority of the story.

First, the world building of this book is amazing. The details around Giant are insane, and I wondered if I would survive there. I loved that Older explored beyond Pleiti and Mossa’s “hometown.”

Second, I appreciated how Pleiti evolved as an investigator and person when Mossa was not around. She learned how to be strong and look for details using techniques she learned from Mossa. When the two characters reunited, it was heartfelt.

Third, although the book is set off Earth, the topics discussed are still applicable to today’s society. That’s the beauty of Older’s writing. She creates an entire universe but still reminds us of the problems that we face as women or minority.

One of the things that made it a little difficult for me was the language. There were words that were just too “academic.” I had to use the built in dictionary on my Kindle to make sure I was following the train of thought. Some readers may appreciate the use of deeper words, but there are those who might find reading this particular novel too nuanced.

Overall, I liked the mystery and worldbuilding. The extra length gave this novel more time to explore the characters and the plot. I will look forward to the next book!

I've loved this series, but this is the first misstep for me. A shame that it's also the longest. This one divides Pleiti and Mossa to give Pleiti some time to shine, and while it was the usual intricate mystery you'd come to expect, I did miss Mossa's presence a great deal. I'll happily read the next book in this series, but I hope the dream team is reunited once more for it.

It is no secret that I ADORE these neurodivergent Jupiter lesbians. Mossa is still inscrutable but depressed, Pleiti is still horny on main for Mossa but sulking about their situationship. So much so that she takes on a case of her own on the other side of the world. This one is a deeply academia-based plot, so your mileage may vary based on how compelling you find those dynamics. Personally, I was having a hard time caring much about the central mystery. My favorite part of revisiting this world is always just seeing more of it and how a post-Earth human society thrives on the edges of a gas giant. More than ever, the most fascinating part of this series for me is the multilingual slangs and how this society studies the history of Earthbound humanity and how to unlearn the limitations of having BEEN Earthbound. The central theme of what constitutes Classical and Modern studies in this world and their relative values is interesting, especially through the lens of an academic. The space detective element, however, is almost non-existent in this one. Thanks Tor and Netgalley for the eARC.

I continue to enjoy this series, particularly appreciating the rich use of languages and the relationship between the two female leads. The university setting on Jupiter feels fully developed.

It offers a compassionate treatment of depression.

Another incredible adventure for Mossa and Pleiti. I love how these mysteries turn out. The dynamic between Mossa and Pleiti is as charming as ever, and I cannot wait to see what comes next from Malka Older.

i love this series! it is so much fun and the world is built in such an awesome way!

mossa is certainly sorely missed for the first section of this book --- seeing the way mossa & pleiti interact and work out the mystery between the two of them is one of my favorite parts, and it's sad to see pleiti working on her own!

villette and petanj are great side characters and i hope they continue to appear, although i felt villette was pretty naive at times.

not my favorite of the series (mainly due to the conspicuous absence of my favorite character for part of the book) but definitely worth a read if you liked the rest of the series :D

Mossa and Pleiti return in their third outing of Malka Older's sapphic academic mystery set in the diasporic resettling of humanity on floating platforms above Jupiter. This volume moves the series forward both in terms of the mysteries, with Pleiti taking the lead this time at another university, and confronting the mental health issues (depression for Mossa, anxiety for Pleiti) in their developing relationship.

When Pleiti is asked by an old friend to help her solve a mystery at another university, Mossa refuses to go with her, too deep in a depression to be able to accommodate her. Pleiti stumbles through (what appears to be) a solo investigation, following her instincts and using what she can muster of Mossa's method, for the first half of the book, while the stakes and dangers continuously increase.

This book feels like it engages in some necessary growing pains for the series-at-large, putting Mossa and Pleiti more into standard cozy mystery territory; at the end it moves to establish a new status-quo for Mossa that could feed in to more cases. However, it also feels uneven, particularly the longer Pleiti and Mossa are separated. Some of the narrative voice during the section of Pleiti's solo investigation even feels slightly out-of-character, but the book quickly regains its footing once the two romantic leads are reunited.

A lot of weight in the series has been given already to Pleiti's anxieties and doubts about Mossa's true feelings towards her, but this volume moves things forward by showing us Mossa's struggles with depression, and her own feelings of inadequacy in the relationship when mired in it. Navigating both of their mental health struggles, and trying to figure out how to be together with their challenges, is the emotional throughline of the book, and there's a lot of hope in how they're able to reconcile these issues by the end.

Overall I found this entry a little uneven, but still really enjoyable.

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses Malka Older

I am really enjoying this series! I first started reading this series of novellas when the first one was nominated for a Hugo Award. I really enjoyed it and checked the second one out of the library shortly after I finished it and liked that a lot too! I’m all for a Holmes/Watson framework for a mystery, and I have loved SF mysteries since I discovered the Caves of Steel in junior high. I was excited when I got an eARC of this third volume from Tor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The mystery in this book is not quite as fun as in the first two - frankly, by the time of the solution I had forgotten who several of the suspects were. I love the world building and the setting of these books, and the characters are the reason I keep coming back. I understand why the narrator is infatuated with Mossa- I love Mossa as a character- but Mossa is a terrible person to be in a relationship with and it shows (as, presumably, Sherlock Holmes would be a dreadful boyfriend). I enjoyed how academic research was key to solving the mystery. And I enjoyed just how terrible an investigator/interviewer the narrator was (I was also taking a science-based interviewing course for law enforcement while reading this book).

Bottom line - I will happily keep reading these as long as the author keeps writing them.

I love this series! It was nice to see Pleiti do some independent investigating in this installment, I think it was necessary for her to solve it herself in order for her to keep investigating mysteries alongside Mossa. I was a little bit wearied by the push and pull between them, especially when the last book left them on a high note.

The mystery itself kept me engaged. The expansion of the worldbuilding was exciting, and the ongoing philosophical questions about life on Jupiter—and on Earth—kept the new location and population a familiar world to return to. I will read as many of these as Malka Older wants to write!

The third installment in the Mossa and Pleiti series and the first longer (though still not LONG) installment. Did it need to be longer? Hm. Well, I don't know what, off the top of my head, I would cut out of it. That said, I don't think it hit any harder than the first two for having extra length.

I always enjoy seeing a new aspect of life on (around?) Giant, and Older does that again, this time going to a rival university of Pleiti's home institution--and partially without Mossa! I definitely did enjoy seeing Pleiti investigate on her own, both instituting what she thought Mossa would do and what felt best to her at any given moment. As always there's an interesting group of supporting characters to add color to the new environment and we even got a slight update as to background developments stemming from one of the previous installments. It DID feel like Older really amped up the language in this one; I'm not talking about the inclusion of Spanish words, but rather the made-up slang and also some just...very academic words, more so even than the academically-minded Pleiti normally used in previous books. I definitely encountered SEVERAL words here that I had to look up if they were real or something Older made up, and I do think we might have crossed the line from "atmospheric" to "slightly off-putting" with some of these choices.

That said, still a VERY enjoyable story as a whole. The "gaslamp investigation on Jupiter" setup is so unique and Older really has built this world so every installment can have its Holmesian core while still having very different settings and supporting casts, which is great.

I unfortunately cannot review this book because I learned too late that NetGalley changed their file type/DRM, and as a reader who uses a Kobo e-reader and NOT a Kindle, I cannot load the file onto my Kobo. I cannot utilize any of the other NetGalley provided options, as all the other options would mean reading on blue-light backed devices, and reading for long periods that way gives me headaches. I also will not use the "I will not be giving feed back for this book" option for this explanation, as I refuse to let a decision that NetGalley made (without any warning whatsoever to us reviewers) impact my overall feedback ratio that I work hard to maintain.

I hope this is met with understanding from the publisher, as I had every intention on reading and reviewing this title. I truly regret and am upset that I cant read this title, as it is one of my most anticipated books of the year, from one of my favorite ongoing series. I'll be buying this on release day and will enjoy it when I can finally read it.

This book series continues to be one that I feel torn over. There is a lot I love. The continued focus on diversity, in character background, food, language, dress, all of that is so lovely. The riffing on the narrative style of Holmesian works, and Mossa and Pleiti as Sherlock and Watson, are as usual great. Pleiti remains my favorite, no surprise as I have always been drawn more to Watson than Holmes. While others may feel differently, I liked that Pleiti's insights and skills were the highlight of this book.

This book, in particular, spoke to me as someone all too familiar with the world of academia. I thought the mystery here was much stronger than in previous books, and I was more motivated than in those entries to see it through to the end because of how much Villette was personally affected. Even those outside of academia can appreciate how often women who face stalking, aggressive attacks on their character, and increased violence are routinely ignored, which this book displays expertly. I also felt that the ramping up of tension and danger was done well. The ending was satisfying, especially with the promise of Mossa establishing her own consulting agency and Pleiti writing the adventures.

However, there are some themes and moments that just don't work. For example, there is a moment where a college Dean makes a slur about Mossa's origin (because she is from a moon?), which everyone immediately reacts to as a clear, openly offensive sentiment. But even with Pleiti stating that... I didn't catch what had happened or why exactly it was offensive, even after re-reading. Maybe it's a reference/discriminatory practice I SHOULD remember from having read the second book, but I don't. Similarly, there are several references to events that happened in the second book which, for me, were okay -- but someone who hadn't read them would likely not understand their significance. Now, anyone picking up the third in a series of books should expect, perhaps, to not fully understand all references made previously, but I feel like this was just thrown out very oddly.

All that said, I think these are fun books, and definitely there is an audience for them. I think anyone who enjoyed the previous books is likely to enjoy this one -- aside from some references, I do think this is a good jumping on point for new readers. I hope for more books in this series, hopefully as mostly stand alone adventures that don't rely on having read the previous entries.

Thanks to TorDotCom for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Not what I expected in the best way. Initially, I was disappointed in not having Mossa and Pleiti together in the first half. Then, I let go of my expectation in having Mossa involved in the investigation, and it helped me to see Pleiti as a singular character. While Pleiti yearns for Mossa, she tries to solve the mystery behind an accusation of plagiarism on a former classmate. Even though it was slow-going, Pleiti did a pretty good job finding suspects and eliminating possibilities. Mossa was dealing depression, which was hinted as a possible affliction for her in previous novellas, but this is the first time her depression has come in full force. I think both Mossa and Pleiti have dealt with this in a realistic way and left room for understanding for the future. The mystery was interesting and I couldn't guess the true perpetrator until the very end.

Overall, this was a really good installment in this sci-fi mystery series and cannot wait for the next one.