In my review of Venus Rises: Parallels, I noted how impressed I was with the detailed and extensive future history of the series, perfectly setting the scene for the grounded, hard science fiction setting. That continues here in Venus Rises: Crossroads; a pair of initially unrelated stories along with a single epilogue.

In part 1, we’re introduced to Erani Sharma, a space-born computer operator who also has aspirations of being a musician. Erani is, thanks to her life being lived in zero gravity, perhaps more capable than anyone else, physically, when in space. However, as soon as she has to deal with gravity, its effects on her body are so tough to deal with that she’s very physically challenged by it, needing to rely on crutches within environments that have gravity.

When she catches a colleague engaging in illicit activity, it sets in motion a chain of events that’ll push her resilience to its limit.

Part 2 sees us out in the frozen landscape of Las Vegas, with Earth having been ravaged by environmental disasters. Joshua Harper, disgraced scientist, now ekes out a living hunting rare wildlife, for wealthy off-worlders to eat.

After a brush with mortality, Joshua is given a chance to finally redeem his dark past. Will he take it?

Both stories in Crossroads are hugely compelling page-turners. Each of the main characters are brilliantly detailed and well realised, with their backgrounds and situations, within the wider context of the universe, also ensuring that the pair of stories feel pretty different, even though they’re part of the same overall setting.

The action sequences, especially the extended scene in Erani’s story, are incredibly well done too, with a great deal of tension and threat, strongly conveyed in both the writing and the art.

Even if you haven’t read Parallels, Crossroads is a worthwhile read that gives the reader everything they need to know, with a useful lore primer and timeline at the outset. Though this isn’t necessarily compulsory to enjoy the two stories, the social and political context does help to set the scene, and also makes the two personal tales feel like part of a much bigger and fully functional universe. It’s excellent stuff, and adds further layers and personal stories to the already impressively detailed future that JG Birdsall has crafted.

The crowdfunding campaign for Venus Rises: Crossroads is launching on Kickstarter on March 11th, and you can sign up to be notified of its launch here.

Many thanks to JG Birdsall for providing me with a digital copy of Venus Rises: Crossroads for review purposes.

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