Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for an advanced reader's copy of The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses! 

Where Murderbot soothes a very specific corporate angst, Pleiti + Mossa seem designed to appeal to a very specific academic angst. This world is a lot less familiar to me - that of academic research, university rivalries, etc. - but there are still beats I can really appreciate, and the humor is recognizable even if I don't always feel entirely in on the joke. 

There are a few working threads in this series, and they each succeeded to different degrees for me:

Continued world-building for Giant: This installment in the series has really dialed in on the multicultural implications of Giant's human settlements in the generations following the escape from Earth, dropping in words and phrases without a lot of context. Sometimes this is language mixing, which makes perfect sense for these characters and this world building, and then sometimes it's a professor using "technobros" in a sentence without a hint of irony or a scholar calling abstract art "askew art". I don't remember this feeling as intentional in the previous two books, and you can see where Older is trying to better contextualize this society and the various implications of their lengthening separation from Earth. I also loved seeing how the continuation of the series-long conflict played out in the background of this book.

Character and relationship development for Pleiti (+ Mossa to a lesser extent): This is where this installment felt strongest for me. I love Pleiti and really appreciated the space she gives herself to feel both angry with Mossa and concerned for her wellbeing. I also loved seeing how she holds a line on honesty and partnership and how the relationship conflict gives her more space to shine in some ways. Mossa can feel so distant to the reader - intentionally so - but seeing her through Pleiti's eyes ultimately humanizes her more rather than less, and I just have a soft spot for these two and how real they feel.

Mystery development: The mystery itself felt weakest for me in this installment. I loved the general premise and structure of the mystery - academic on the cusp of significant achievement in her field is being targeted by mysterious haters and a neutral third-party needs to come sort out friends and foes in her inner circle. But the conclusion to it felt flat. I loves a Holmes-style mystery, but my bar is probably too high after the Lady Sherlock series, and so I felt a bit deflated at the reveal here, knowing it wasn't really set up to be particularly revolutionary. That said, as a prop for the relationship drama between Pleiti and Mossa, I was invested.

I am disappointed this third book is a bit longer, too, than the previous stories in the series, because there is something so special about a novella SFF series, and this feels like it crept away from that and used up too much page space sorting out secondary characters.

All in all, I enjoy being in this world and look forward to continuing the series.