This book was an interesting mix. I liked the setting aboard the Phoenix and a lot of the world-building elements. But I didn't really enjoy the main character--she was super passive in some ways, and made some questionable decisions that I wouldn't expect from someone in her position. Additionally the immediate cast of characters was broad, and I felt like I didn't connect with any of them. I think that the momentum of the story would have been better served to remove the flashback aspects and focus on the investigation here and now, because that part was compelling but then the flow would break when we would go back in time. I think the story was trying to speak to too much (racism, imperialism, environmentalism, world wars, terrorism) and so it felt scattered and didn't have as much impact as if it was honed down a little more.

The Phoenix is eleven years into its journey to Planet X, a planet deemed habitable for human life. A bomb goes off, killing three members of the crew, including its captain. Asuka is the lone surviving witness, and in some folks’ eyes, the prime suspect. She was the last picked for the 80 person mission, assigned as an alternative. She has no special skills that apply to the mission, but she acts as a filler, an extra hand. Assigned as the detective, she must figure out who planted the bomb and why, so The Phoenix can continue its mission with its crew still intact. They only have a few days to correct their course or be lost in space forever. Will Asuka solve the mystery before the loyalties of the crew unravel?

I have mixed feelings about The Deep Sky, by Yume Kitasei. I can’t reconcile the technical aspects of the book with some of the emotions I was going through while reading. The book has a very strong set up, as it flits between the past and the present lives of the women who would be Humanity’s last hope to survive the climate crisis. Stakes are introduced quickly, giving the pace a kickstart that skips early information dumps. Characters have distinct voices, so it was easy to distinguish who was speaking during extended back and forth conversations. But around the halfway point in the story, I started to feel a drag in the plot. The characters didn’t feel any more fleshed out than they had been, and the worldbuilding started to wear thin. I didn’t get bored, but I did start to feel frustrated. I plan to touch on my feelings about the story, and while I won’t spoil plot points, I will be in spoiler adjacent territory. I’ll give another warning when I get closer to that territory. So let’s talk about it.

The plot of The Deep Sky is fairly straightforward. It’s a mystery in a locked room aboard a generation ship. The action starts immediately, and Asuka is recruited to figure it all out. Suspicions rise as the situation on Earth deteriorates and the crew is running out of time. Relationships are pulled taut as the crew tries to reorient the ship while Asuka tries to find the terrorist on board. Throw in flashbacks to the character’s lives as children training for the mission, and there is a clever set up to dig into motivations, capabilities and internal anxieties. It’s a well organized set up for mystery that allows the author to build up the world and focus on the “why” of the mission to Planet X.

The execution started to fall apart for me when the characters and story started to spin their wheels a little bit. Part of the problem, this is a personal one, is that the book has the trappings of a young adolescent story that deals with very adult subject matters, while barely giving them attention. For instance, most of the characters are in their early twenties, and we see them grow from an even earlier age of ten or so years old, and some of the conflicts felt superficial. They have the right to be superficial given the circumstances, but sometimes it doesn’t feel purposeful. It wasn’t hormones or the total lack of a childhood or the extreme traumas they were forced through as part of their training, they were just mean girls being mean to each other. And that loses me because while I recognize that as a very human thing at those ages, it felt like an easy out for lack of communication when it came to the story itself. This got in the way of the mystery as the investigation stalled due to lack of communication between characters. I wasn’t particularly engrossed in it already, seeing as the crew had huge fish to fry, but it made me care even less about the who or the why. I was mostly concerned with the story from the perspective of how people react in a state of environmental collapse, so that’s another personal disconnect.

A quick speed run of encounters I had with the book. Sometimes the dialogue felt too functional, without a hint of it being trained into the characters. In the flashbacks, the children acted like semi-formed adults in eleven year old bodies, which was weird. Occasionally, chapters ended with a revelation, internal or external, that felt like an “achievement unlocked” icon was appearing in the top corner. I think this was mostly due to the internal narration of Asuka, but it was very hard to ignore on my end. There was an underexplored mini-plot involving the crew being made up of folks able to give birth, and it being a part of the mission to give births. I wish there was more discussion about this because it felt revelatory, but also swept under the rug to avoid the mess. The two main radical groups felt even keeled, one being a right wing nationalist group, the other being a woowoo environmental group prone to child abuse conspiracies that Asuka’s mom was a part of. They felt equated in a weird way, and only seemed to serve as a character divide, not a part of world building or themes. And then the whole mission was created by a trillionaire, who had countries compete for slots, and that was just completely unexplored. I don’t necessarily need a condemnation of the means, but more engagement with it would have been nice.

But I do think Kitasei did a fine job, even if it was blunt, incorporating virtual reality as a theme within the story, especially as it pertains to how one engages with the world and the connections we form with those around us. Kitasei also digs a bit into national identity and who qualifies for what slots based on need and want. It played into Asuka’s identity really well, especially with her anxiety about being competent for the mission. She also plays with the children’s training as inflicting trauma. While the book doesn’t make a specific point about it, does seem to point it out as an avenue for future exploration.

Despite all that, I found a weirdly deep connection with aspects of this book. Kitasei tapped into something that I have yet to really feel within a book that confronts the ecological crisis unfolding in front of our eyes. She specifically focuses on the kids and the generations who are burdened with the horrifying future ahead, the lack of viable solutions available to them and the dead structures they are forced to navigate in order to “save humanity.” These children are born in some ways with a purpose, to live in a terrible time while giving hope to a beleaguered human species that has spun itself out. Dreams of nations are piled into a billionaire’s project, seats on the ship are jockeyed and lobbied for. Children are chosen by their nations based on heritage, forced to compete with other children that hail from the same country who may or may not be more skilled than them. The anxiety of the situation and the pressure to perform is captured, if not wonderfully, then dutifully. It made me feel for these kids.

Mix that together with Asuka being just a normal girl who didn’t really have any skills or goals in life beyond honoring her dead brother I got the distinct flavor of “I’m here to do what I can to help,” and the helplessness and desire to do good that comes with it. This feeling ran through the whole story. Every problem that arose, every conflict between characters resonated with this underlying anxiety. Asuka being assigned to the mission as an “alt,” a crew member with no special training beyond being a swiss army person, only amplified that feeling of having a purpose without definition.

In the end, I really wanted to like The Deep Sky. Kitasei opens a new avenue of feeling when it relates to envisioning the collapse and the people who have to deal with it. It’s unfortunate that it’s built to a dead end, in my opinion, with several branching exits that lead down more story focused paths and other similar dead ends. I want there to be more stories like this that face the oncoming problems with grief, anxiety and dread, while giving the crisis its proper weight. I want there to be messy conversations about resource allocation where no easy answers exist and people will die because of inaction or even decision making. I’m not saying Kitasei had to write that story, but she clearly has a great starting point for it. The Deep Sky is for those who want to confront that anxiety, see it play out and feel a desire to reconcile that lack of catharsis. It might be good too if you like a good mystery with a science fiction setting that spends time with that setting in interesting ways.

Rating: The Deep Sky – 6.0/10
-Alex

An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.

A debut science fiction thriller, The Deep Sky follows Asuka as she tries to solve a mystery aboard a ship in deep space on their way to a new planet as Earth's climate crisis comes to a head.

There is so much to look forward to in this book! From complex relationships- among family, friends, and frenemies, to the shifting narrative as more evidence is collected, to the dual timeline, to the diverse cast of characters. Asuka is far from perfect and as a flawed MC, it was refreshing to follow her throughout the mystery as well as comes to terms with who she has become as an adult.

The way that imposter syndrome seeped into the narrative and how the author handled it was very nuanced and well done! The action and pacing of the book were excellent, with plenty of cliff hangers at the end of chapters to keep readers on edge.

I definitely recommend if you love:
•Science fiction - in space!
•Thrillers / suspenseful plots
•Reality vs perception
•Complex mother-daughter relationships
•Found/chosen family
•Dual timelines

The author kindly added content warnings as part of the synopsis. Please check those as there is some on page material that may be sensitive for some readers!

I loved the futuristic space-mission capabilities, smart and strong all-woman crew, the mystery and suspicion, and most of all the character-driven storyline in Kitasei's science fiction novel.

The thing about saying yes to the first (and probably only) one-way interstellar voyage to settle a new world was that there were no take backs.
In Yume Kitasei's science fiction thriller The Deep Sky, a mission to deep space is disrupted by an explosion that shakes the confidence of the ship's crew.

With the collapse of Earth's environment imminent, eighty trained elite young people venture into space, where they hope to preserve the human race for generations to come.

But a deadly disaster on The Phoenix halfway to its destination causes suspicion to fall upon Asuka, the only living witness. Asuka must find the real culprit before accusations surrounding the mystery destroy her.

"It's not giving up on the world. It's making more of it. Isn't that the point? If I thought the problems here were unfixable, I couldn't support the mission. Because if that were true, we wouldn't deserve another chance. And we do."
I do generally love a book set on a ship barreling through space, and I loved The Deep Sky. Yume Kitasei offers plot and mystery, but this is primarily a wonderfully character-driven story--with a satisfying amount of spaceship detail, process, and futuristic capabilities (such as alternative realities the crew can pipe into their brains) to capture a reader's imagination.

Asuka is intelligent and capable, but she was chosen for the once-in-history journey as an alternate, and she constantly struggles with impostor syndrome. She fills in where she's needed rather than being valued for a special ability, and she sometimes feels like a glorified handywoman.

Asuka's relationship with her mother was strained before her departure, and her family had suffered earlier tragedies that shaped and complicated its structure and their communication.

Now her mother's involvement in an environmental renegade group on Earth leads some of Asuka's crewmates to cast aspersions on her when the destructive on-ship explosion threatens the safety of the crew--and the mission itself. The book explores environmental responsibility and culpability as Kitasei explains the reason for the ship's departure to populate another world.

Communication with Earth is complicated by the increasing distance between the planet and the ship, and when things begin to go wrong, with more and more seeming sabotaged elements endangering the crew and mission, Kitasei brings the reader into the crew's sense of panic that they're the only ones making key decisions and that they're operating in a vacuum.

Everyone but Asuka is potentially a suspect at some point or another, and I loved the way the author built tension without making me feel manipulated or offering red herrings.

Unrelated to the content of the book but relevant for Bossy purposes, I feel robbed that I read this on an e-reader because this cover, oh my word. It's gorgeous!

I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Flatiron Books.

I recently posted a Greedy Reading List of Six Fascinating Stories Set in Space. If this book interests you, you might want to check out the titles on that list.

You might also like Six Great Stories about Robots, Humans, and Alien Life and AI, Six More Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels, and Six Four-Star (and Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year.

I really wanted to like this novel, but it's utterly forgettable. I finished it a few days ago and I can't really remember anything that stood out to me other than the FMC's, Asuka's, biracial identity and how she struggled with it while growing up. I really liked that aspect of the story.

The tone of voice is very YA, even though it's listed as adult fiction. And if I look at it from the perspective of a YA novel, this actually wouldn't be that bad. But reviewing it as an adult novel makes it seem really juvenile.

The sci-fi is very soft, which I'd be okay with, but it's to the point where it's really generic. Everyone could be on a road trip instead of an interstellar mission and it'd read the same. The sci-fi felt more like an afterthought.

I didn't vibe with the FMC or any of the other characters. They're in their 20s in a small ship that'll colonize Planet X (wut) and there are so many petty complaints and infighting, I felt like I was reading about a bunch of college kids living in a dorm. There are random people pregnant to prepare future generations for colonization and that just seems... Not well thought out. Wouldn't that hinder the mission itself??

The first part starts out very generic space sci-fi disaster scenario (an explosion on the ship!). That grabbed my attention, but as the story went on, everyone sort of acted like it wasn't that big of a deal. You'd think there'd be urgent and mistrustful vibes on the ship, but all the fights and arguments just seemed so petty.

Even before the midpoint, the story felt like it was dragging so much I mostly tuned out until the saboteur reveal. After finding out who caused the explosion, I realized I didn't care anymore.

Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for this arc.

I had a blast reading The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei.

The Deep Sky is Kitasei's debut sci-fi thriller. Set in the near future - Earth is on the verge of an environmental collapse. Several nations have come together to fund an outer-space mission that will carry humanity's last hope.

The story begins on board The Phoenix. The crew has recently woken up from their deep space sleep and are getting operations up and running. Things appear to go smoothly until an explosion kills three members of their crew. Is the ship's AI trying to kill them? Is someone on the crew trying to sabotage their mission or is it a work of terrorism from a radical group back home?

The story is told from the single point of view of our main character Asuka. Although Asuka spent years training with her crewmates she was a last minute addition to the mission. We alternate between two timelines - the present as Asuka tries to uncover the guilty party behind the blast and the years leading up to the launch. I couldn't believe this was a debut. We get a blend of an action packed story with complex and believe-able characters.

Apart from delivering an action-packing story Kitasei also introduces nuanced conversations about friendships, mother-daughter relationships and the model minority exceptionalism as our main character finds herself navigating what it means to be mixed.

My personal favorite part of the book is the ways in which Kitasei introduces future technologies into the mix. The incorporation of a malfunctioning virtual reality system added an extra layer of intrigue and mystery that I quite enjoyed. It was used very well.

If you love thrillers I recommend checking this one out.

Chalk full of tension, the thrills of augmented reality, and an interesting library of bird facts, Yume Kitasei’s The Deep Sky is a solid science fiction thriller set on the Phoenix, a spaceship transporting the highly selective crew from Earth to Planet X with the hopes of rebuilding humanity. When explosion kills several crew members—including the Captain—and derails their course, Asuka is tasked with unraveling the mystery of what caused the explosion… and which of the people on their ship is responsible.

I genuinely fell in love with the character of Asuka as the story unfolded and we as the reader learn more about her life before becoming one of the members aboard the Phoenix and the intense years of training before the final few were selected. Asuka feels much more connected to the reader, because she is an Alternate—a jack-of-all-trades, the second choice for a mission she had dedicated years of her life to potentially join. Her deeply fraught relationship with her mother and her special interest in birds further fleshes out her character in a way that enhances the drama and intrigue of the mystery-thriller sections of the novel.

Speaking of mystery-thriller…. I still don’t know if they’re for me, but I think this was a fairly competent thriller entry in the science fiction genre. There were moments where the confusing hallucinations brought on by Asuka’s DAR—a neural implant that allows for fully immersive augmented reality—that made me feel more confused than anxious while reading. I think that sort of element works better in a more visual medium compared to in a novel, but there were still cool and visually interesting moments. Additionally, some of the flashbacks undercut the tension that the previous chapter had been building, which made the pace sometimes feel a bit disjointed.

Despite some of my minor hangups with this book, I’m excited to see where Yume Kitasei goes in their future writing projects, because they have a great talent for character work and conveying interpersonal relationships between characters with an earnest nuance.

I would certainly recommend this for fans who love the dramatic tension, complex parent-child dynamics, and humanity of Interstellar.

Check trigger warnings for this book. I am setting it aside for now due to those but the premise sounds amazing so I hope to pick it back up at another time.

The main character, Asuka, is one of many women aboard The Phoenix, a crew of all women, on just such a mission. But then a bomb wipes out part of the ship and many crew members along with it. She's racing against the clock to figure out who's responsible and why they'd attack the mission in the first place.

Filled with themes ranging from cultural animosity to self reflection, this story is one that will have you questioning everything you think you know about people and their motivations. As well as the interesting inclusion of DAR (Digital Augmented Reality) that all crew members live with that's constantly activated to give them their own personal view of their surroundings. When Asuka's DAR stops working, she starts seeing parts of everyone else's and the pieces almost seem like clues to something she's missing.

A wonderfully written novel about futuristic possibilities and the fragility of the human species in all contexts and cultures.

SPACE HORROR IS MY JAM, BABY!

Did you hear my screams echoing through space? No, you didn't, because sound needs atmosphere to be heard, but you probably saw my mouth stretched wide and my eyes bulging in terror.

This book is incredible.

So. Fucking. Good.

Such a thrilling and smart debut by Yume Kitasei! This epic space thriller had me hooked all the way through. Entertaining and exciting with elements of mystery, thriller, and science fiction. I can't wait to read what Kitasei writes next!

Labeled "one of the best debuts of the year," THE DEEP SKY by Yume Kitasei is a work of science fiction deftly wrapped around a mystery and a story of damaged relationships. The adventure begins with Asuka and Kat taking a spacewalk, but an explosion means multiple people are killed and the ship veers off course. Asuka, part Japanese and part American, was a last minute addition to the crew of 80 on the Phoenix which is a desperate international effort to resettle humans on Planet X. It becomes Atsuka’s task to find out what and who caused the explosion while also trying to help the engineers reorient the Phoenix so that the mission can continue. The crew tries many plans including one with "more holes in it than an old T-shirt and certainly not as comfortable." Kitasei alternates chapters (there are 72) between tension on the spaceship and the conflict in the many years before when Atsuka, Ruth, Gabriela, Miki, Treena, Ying Yue, Hao Yu, Lala, and the others were students competing for a chance to join the final team. That background provides reasons for believing that eco-terrorists could be involved and also offers insights into personal animosities and motivations. Puzzling and entertaining, THE DEEP SKY received a starred review from Kirkus ("a strong, character-driven, and accessible tale"). 4.5 stars for book

Thank to NetGalley for the review copy!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Deep Sky review

The Deep Sky is a captivating mix of science fiction, a thriller and murder mystery. I’d love to read more books that mix these elements. It also has duo timeline, the present day on the ship, and Asuka’s past that leads up to joining the mission. I enjoyed both timelines equally. In the past tense timelines we have some interesting things explored. Asuka’s struggling with feeling Japanese ‘enough’ to represent the country because she was born in America, grieving the loss of a sibling, and a complicated mom and daughter relationship. I also loved the focus on strong friendships in both timelines, instead of a romance.

This book has tons of great representation. For example, we have a side character with a prosthetic leg, lots of queer characters and multiple who use they/them pronouns. Outside of that, a big mix of various races and ethnicities. Asuka also loved birds, so we get a bird fact every few chapters. I loved how that added to her personality. This book also hits at some very relevant issues such as climate change and social unrest.

This book could have been more fast paced. I wouldn’t say there are many suspenseful moments, though I wasn’t bored either. I can’t say I was blown away but any plot twist. However it was entertaining enough that those elements didn’t bother me a lot. It’s a great and character driven story.

For as much as I enjoy the sci-fi genre, it's admittedly sometimes it's a bit difficult for me to fully immerse myself in its sub-genres due to all the world-building or scientific background I know tis needed for the story in order to hold up (a good example being space operas & the like). THE DEEP SKY is one of those sci-fi novels that relies heavily on this type of (almost bloated) exposition, so be prepared for that. That said, I really enjoyed this one & think it's a wonderful sci-fi/thriller debut work from Yume Kitasei. THE DEEP SKY is helmed by an ensemble cast of characters, and I think Kitasei did a good job at trying to flesh out each individual out as much as possible within the constraints of the book. I think the biggest issue I had with the story was its pacing, as it was a bit slow to start for me, but by the end I was completely invested. And despite there being a mystery element/overarching plot point to THE DEEP SKY, I think that it is also very much a character-driven story, and tackles the examination of some tough topics and conversations with a fair amount of grace.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for granting me access to an early copy of this book*
Why I Read It: There were two key elements in the synopsis that drew my attention. One is that this is science fiction and the other is that it's a locked room mystery. For the past year and half, I've attempted to read more science fiction to try and find what works for me in that genre the same way I generally know what works for me in fantasy, and the result so far is very mixed. Similar to the science fiction genre I keep thinking that I like locked room mysteries, and I think I like the idea of them but I've had trouble finding books that execute that narrative in a satisfying way (granted I've read hardly any of the older stuff).

What It's About: As the crew of The Phoenix travels across the vastness of space to a potential new home, an explosion knocks them off course and kills a few crew members. Now Asuka, who works as a floater doing odd jobs, is tasked with finding the saboteur and preventing them from causing further death and destruction.

Cons: The greatest fault of this novel is unfortunately the thing it hinges on, and that is the characters. First, the novel did not do itself any favors by having a such large cast with so little depth, to the point where aside from the protagonist, I couldn't remember who anyone was. This lack of depth and confusion ruins the reveal near the end because the antagonist's motivations come off as childish due to how little I know this character despite having spent a whole book of them. Speaking of which, the protagonist Asuka is a whiny brat who never grows through basically the entirety of the novel. The only time I can tolerate unlikeable protagonists is if there is a clear reason why the protagonist is unlikeable which ties into the themes of the novel, such as Dorian Grey from the Picture of Dorian Grey. Asuka was just an annoying protagonist who held onto petty grudges. The other thing in this book that needed more work was the feeble attempts at depth, especially pertaining to gender and race. Most of it felt unnecessary, in particular the pregnancy, and any bits that were intriguing lasted only a moment. The racial aspect, a biracial protagonist representing a country she couldn't identify with just because it gives her the best chance of going to space, came the closest to being meaningful but when your characters are cardboard cutouts with nothing beyond the surface any discussion rings hollow, which is a word the I would use to describe the narrative as a whole. Hollow and a bit chaotic.

Pro: The only positive thing I can say about the execution (not the idea itself) is that the ending, while I wouldn't say it's strong because there was no emotional or thematic build up and the saboteur's reasons for their actions come out of nowhere, it is at least cohesive and provides clarity. All the random little pieces come together and there aren't any loose ends which is what I want in the conclusion of a mystery narrative and I cannot say that about any of the mysteries/ thrillers I read last month.

Finishing Thoughts: After completing this novel, I found it to be rather lacking. It had an interesting premise but there really needed to be more character and world building. I've read some reviewers compare this to Among Us, and while I see where the similarities are drawn from, I personally think its a bit of a stretch. While this book left me wanting, I do cut it a bit of slack because as far as I can tell it is a debut novel. Maybe with more writing Yume Kitasei can iron out the kinks, but currently I don't have a strong desire to read any of her future works.

Recommendations: When it comes to standalone murder mystery in space, I would recommend two books, The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal and Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. While I haven't read Six Wakes, or Lafferty's other book Station Eternity, I know both are murder mysteries set in space (one on a spaceship operated by clones and the other is in a small town on Mars) that have been generally well liked. On the other hand The Spare Man is one I have read and I enjoyed the setting with the glitz and glam of the 1920s but with better diversity, however, any potential readers of this novel should be aware that the protagonist is a bit of “Karen” and the ending was confusing, at least for me. If a group of trained teens exploring space is something readers are looking for, than maybe give Do You Dream of Terra Two by Temi Oh a try.

Whew, this was quite a ride! A mystery/thriller wrapped up in a deep space exploration with some crazy AI to top it off. First of all, the cover? Stunning. And plays in so well to the themes. Also, in SFF books, I’m usually hooked by the science fiction elements — what does humanity look like in the future? What kind of imaginative devices, languages, etc. does that author come up with? These exist and are well done here, but the central mystery and the relationships between the characters was absolutely the selling point. It was fascinating — maybe not my favorite at the moment because of its heaviness, but I think sci fi lovers will want to check it out!

I loved this one! It tackled complicated but common subjects of identity, belonging, female friendships and mother-daughter relationships with a unique backdrop. Kitsei was incredibly smart in her choices for the story and I think it would be a great book for discussion. Thank you so much to Flatiron books for the ARC.

**Please see content/trigger warnings at the end of this review**

I wanted to like this book a lot. I happen to enjoy the "people on a deep space mission that are woken up" trope. Unfortunately, it didn't come together in a way that really hooked me.

There was a lot of potential, but the things that bugged me and the things that were never really answered outweighed that potential.



Content/trigger warnings: Death, infertility, loss of a sibling during childhood, some descriptions of a pregnant woman's death, brief mention of miscarriage, bigotry, bullying.

The nitty-gritty: Yume Kitasei tackles the "survival in space" trope but adds emotional themes as well in this stellar debut novel.

The Deep Sky is an exquisitely written SF debut, and I absolutely loved it. This is the kind of story that slowly digs its claws into you, a slow burn mystery with bursts of exciting action and lots of wonderful emotional moments. Yes, it is a survival story about a crew of women heading to a new planet, but it’s also a poignant coming of age tale that deals with the ebb and flow of friendships and familial relationships. I can hardly believe this is a debut, Yume Kitasei has successfully touched on so many elements I love and created a rich, layered story. For anyone who has read and loved Temi Oh’s Do You Dream of Terra-Two?, I think you will love this book as well. I found a lot of similarities between the two stories, mostly in the main plot and both authors’ ability to get to the emotional heart of relationships, but The Deep Sky is also different in many ways.

The story unfolds in two timelines and follows a half Japanese, half American girl named Asuka. Asuka was selected to represent Japan as part of the all female crew of the Phoenix, a generation ship hoping to establish a colony on Planet X. The story opens on board the Phoenix roughly eleven years after take off. The first ten years were spent in stasis, and now the crew is awake for the next ten years in order to fulfill their duty of being artificially inseminated and giving birth to the next generation. Everything is going well, until Asuka and fellow crewmate Kat are assigned to investigate an odd object attached to the outside hull of the ship. Unfortunately, the object turns out to be a bomb, and Kat, the ship’s Captain and one other member of the crew are killed in the explosion. Even worse, the explosion has caused the ship to veer off course, and if it can’t be corrected, the Phoenix will never make it to Planet X and everyone on board will eventually die.

The new Captain tasks Asuka with investigating the explosion and uncovering the person responsible for the bomb—it’s almost certain someone aboard the Phoenix is the culprit—and Asuka takes that responsibility to heart and methodically begins to gather clues. At the same time, her DAR is glitching and she’s getting weird messages from Alpha, the ship’s AI. Are these anomalies connected to the bomb? Is one of her close friends the bomber? And will the crew be able to get the ship back on course? Tension on the ship is building and time is running short, as they only have a small window of opportunity to correct the damage.

In alternating chapters, we learn how Asuka and the others were selected to be part of the Phoenix crew. A trillionaire venture capitalist named Linda Trembling decided to fund a special school for elite children, training them to go to space someday and establish a colony on a distant planet. Against her mother’s wishes, Asuka gets into EvenStar and begins the rigorous training when she’s eleven. As the years go by, Asuka makes friends, experiences the ups and downs of competing for the one Japanese spot on the ship, and little by little becomes estranged from her mother, who has joined a political group called Save Mother Earth, a group who strongly opposes Trembling’s EvenStar program. Eventually, as we know, Asuka makes the final cut and leaves her family behind, but it isn’t an easy decision for her.

Kitasei balances thrilling action with reflective moments, and I thought it was beautifully done. When I started reading this book, I was expecting it to be more action heavy, an "edge-of-your-seat, danger in space" type story, but it takes some time for it to get there. The author builds the tension slowly and intersperses exciting scenes with personal moments between Asuka and her friends. I absolutely loved the flashback chapters, starting when Asuka is only nine years old, her family’s terrible years living as refugees after a fire destroys their home, and the death of Asuka’s beloved baby brother. Kitasei shows how the world is changing for the worse—climate change and the threat of war—and we come to understand the need for a radical solution to the Earth’s problems (the Phoenix mission).

Once Asuka gets into EvenStar, she meets Ruth and Miki who become close friends, although their friendships are tested more than once. As the years pass, the tension builds and the competition to be selected as one of the Phoenix crew members takes on an frantic, emotional tone. The flashbacks leading up to the explosion and the tense moments in the present as the crew does everything possible to survive were so well integrated, and I loved both timelines equally.

I’ve read a lot of generation ship stories, but Kitasei brings some fresh ideas to the table. For example, the crew is all female, and each one agrees to give birth to one or two children over the course of the trip (via artificial insemination). When the story opens, several women are already in their third trimester, but they aren’t treated any differently than those who aren’t yet pregnant. I loved the feeling of sisterhood that develops among the crew, and I have to say I didn’t even miss having male characters in the story! I also loved the idea of DAR, or Digitally Augmented Reality. Each crew member has a DAR chip inserted in their head, which allows them to create individual VR worlds that overlay reality. When Asuka’s DAR starts glitching, she see birds that weren’t part of her original program, and that added yet another mystery to the story: what do the birds mean? 

By far my favorite elements, though, were the relationships between the characters. Asuka and Ruth bond during training, but their friendship has its ups and downs over the years. Asuka is sensitive about her biracial heritage and often feels as if she doesn’t belong to either country, and this causes friction in school. The author herself is half Japanese, half American, which added a personal touch to the story.

Asuka’s relationship with her mother is emotional and bittersweet, and although they both want different things in life, they can’t escape the fact that they are mother and daughter. By leaving on the Phoenix, Asuka knows she’ll never see her mother again, and it was heartbreaking.

I loved the way Kitasei ended her story—obviously it could have gone in several different directions—and a final emotional punch at the end brought tears to my eyes. The Deep Sky is highly recommended for anyone craving a multi-layered, emotional science fiction story with bursts of exciting action. I can’t wait to see what Yume Kitasei does next!

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

3.5 stars

I was anticipating this book for a while, but as I dived into it, it was seemingly quite slow. It actually took a good while for the story to really draw me in. In The Deep Sky, you have Asuka, our main focus, along with a number of others that have been chosen and trained for space traveling. While the book follows Asuka, we do get to know a number of side characters that play just as an important role as Asuka does. While the story seemed promising, it was no Andy Weir. There are multiple flashback chapters that I thought was nice as it showed us the backstory of how these characters came to be or why they might be acting so in the present. Especially when this story revolves around a murder mystery. You find yourself observing each character and asking whodunit. I though the murder mystery was fun and it allowed Asuka to develop as a character because it forced her to interactions that she would have normally avoided. Although, I find that the reason behind said murder mystery was not strong enough to support the conflict. I felt that there was a lot of potential for this book, but I felt robbed that it wasn’t as “spacey” as I thought it could have been. The book was a-okay. It wasn’t the best thing I have read but it wasn’t the most horrible either. For me, most characters weren’t very likable. Asuka was probably the only one that I was okay with. I understood her hesitation and why second-guesses her abilities, but the other characters I just didn’t find likeable. Maybe there were meant to be written that way for a purpose, but they didn’t appeal to me. Overall, this book wasn’t too bad. I still wanted to read and follow through with it. It just wasn’t as enticing as I had hoped for it to be.