Verus the Void II Odyssey by Joshua Clark - Book Review
A fantastic space adventure as people try to find a new home for the human race.
Verus the Void II Odyssey by Joshua Clark is an exciting continuation of the Verus the Void series. The second book in this epic space adventure picks up where the first book left off, throwing us neck deep into the now universal traveling spaceship Whisper and her crew. While the first book covered the preparation of the crew and ship for departure from the known universe, the second book takes us through the travel and eventual arrival of Whisper and crew to the target planet after thirty years of travel, cryogenic sleeping, and general drama that comes with living years with people in close proximity.
In Verus, the Void II Odyssey, Joshua Clark again focuses on several characters. We see each crew's lives grow and expand in their finite living space. Lovers become closer, enemies become more dangerous, and lives are lost as the small list of players in this space opera tries to find a planet to save the self-destructing human race back on Earth. A lot happens in this book despite the majority of it taking place on a ship, and the character development is massive, each of the cast experiencing some kind of trauma or general crisis that expands them far beyond what is expected possible in a close environment.
The pacing of Verus the Void II Odyssey is fast, again a shock given the finite environment of Whisper that they are expected to for most of the book, but this has not prevented Joshua Clark from providing us with a particularly exciting book. The book, however, is not perfect, and certain aspects of the last few chapters feel as though they were rushed a bit too much, including one particularly devastating hit to the whole crew on the new and hopeful future home world. Despite these minor flaws, this book is a must-read.
I found this book on Reedsy Discovery. Verus the Void II Odyssey