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.

Let me pile on the descriptive adjectives: new-adult debut feminist science fiction mystery-thriller set in deep space. Engaging and refreshing, it felt more YA than I expected from the description. The narrator was extremely talented, with different voices and accents (often slipping seamlessly into Japanese) for each character. Still, her tone felt “young,” which makes sense if all the characters are in their early 20s.

“It is the eve of Earth's environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity's last hope: 80 elite [20-something] graduates of a competitive program who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course.” (GoodReads)

Many thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Flatiron Books for the opportunity to read THE DEEP SKY in advance of its publication.

The Deep Sky follows an elite crew in space who are humanity’s last hope. Earth has collapsed and these crew members must survive and reproduce to save the human population. I enjoyed the writing and the premise, and the plot was mostly intriguing. The nonlinear timeline became a bit confusing and repetitive, losing my attention at times. I didn’t feel particularly invested in the outcome or the characters. I was in the mood for a post-apocalyptic story, and really enjoyed the space setting. I’d be so curious to see what this author does next.

In The Deep Sky, a group of youth train for years to leave the earth for a new planet, bearing children as often as possible along the way to form a new colony. Asuka is a Japanese-American who was very nearly not chosen for the mission; she’s only along as the alternate, after someone dropped out. When she and a team member go out to investigate something attached to the side of the ship, an explosion kills three of the crew. Asuka is tasked with investigating what happened.

As Asuka investigates, she has to confront her complicated relationships with the other crew members, some of whom were once her closest friends. She has to figure out who she can trust, in a system where everyone’s lives depend on each other and what’s real isn’t always clear.

Most of the concepts in this book aren’t new. Kitasei explores the idea that the Earth will probably become inhospitable and a colony on another planet may be the only way humanity survives. The mission depends on women (and trans and nonbinary characters) who can both operate a space ship and bear children. The stakes are high, relationships are tense, and the mission is a long one, never to return to Earth.

I liked Kitasei’s exploration of Asuka’s character, from her complicated American and Japanese identity to her insecurities – she never feels good enough to be there, as evidenced by her inability to get pregnant and her lack of a clear role on the ship. At the same time, as an alternate she learns all the workings of the ship and in fact is much more valuable to the crew.

Asuka loves birds, and throughout the book bird behavior is used as a metaphor to describe what is happening on the ship (for example, the cuckoo bird sneaks her own eggs into other birds’ nests so they have to do the work). This reminded me at times of the way Star Trek plays with symbolism to make larger points about humanity.

I also liked the use of alternate reality as a way to keep each crew member feeling good about life on the ship. Each crew member gets to design their own reality to make the ship feel inviting. The trouble is that each character’s reality is different and solitary – so is that keeping each crew member happy or increasing their isolation?

The book felt unevenly paced, slow at times, and the development of the other characters was limited. The book follows two parallel times, the present on the ship and the past in Asuka’s boarding school/training program. I don’t love constant switches back and forward in time and I think the book would have benefitted from more time in the present. I did appreciate the intensity of the competition among the young people forced to compete against each other for limited space on a one-time mission, but I think too much time was spent in the past.

I enjoyed this book but did have some issues with it. I could see it making a great movie or show. If you like space thrillers, you can’t do better than the Planetfall series by Emma Newman. I also recommend Light From Uncommon Stars and The Space Between Worlds if you enjoyed this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Flatiron Books for this advanced review copy. This book published July 18, 2023.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think Yume did an awesome job for her debut novel! I didn’t love everything, such as the pacing of the book, but I was hooked and the action was great and visually descriptive. Thank you NetGalley for sending me this ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Wow, I loved this. One of the best sci-fi novels I’ve read all year.

We’ve got a complex, compelling protagonist with trauma that feels genuine rather than overdone, a locked-room mystery on a small colony ship halfway to another planet, and a whole lotta history between the ship’s crew from their very competitive (and very public) multi-year training academy prior to the mission.

I really don’t want to spoil anything, but Asuka is one of the best-written protagonists I’ve read in a while—and from a debut author, nonetheless! Her personal struggles and outsider status compared to rest of the ship allow us truly feel how alone the crew of the Phoenix is on the interstellar journey, how small and fragile their existence is in the crushing darkness of space. I was always engaged in uncovering clues about the explosion in the contemporary narrative, but the flashbacks to life in the training program are expertly crafted too. These kind of flashbacks can feel clunky in other books, but watching the origins of the crew’s myriad interpersonal issues from the contemporary narrative is incredibly compelling. There’s an excellent emotional thread to follow in figuring out just why and how things get to the state we see them in, and it’s so rewarding to eventually get the full picture.

Any flaws there might be here are too small or irrelevant to warrant mention. I loved this, and I’m very excited to see what Yume Kitasei does next.

I picked this up because I’m a huge sucker for spaceship locked room mysteries, and throw in the fact that it’s a generation ship, politics from back home affect what’s going on on the ship, and there’s an AI involved, and you have a really neat setup. I’ve also seen comparisons to Among Us, in that there’s a saboteur onboard and the crew isn’t sure who it is. The story also shuttles nicely between the past and present, explaining how our main got here, and all the interactions with the crew. The mystery itself is well written, and allows the reader to easily follow along. However, what no one seems to have picked up on and seems to have been shuffled a bit to the side narratively is that as a condition of being selected, all the crew are required to bear multiple children, and various crew members are pregnant. The fact that these people had to agree to be impregnated by randomly selected sperm samples feels incredibly dystopian at best, but doesn’t really seem to be picked up on or even seem remarkable to any of the crew members, However, it lines up with billionaire creepiness. Definitely worth a read.

TL;DR

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei combines a compelling mystery with interesting technology, family strife, and lots of bird facts. This science fiction novel rests on excellent world building and is worth your time. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

The more I contemplate what a generation ship is, the more I learn about how complex and difficult an undertaking it really would be. It really would take a worldwide effort to build, to staff, and to supply. Would the entirety of humanity coming together be enough to succeed, though? I don’t know; there are so many points of failure. Supply, environmental regulation, ecological problems, politics, and the unexpected all present problems. The engineering is the easiest part of the whole endeavor. It’s the human problem that will be the hardest to solve. The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei highlights some of those very human problems the crew of a generation ship would encounter. She presents some intriguing solutions, including using augmented reality, to keeping her humans alive on the journey. Along the way, Kitasei gives readers a look at the social and familial ramifications of sending humans on a one way trip to a distant world.

A generation ship leaves Earth full of people capable of birthing children. They sleep for ten years and then are awoken mid-voyage to begin giving birth. Once the children are old enough, all will return back to cryo-sleep until they arrive. Except during the mid-voyage session, a bomb explodes, killing three people, and sending the ship off course. This is the beginning of The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei. Asuka survived the explosion and is both suspected and tasked to find out what happened. She’s an alternate, meaning she wasn’t originally chosen for the voyage. So, she doesn’t have an exact role. Her job on the ship is to fill in for others and to perform the odd jobs other needs done. Asuka begins investigating; she also ruminates on the past, her life and all that she left behind on Earth.

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei is a third person novel set partially aboard a generation ship and partially on Earth. For each chapter in space, there’s a flashback chapter prior to the ship’s launch. Kitasei includes a lot of interesting ideas mixed with a compelling mystery. The novel balances plot and character well with enough tension to keep the reader wanting just one more page. Just another one.

A Planet-wide Effort

One of the great bits of world building that Kitasei does in this book is the realization that the entire world would be needed to get a generation ship off the ground. That idea existed before this book, but it’s often shown as something world does out of the good of its heart. In reality, each nation would have its own motivations for contributing, and part of that motivation would be competition against other countries. Kitasei has this generation ship and all the treasure humanity invests in it be one part of the political dynamics of the planet. In fact, once the ship launches, nations go to war. Because humans will be humans even when joined in an effort to save the species.

And because humans will never agree on the correct way to save the species – whatever that is – there will always exist those who disagree and feel hurt by the method chosen. Some of those people will take advantage of that moment to spread their hatred and bigotry. Kitasei depicts Men’s Right Activists and white supremacist groups in her novel as part of the background story. It’s a nice depiction of how humanity would react to a generation ship. Selection for the ship would require discrimination of some sort. Not everyone on the planet can join the ship, and in Kitasei’s world, the first round of discrimination is young, birthing people and not birthing people. Naturally, this would disappoint the non-birthing population. Vultures, grifters, and bigots would – and, in the novel, do – jump on that disappointment to radicalize people toward hatred, fear, and violence. Kitasei builds this into her world as something the people training to be on the ship will experience.
Parents, Loss, and Leaving

Part of the flashbacks are Asuka dealing with her family. Her mother doesn’t want her to apply to the program. She reacts poorly to the anticipated loss of her daughter and ends up losing her daughter really. On board the ship, there’s a real time communication machine that despite the distance from Earth allows the ship to communicate with a reasonable timescale. Yet, Asuka doesn’t reply to any of her mother’s messages. Kitasei does a wonderful job of filling in the mother/daughter relationship such that the reader understands why Asuka cuts off contact while at the same time understanding the consequences a little better than Asuka seems to.

Kitasei lets her characters experience all the emotions associated with leaving. She further complicates this by having the characters wake up ten years after launch. For those aboard the ship, they just left, but for their families, they’ve been gone for ten years. This is a beautiful complication to a complex narrative.

Mystery

Who set the bomb and why is the central mystery. Kitasei does an excellent job with the mystery. It’s compelling. A number of people, organizations, even nations, could have been behind the sabotage. Anyone aboard the ship – even the AI, itself – could be culprit. However, I didn’t like the solution. Now, this could entirely be a me thing, and I hope it is. I enjoyed Asuka investigating the explosion. The flashbacks melded well with the investigation. I think, however, that the focus of the flashbacks pushed me to expect one explanation for the explosion and the actual explanation came out of nowhere. Does this mean too much emphasis was on the red herring? Your mileage may vary. Ultimately, I think a promise was made that went unfulfilled, and it left me wanting. However, it’s possible that I focused on the wrong parts of the story. My predilections, eccentricities, and obsessions might have given more importance to certain parts of the story than the author intended or than another reader. So, this could entirely be a me problem.

In the end, though I was disappointed with the mystery solution, it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book. Riding along with Asuka on her journey was a joy. It was a small disappointment that won’t stop me from recommending this book. It was an enjoyable read.

Trigger Warning for Conservatives

Kitasei has created a really interesting book full of conservative bogeymen. In her world, humans are free to identify with any gender they want. There exist within the book, non-binary and trans characters. Aboard the ship, she places a trans-man capable of giving birth. Gender neutral pronouns are used with ease and without confusion.

In addition, during the flashbacks, Asuka’s Earth is being ravaged by the effects of climate change. Wars are being fought; humans are displaced; and white supremacy is on the rise – even more so than we’re experience in real life.

It’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.

AI and Augmented Reality

Asuka and her fellow crewmates all have augmented reality interfaces. Basically, they see a computer- or, in this case, AI-generated overlay on top of reality. Each crew member gets their own little version of interface to experience. Asuka sees the interior of the ship as forest that she travels through. The reality of the white walls, floor, and ceiling are replaced by the overlay. However, Auska isn’t immersed in a virtual reality. She can still see other individuals in the ship and interact with the ship. She just sees those interactions differently. Imagine if you were looking through glasses and instead of your home, the background is replaced with a Looney Tunes set. Your family is still there walking around on the same location as Wil E. Coyote. In addition, Asuka can choose how the people around her present themselves within rules set by the other individual. So, if your significant other were wearing that teal polo shirt you hate, your augmented reality could change your vision of the shirt into a white, flowy pirate tunic instead. Provided your partner has rules that allow for that.

Kitasei uses augmented reality beautifully. It takes a bit to get use to what she’s doing with it. But that is quickly overcome, and it becomes an essential part of the crew’s experience. Use of augmented reality would greatly help with the psychological effects of being stuck in one location for years at a time. Humans crave variety, and that will be hard to come by when stuck in a tin can with nowhere else to go. Augmented reality can help diversify the settings and allow the crew to experience different locales to preserve sanity. In effect, this will be a budget version of Star Trek’s holodecks.

To control the ship and implement augmented reality, Kitasei gives the ship artificial intelligence, AI. This is a fully evolved AI – Kitasei doesn’t get into the debate about sentience – that is still under human control. With AI currently everywhere in the news, it’s interesting to see what SF authors pose AI as and what AI really is. Kitasei’s AI is another character that seems to genuinely care about the crew. In reality, AI is just a deck of whatever its trainers fed it. AI can, will, and does lie. It produces falsity in an effort to fulfill requests made of it. In other words, AI, in reality, is a tool without the ability to understand the words it strings together. Kitasei’s AI shows understanding and self awareness. We are decades away from the type of AI Kitasei describes. If we end up evolving AI in any direction, I hope it ends up like the one Kitasei has in her novel.

Conclusion

Yume Kitasei’s The Deep Sky is a fun science fiction novel with some interesting ideas. It brings augmented reality into space travel while looking at the social dynamics of a generation ship program. Likeable characters dealing with leaving loved ones and home behind while trying to survive in deep space makes for an excellent read.

The Deep Sky is a fun and new sci-fi mystery/thriller novel following the main character, Asuka, on a spaceship traveling to a new habitable planet after Earth is no longer suitable. However, halfway through their journey, a bomb goes off killing crew members and throwing the ship off course. Now, Asuka must work to figure out who is responsible for the explosion.

There were a lot of things I did enjoy in this: the deep space atmosphere, the technology in this world, the explanation of different rebellion groups on Earth, the idea of repopulating a new planet, and the very diverse cast.

However, I had a really hard time getting invested in the story and connecting with the characters. Asuka is the main character and she is really the only one you get to know, although there are plenty of side characters throughout. Asuka herself I wasn't really a big fan of, and I didn't really know much about any of the side characters aside from their names so it was just hard to care about any of them really ...🫤

The mystery itself wasn't extremely compelling to me either (probably because I wasn't super invested in the characters).

Overall, The Deep Sky is a fun debut and I would definitely recommend fans of sci-fi to check it out - but this one just didn't work for me 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks Net Galley for the eARC of The Deep Sky!

The begining starts a little slow, and we do jump around between the present and the MC's flashbacks, but overall it was a good read. I loved the AI componets of the story, and found that the SciFi parts of the book were fairly easy to follow (should be easily accessible to 'new to SciFi' readers. This is the author's debut novel & I am looking foward to the author's future books, and watching their growth as a writer.