I had a hard time with this book.
Yes it was deeply unsettling.
And I loved the diverse set of characters the representation was fantastic.
World building and sci-fi aspects were well developed.
The only issue I have with this book is it took me a long time to read. I know it is a me problem so I do recommend this book.
Just something about it took me forever to read. But I cannot place why.
Regardless, this was well done especially for a debut.

The Deep Sky is a high stakes sci-fi mystery that I absolutely adored! Asuka is participating in a space colony mission to Planet X, but very quickly at the start of the novel there is an explosion that throws the ship off course, and the crew suspects a traitor. The story is very fast-paced, and it also jumps back to show the experiences of Asuka and the rest of the crew as they went through the application and training process before departing on their journey. There is a great cast of diverse characters representing multiple countries as well as multiple queer characters. As a Japanese American myself, I found I related to Asuka’s struggle of feeling kind of stuck between these two cultures. (And I was delighted to find dialogue in Japanese sprinkled in when Asuka is speaking to other Japanese characters.) The Deep Sky also delves into topics such as fertility, friendships falling apart, and complicated relationships with parents. This is a very solid debut novel, and I’m looking forward to read more work by this author in the future!

DNF @ 10%; TW for Pregnancy and Infertility


Deeply uncomfortable by the plot point where every member of the space crew has to be artificially inseminated and raise children. One of the main traits of the MC is that she is unable to become pregnant, and that she is relieved but everyone feels bad for her. I thought I would be able to move past it, but I DNF-ed at the scene where one character has the procedure done against her will (she cooperates but internal monologue is about how she doesn’t want it to happen).

HOLY COW this is one ambitious as hell of a debut novel, DEBUT! I am obsessed with space, black holes, isolated horror, (The Martian is one of my favorite books of all time so this was right up my alley!) There was SO MUCH that I loved about The Deep Sky..

This book actually filled me with existential dread in the best kind of way because Kitasei created a future that feels insanely and eerily possible which is terrifying as all hell, The tech on the ship honestly doesn't feel far off with where we are with artificial intelligence at present time especially with it being in the news so much just in these last few weeks.

The only thing I slightly struggled with was that the book jumps timelines between the past and present but that's more of a ME problem that a problem with the book. However that was at most a very minor inconvenience as I was SO IMPRESSED with how Kitasei built out this completely fictional world with brand new technology and crafted a whole new geopolitical situation for Earth and also managed to include diverse characters to boot! I've never read anything quite like this before and I look forward to seeing what they come out with next! 4.75/5 stars!

I saved this book for my vacation, as I thought it might be good and I knew I'd have some longish flights. I wanted to the chance to really savor it--which is how I found myself bawling in the middle of a crowded plane, tears soaking through my mask, somewhere in the airspace between my hometown and Mexico.

I don't know what to say about this book. It has *everything*--drama, humor, heartbreak, stunning twists. There were so many places I audibly gasped. The language is gorgeous and the plotting and pacing an absolute masterwork.

And as a mixed-race Asian American person, I can honestly say that I can't think of another book that captured the bittersweetness of the experience so perfectly--the complicated family dynamics, the confusion, longing, triumph, anger, sadness, and hope. What it means to have, not divided loyalties, but *complex* ones. There is no universal Asian American experience, of course--but I found the one depicted here to ring absolutely true. I'm literally crying *now*, weeks later, as I attempt to write my review. Thank you so much for this book, I really treasured it. <3

I love sci-fi and Yume Kitasei’s debut novel, The Deep Sky, establishes her firmly within the genre.
The Phoenix is a settler ship with a crew of 80 who have been training together through their childhoods to leave Earth for a new future.

Told through alternating timelines between the present on the ship, that has gone off course, and the past 10 years before launch you learn about Asuka and her time in school. You see how this crew came to be, the lengths they went to be a part of this voyage, and the present as they try to correct their course toward the only hope they have.

If you like the Martian, and Project Hail Mary, you’re going to love The Deep Sky. It is filled with amazing world building, on earth and on the ship, and a cast of characters to love and question their motives. I can’t wait to see what Kitasei writes next.

I liked it! There was a solid amount of intrigue. The world that was built up was futuristic but believable. I did find some of the plot reveals to be a little underwhelming (the “impostor” felt painfully obvious) but there were also some aspects that were really unique and refreshing, like the usage of birds to relay important information. I wish there was more time to flesh out the political scene happening on Earth, since I felt like the tensions were only ever described in a broad sense. I also wish the characters were slightly more developed - it was kind of weird how the ship had 80 people but really only 10ish people who mattered.

Received a free copy from Netgalley.

Not only is The Deep Sky an action-filled mystery set in space, but it also grapples with things like imposter syndrome, cultural identity, and survivor’s guilt. The characters Yume Kitasei has created are vivid and complex.

The first half reminded me a little of Artemis by Andy Weir, but The Deep Sky ultimately feels more meaningful and memorable.

It’s an incredible debut.

Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for providing me with an arc for my unbiased review!

This is every ounce my genre, but it fell a little flat despite that. I really like a lot of the atmosphere, while not enjoying the characters, which leaves me at odds with how I feel in the end. More space fiction is never a bad thing, though.

Sabotage in space makes for a good mix of sci-fi, mystery, and people in mortal peril due to a significant limit of resources. The Deep Sky takes this mix of threads and puts them in the hands of Asuka, last picked as a member of this unique mission to send life to another planet in the hopes of saving humanity. As an alternate, Asuka struggles with a lot of questions as to her place in the crew and the ship, and even her relationship with herself and her family history.

The story was fast-paced, had good characters (even though in some regards it felt like they were talking at each other rather than to or with each other), and an underlying simmer of distrust. As a whole this was engaging, and Asuka carried the plot.

The Deep Sky is about a space colony mission to Planet X. Partway there a bomb goes off on the ship, threatening the mission and the crew onboard. Is the responsible person onboard, back on earth, something else entirely?

Ultimately, I feel like this debut didn’t live up to my expectations, the story is told with a non-linear timeline interspersed with flashbacks of the crew’s time in training for the mission. The start-stop pacing of the narrative onboard the ship dissolved any building tension and my lack of interest in the flashbacks meant the whole book came off boring. A highlight of the flashbacks was the larger worldbuilding, adding context about the state of the world at large and active terrorist group so but the training itself was just a lot of competition and mean girl type behavior.

The crew is largely made up of one-dimensional characters who can be summed up by words like “nice”, “cranky”, “smart”. I did appreciate the inclusivity of the cast, there are several trans characters and queer women. Asuka is the only character who gets really fleshed out but unfortunately her backstory mainly paints her in a bad light, a sullen character who expects loyalty and support from others without giving it in return. She gets only a small amount of growth over the course of the book and not enough to redeem her.

The blurb sounded extremely interesting to me when I requested an ARC, space survival thrillers are a favorite of mine. Unfortunately, the blurb didn’t make it clear that a huge trigger of mine (pregnancy) is a constant theme in the book and I would have DNF in the first chapter if this wasn’t an ARC. As such, it’s hard for me to give an impartial review of this book since my own personal reading was colored by my strong personal feelings about pregnancy. I also don’t understand why there was never any discussion about how the pregnancy requirement was universally accepted by the crew. The mission required the crew to sacrifice their bodily autonomy, I’d expect that to generate at least some complicated feelings and likely dysphoria in some of the trans crew members. It also doesn’t make sense to have so many of the crew pregnant at once, especially in leadership roles, when maternity leave is an impossible luxury.

Within two pages, my first question was "is this a debut" - the answer was yes. I kept going, but chapter 2 became an information dump. Then chapter 3 was only one paragraph, but it was slow and calm, and then chapter 4 literally throws us into action. Overall, it's just very jarring. Stopped at 3%.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for the ARC.

TLDR: A long winded story about one dimensional women who all want to be pregnant, told from the perspective of an unlikeable, identity obsessed girl with an inferiority complex and no character growth. The sci-fi elements were extremely lacking and I was unconvinced that this book benefitted from being set in space, other than to make it more unique in marketing. The pregnancy stuff was virtually irrelevant to the story and seemed only to be included because the characters were women. It read more like YA to me than adult and struggles with consistency in POV.

I really didn't like this book. I think the primary reason for this was that this didn't work as a sci-fi or thriller/mystery. The extent of the sci-fi in this novel is that they're stated to be in a space ship, have augmented reality, and some bots.

There is very little tension or build up in the story and the culprit is super obvious. The plot is extremely slow, and if you've ever been the alternate for a team you can basically guess how the selection academy went for Asuka without having to read anything.

I liked the idea of the augmented reality overlay on the ship, but it felt like it was used to avoid needing to describe space and technology elements.. Everything having more than a basic a science understanding to mention happens off page.

Another problem is the characters. The main character's entire personality is her angst over being mixed race and having been the alternate choice for Japan. She has zero character growth and is very unlikeable. 12 year old Asuka is the exact same as 21/31ish year old Asuka. She is the kind of person who puts ZERO effort into her relationships and then is hurt/offended when people don't care deeply about her: Not enjoyable to read about.

The rest of the characters are one dimensional and aren't very well developed. In fact, for this 80 person crew, we only meet around 10. The rest just don't really exist at all. Relationships, interactions, and dialogue between characters are often abrupt and leas nowhere.

I highly disliked the way women are portrayed. We have women who basically instantly cave under pressure, fight amongst themselves, can only be motivated in the end by the thought of their future offspring, make poor impulsive decisions, and are portrayed as being flawed/highly disliked/problematic if they aren't motherly/kind or constantly put on that mask. Also, everyone just is cool with having to get pregnant and have kids? Not one single person who isn't super thrilled?

The writing seemed to struggle with clarity and whether or not it wanted to be third person limited, stream of consciousness, or third omniscient. There were more than a few instances where pronoun use made this difficult to understand and even some where the author even had to clarify with parentheses.

I kept waiting for a big, epic reveal/twist that just never materialized. If you like books about women and diversity for the sake of women and diversity, you might like this, but if you're looking for sci-fi or strong character development I would continue to keep browsing.

I really enjoyed this mystery wrapped in sci-fi!

I just reviewed The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei. #NetGalley

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for granting me access to The Deep Sky!

Space crew in a deep space mission to a distant planet, but come to find out that there is a traitor in their midst?

AMOGUS

Some possible minor spoilers ahead!

I enjoyed this read and its use of a nonlinear narration.
Asuka is an alt for this deep space mission to Planet X and a lot of the time, Asuka is reminded that she was the last picked for the mission. During training, Asuka often felt as if she was out of place with all the other candidates because everybody else had done some great achievement and was recognized for it. I felt for Asuka and her struggles to not feel like an imposter and her sense of identity.
I was constantly trying to "suss out" who the traitor/imposter was, but I was not able to figure it out by the reveal. The relationships that all the characters have with each other are interesting and I did tear up a bit reading about the letters that Asuka's mother sent her. I did however, wanted a little bit more out of the ending. I thought it ended a bit abruptly, especially after everything that happened, ending a bit sooner than I would've liked. I did enjoy this book though and would love to read more sci-fi books about space and exploration!

I personally couldn't get into this book and stopped around 20%. I personally could not get into the plot and didn't really like the characters. That is probably just me, though, and I expect some others will really enjoy this book!

Earth, in an ill defined future, is beset by rising sea levels and political strife. The worlds richest woman starts a program to send a select group of women to Planet X to give humanity a new start. While on the way, there’s an explosion, which is sabotage, setting the ship off course, and is the catalyst for the events of The Deep Sky.

A combination science fiction novel and mystery, The Deep Sky has a great premise that to me wasn’t fulfilled. I really wanted to like the book. For some reason, the characters for me were just not engaging, and to some degree seemed interchangeable, though Asuka , the main character was reasonably well developed. There was something about the writing style that just left me unable to really care about what was happening in the story, and I had progressive difficulty in finishing the book. Additionally, for me, despite there being an all female crew, the use of preferred pronouns in the narrative, but not in conversations, was, for me, confusing.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for an ARC of The Deep Sky.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I really tried hard to get into this, and was pretty successful for the first half of the novel. I appreciated the new world, the mission, and learning the characters' backstories. The DAR was (and is) a great idea, and it added to the story. Somewhere in the back half of the story my interest started to wane, and it went downhill fast. That's not to say I didn't like the book -- I did. I just feel that the promise exhibited in the first half of the story didn't fully come into being.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to both Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of The Deep Sky.

Expected publication July 18, 2023

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite 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. One or more of the crew members are saboteurs.

There were many things I liked about The Deep Sky. I loved everything about the description and was engrossed from the first page. I also loved the diversity of the characters. The complex relationships between all the crew members held my interest.

On the downside, I was not terribly fond of the nonlinear timeline, which felt a bit clunky to me. I found the flashbacks to be distracting and even a little repetitive. About halfway into the book, I found myself losing interest. It started feeling as though The Deep Sky was trying to say too much and I started losing track of the bones of the story.

Having said that, I have to say I really liked the perfect, yet flawed Asuka. The Deep Sky is an impressive first book by Yume Kitasei.

In "The Deep Sky", Yume Kitasei has crafted a world where the world is riddled with frequent disasters and conflict, and the geopolitical powers have agreed to send their best candidates on a space expedition to Planet X in hopes of finding a new home for the human race. Asuka Hoshino-Silva is one of the women on board The Phoenix, selected last as an Alternate to help the rest of the crew with jobs when needed. Although she grew up in the U.S., she's there as a representative of Japan, having trained with the rest of the women in the EvenStar program that prepared them all physically and mentally for their journey.

The novel immediately begins when an explosion goes off during a minor project, killing a number of other crew members. The resulting confusion and suspicions give insight into the state of Planet Earth - the conflict between countries, especially between the US and China; and the number of protesting groups that have emerged, including Save Mother Earth (SME) which Asuka's own mother is a part of. As everyone on board attempts to figure out what happened and get their spaceship back on course, Asuka is pulled into efforts to identify who on the ship is the traitor - and her own identity and background is called into question.

I have to say this is an ambitious debut novel, and there was much I liked about it. Kitasei has crafted a future that feels scarily possible, and the extent of technology on the ship doesn't feel far off with the progress made in AI at present. There's an impressive amount of detail and thought went into just how something like The Phoenix would operate, including staggering sleeping and awake shifts between the crew; having a large bank of donor sperm so that the crew on board would be able to reproduce; and the capacities of Alpha, the ship's AI system. The novel also jumps between the past and present, giving clarity to Asuka's relationship with her family and her motivation to join the program from her deceased brother Luis, to the complex relationship between all the crew members given their time and experience in Evenstar. Even the thought to have characters that were gender fluid and be known as "they" was something I appreciated as well.

However, I have to say that it's possible there's just too much in this novel. Between building out a completely fictional world and brand new technology, to crafting a whole new geopolitical situation for Earth, to a complicated thread of whodunit on board the ship - I personally felt as though the novel didn't have a clear focus and lost track of characters and backstories several times. There are too many frequent jumps in time period and setting to the point that it feels jarring, and in the course of Asuka's attempts to figure out who or what is sabotaging their mission, a lot of red herrings that ruined the suspense of the novel.

I think readers will enjoy the complex and carefully crafted world in "The Deep Sky", but I struggled with the plot line and execution.