The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

Looking back on my review of the first in this series, I'm not sure where the magic went. Maybe if I reread it, I wouldn't find that I loved that one as much as I first thought either? I really want there to be more sci fi mysteries out there, and cozy sci fi mystery would be a nice sub genre mashup option, but this one left me cold. I love the elements: sapphic remix on Sherlock Holmes, scholar and investigator = detective and doctor, no ambiguity about the romantic interest. The notion of studying Earth writing to determine the ecology that once existed, to plan the reseed of the planet with the correct  plants and animals once it finally recovers from the depredations that necessitated exodus. That the rail platforms above Giant (Jupiter) represent a kind of steam punk alternative/hybrid to either terraforming or habitats floating in space.  And then there's what really didn't work. The attempt to inject melodrama in any character's speech via exclamation marks, never felt urgent. Academia bureaucracy, spare me. Pleiti seems to be mining every action and word from Mossa to determine their relationship status and I couldn't figure out why she was still so insecure, and at some point I stopped caring. While I'm normally down for a lot of snuggling in blankets, travelling in trains and eating good food, I'm not necessarily looking for the mystery in a cozy mystery to feel like an afterthought. We do follow Pleiti doing some of her own investigating, but even if the twist on the traditional Watson character as first person narrator is to actually have the main character be the scholar, I'm still left with the desire for dual POVs. Mossa feels sidelined. This all feels a shade too harsh for the book; I probably should have stopped reading, never a good sign when a novella takes this long to finish. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Will not be continuing in the series.