Asuka is an alternate, a jack of all trades and master of none, on The Phoenix’s maiden voyage — a flight to a distant star with no return.

She’s battling near crippling self doubt, struggling to find meaning in her new life among the stars, and trying and failing to not think about her mother and dead brother left behind on a slowly dying Earth.

So when a bomb goes off on the ship, killing three and knocking it off its very narrow trajectory, suspicions rise among the crew and its left to the alternate, to Asuka to find all the disparate threads of the preceding events and weave them into a semblance of motive, opportunity and means.

Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky, had me from the description, truly, I love me some sci-fi thriller, the stakes are always highest in the silent, cold, distant cosmos. And better yet, add a closed circle mystery?!? 👌🏾

Tensions ratcheting up as more and more of the mission falls apart, as suspicions rise?!?

Delicious!

But what really got me though, and kept me through these four hundred or so pages, was Asuka.

As much as this was a thriller, and it delivered on that, it was also like literary fiction, in its introspection, in its character study.

Seeing her life unfolded through flashbacks and seeing how much she grew over the days of the investigation, gave this story such heart.

I recommend this one highly!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

[Blurb goes here]

Didn't enjoyed it, I really wanted to.

Asuka is the "Alternate" on the starship EvenStar. As her title entails, she's the one person from the crew to do odd jobs here and there. She was the last person to be selected to travel to Planet X. A new home world for the human race. When on a space walk with Kat, to better inspect "a blurred" shape on the outer hull of the ship (one that isn't clear, not even when using bots to go and inspect it, mind you), an explosion renders her unconscious, and kills Kat. The sudden detonations takes the EvenStar out of course.

The captain is dead, the new one enlists Asuka to investigate. There's a saboteur among the eighty crew members.

This seemingly amazing premise turns out to be a story into the absurd. I mean, the tech's there to find what really happened, but each time it is used to try and solve the mystery, "somehow," it does not work. The ship can't get back on track because of "reasons". "It was meant to go straight," one crew member will argue. "The course correction engines where not design for this," another will say. Rendering the saboteur's goal a moot point.

The characters are mostly paper thin. Asuka which is fleshed out through flashback after flashback, turns out to be a not so likable character, one that can hold a grudge until the end of times.

About 50% into the book, it becomes obvious who the saboteur is...obvious to the reader, that is, while the crew remains oblivious to the impossible to miss fact.

The flashbacks, meant to give life to each of the main characters, turn stale and repetitive way too soon.

Seventy-something out of the eighty crew members, are just invisible ghosts to the author, and in turn, to the reader.

If there's one good thing to say about this story, is that it is inclusive, pronouns flying all around.

It pains me to say that this is one book that I found really hard to finish, specially since, after reading the blurb, my expectations went through the roof. Yeap, "...the harder they fall."

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for sharing this ARC!

The Deep Sky is a sci-fi thriller debut from Yume Kitasei that navigates a tragedy among a deep-space crew and its aftermath. This book does contain a non-linear storyline, navigating between flashbacks and the present investigation. I appreciated the inclusiveness of the characters and felt that learning the backstory to the situation helped lend to the drama of whether or not the investigation would be solved. Overall, I enjoyed The Deep Sky and would recommend it to others.

I wanted to enjoy this one but I found the plot, story, and characterizations hard to follow and not really resonate the best for me at times.

This is more than a thriller about a sabotaged generation ship. It is a story of people who spent their entire adolescence being taught to backstab one another learning how to support each other again. This story will hit you in the feels, I promise. Former silicon valley kids, if you’re out there, pick this one up!
I grew up in an environment full of overachievers, in which better than average equated to the bottom of the barrel, at least in your peers’ eyes. For this reason, I particularly enjoyed the flashback chapters of the book. They were what made me empathize with Asuka, cheer for her, and stay up until 2 AM because I needed to know what was going to happen.
I loved the book’s message about hope and its uniquely nuanced take on closure. None of the conflicts felt like they wrapped up too quickly or conveniently, yet the conclusion was emotionally satisfying all the same.
I also enjoyed the book’s usage of nature as symbolism. The bird symbolism may have been a bit heavy handed (As a reader, I prefer not to be spoonfed), but there are other subtler metaphors that I enjoyed. I know when a review starts discussing metaphors and symbolism, there is a subset of people who think “eek, purple prose” and run the other way, but I promise the writing in this book isn’t flowery. It’s broadly approachable and I think it will appeal to readers with a wide variety of tastes.
Also, I have to commend this book for its inclusivity in recognizing that cis women aren’t the only people who can get pregnant.

[Review to be posted to Goodreads 30 days before publication, per publisher's request]

1 star, trigger warnings not disclosed

THE DEEP SKY
by Yume Kitasei

As a personal preference, these types of books are not the types that I like to read. Deeply disheartened that the trigger warnings were not disclosed in the blurb.

**Really a 3.75 star**
Deep Sky, by Yumi Kitasei, is a soi-fi mystery story. The book takes place on a space ship bound for a planet (referred to only as planet x) with a large number of flashbacks which take us through the life of the main (& point of view) character, Asuka.
Asuka is a character who is full of self-doubt. Referred to as the 'Alt,' she is the crew member with no particular assignment on the ship and so when there is an explosion that might be intentional, she is the one called to investigate what actually happened. In the course of the story, we find out that the ship was sent off because of the increasing problems of climate change and depopulation. The reduced population is never, to my mind, adequately explained and because of the nature of the story and that did take me out of the story a bit.
The important characters of this tale include a select number of the crew of the ship who Asuka used to be close with and the ship's AI (Alpha). The cast is inclusive as far as LGBTQ+ individuals and race since in the story they are drawn from around the world. While this would likely be nice for members of those groups to see, they didn't seem to have a large amount of differentiation between them and even the ultimate culprit was a surprise more because of how little e knew about them than because of any misdirection that they attempted in the course of the story.
Overall, it isn't a bad story and it grabbed my attention usually, but I didn't feel like it was an absolute must read. If you like inclusive stories with female protagonists and mystery you will enjoy it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.
#TheDeepSky #Netgalley

I was excited by the premise of this novel, but I found the beginning very slow and that made it hard to get invested in the story. The writing was decent, but it did feel a bit more like a YA level novel than an adult one.

what a stunning debut novel!

it's been a while since i had stayed up late for a novel but it was well worth it to get back into this bad habit of mine. The Deep Sky is an amazing sci-fi thriller that will definitely keep you reading! the plot keeps moving forward and you can't help but be curious about the next chapter. the novel is peopled with diverse characters with decent characterization, though nothing remarkable. what i really like about our main character is her motivation and her ability to think out of the box. i really like how the characters are all smart and perfect in their own ways, yet still flawed, showing that they are still human. this is a testament to the author's skills in writing, as it is difficult to build believable characters who are incredibly smart and yet flawed in their own unique ways. the atmosphere in the novel was great and i think the setting was developed nicely. it's indeed a thrilling sci-fi read that will keep you turning the page! the writing had its good moments, too, and i did not struggle with the writing style nor format. i like the format of the book, in that the flashbacks give us a taste of boarding school drama with all the smart and competitive kids while also giving insights to present events. i also like the main character's niche interest in birds, as it blended well with the plot. i was intrigued by how it was incorporated into the plot and how it all tied up nicely in the end. the modern science and tech in the novel were well thought out, too, as it gave us some idea of the world. the politics of the crew and the geopolitics of the future were also developed well and i had no trouble suspending my disbelief at all, which is usually the problem when i read sci-fi.

i genuinely enjoyed my time reading this novel and i am looking forward to its release into the world!

some mistakes i spotted:
1. Chapter 12 (loc 675) - "It took only moment." should be "It took only *a moment."
2. Chapter 21 (loc 1302) - "glitchy but terrible resolution" should be "glitchy *and terrible"
3. Chapter 25 (loc 1584) - "culminated in Asuka mobbing he with a swarm of RealStarlings" should be "culminated in Asuka mobbing *her with a swarm of RealStarlings"
4. Chapter 30 (loc 1931) - "If energy wasn't a constraint, which it of course it was." should be "If energy wasn't a constraint, which it of course *was."
5. Chapter 43 (loc 2807) - "It was unfathomable that she could continue to stand there with her plate of peas without bursting into tears. She was a credit to Coach Li, because she didn't." should be "*which was a credit to Coach Li, because she didn't."

"The Deep Sky" by Yume Kitasei was an amazingly excellent example of hard core science fiction with a perfect blend of human interest with a convincing and well thought out international background.

Kitasei puts her characters into an understandable and intense situation. The plot threads between showing the main character's background and the unfolding of a disaster on humanity's only interstellar spaceship light years from Earth on its one-way trip to colonize Planet X. The adventure and suspense along with realistic characters that the reader quickly cares for make this a hard book to put down.

I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it to people who like hard core adventure science fiction. I look forward to reading more by Yume Kitasei.

I thank the publisher and author for kindly providing an temporary electronic review copy of this book.

I like nonlinear narratives, but I hate keeping track of the dates and locations in chapter headings. In this book, the context switches are graceful, switching back and forth between before the spaceship launch and after. The voices and the locations are different, so the reader drops quickly into each context. The pre-launch story slowly paints bits of back story and character details which illuminate the fast-paced current-time crisis. It also makes us wait a bit, increasing the "what next" suspense.

Besides that structural stuff, this has both gripping action and rich characters. Hard to believe it is a first novel.

One side note, I believe this is one of the rare books that fails the "inverse Bechdel Test". With the all-female crew, there aren't two named male characters who talk to each other about anything other than a female.

Wonderful science fiction novel, emphasizing character and plot. The Deep Sky kept me reading well past my usual bedtime. Interesting premise with an all woman crew scheduled to give birth before landing on a new planet.

Engaging and enjoyable. I love how masterfully Kitasei superimposes augmented reality over the real world while weaving together two timelines to build a beautiful world with a well paced, mystery filled storyline. You can't help but wonder how it will all come together in the end.

There are some elements of the story that felt illogical and I had hoped would be explained later in the story but where not. However, I don't feel like that was the focus of the story. The story wasn't truly a sci fi adventure, it was more an exploration of humanity, and that element Kitasei really nailed.

For me this story was about humanity, about being from different cultures and not knowing where you belong. It was about family and friendship and the messiness that comes from intimate relationships. It was about loss and heartache. It was about the challenges we face as a world. And ultimately it was about hope.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.

This is a pretty solid thriller. I stayed engaged, and the plot has some nice surprises and a touch of humor. Pretty good.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

this was such a great sci-fi thriller, it did a great job in blending the two genres together. I enjoyed the way it was written and was invested in the story. I enjoyed getting to know the world and the characters within. I think it was a well done debut novel by Yume Kitasei and left me excited to see where they will go next.

“It’s fine,” Asuka said. “I have my first sim team scheduled in half an hour anyway.” She left the dining hall. In the gathering dusk, the old cottonwood tree in the middle of the lawn loomed monstrous and huge. An orange moon rose through its branches. She trudged across campus past the engineering complex to the big concrete sim building near the lake."