It's a murder mystery, but in space! And with the possibility that everyone, or no one, or someone else, did it. The narration bounces back and forth between the mystery on the ship and the training center before they all boarded. The story is both tense (who did it!) and slightly comforting (the women love and care for each other). Really glad I picked this one up.

great debut by Yume Kitasei. has a YA protagonist but like many Sci-Fi YA books, its written for adults as well. world building of the earth and the ship is top notch. i also really liked the jumping back and forth between current events and the protagonist's history getting to be selected on the mission. she is very sympathetic and evolves adequately through out the story.
its a real page turner with many influences from current events forecasted to the future. good mix of thriller, mystery, and space opera. some reviews have pointed out the pregnancy subplot(s) as being included too much however i found their inclusion and emotions surrounding them true to the characters and story. narrator of the audipbook is great!
i recieved an ARC audiobook version in exchange for unbiased review. thank you to netgalley the author and publishers.

Part locked-room mystery, part SciFi epic, part social commentary this had some great bones and components... but maybe had too much going on.

I enjoyed the backdrop of a vanity mission to colonize another world, and eat impact that could have on how nations work together (or not), as well as the real impact to crew unity and life.

I also enjoyed the race-against-the-clock mystery, and some of the sleuthing components.

There were also some great forward-thinking tech pieces that, while certainly not new to SciFi, were at least done in a way that made it feel like the natural progression of advancement wasn't over the top.

But all three things working together were maybe a touch too much for the writer. Rather than a couple plot points to really focus on and do well, the story felt a bit chaotic, and tended to drag in places. I also would have liked more character development. There certainly was the opportunity for it with the flashback sequences that were peppered in, but overall these were underutilized.

Over all, an enjoyable story, but it could have been so much more!

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this — a large all-female crew sets out for a new star and planet to continue the human race because things are so F'd on Earth. The plan is to sleep for 10 years, wake and get impregnated from sperm donations and live life for 10 years, and then sleep for 10 more before arriving at the new planet. But early in the middle stage, there's an explosion that may be terrorism and our Main Character — who was an alternate who got on the voyage by luck — is assigned to investigate.

* The author sets up an all-female scenario with "men's rights" groups back at home upset about the crews' makeup, but this never becomes a thing. Gender/sex/feminism are never explored. So why create this setup? Perhaps it simplified the investigation.

* Toward the end, I realized the plot was a bit like Kim Stanley Robinson's "[book:Aurora|23197269]," where fear drives political debate and public opinion over the merits of spending resources colonizing a new planet instead of fixing Earth while the ship's AI struggles to communicate effectively with its human companions. Robinson's book is much more sophisticated in its science and politics, while this one has a more "new adult reader" vibe.

* The twist regarding miscommunication at the end retroactively gave meaning to some earlier scenes, but it felt like a plot gimmick, like where if characters just communicated instead of concealing what they know for contrived reasons, then everything could've been solved much sooner.

* Despite a lot of action, I never felt like I couldn't wait to see what happened next. It's got thriller elements but without thrills and a crime investigation without an urgent need to find the killer. Everything was strangely muted.

* Not a criticism, just an observation but it's very much a book of the early 2020s: most characters suffer impostor syndrome to various degrees, they are lost in the alternate realities they've created through their devices, and the number of characters using they/them pronouns is out of proportion with that in the general population.

* The science-fiction elements are sparse, but I liked what was there, specifically augmented reality chips that make a plain, cramped ship seem more expansive and interesting so the crew doesn't notice how bleak their surroundings are.

Bottom line: The book had a lot of potential, but it didn't fully exploit the all-female crew scenario, the science-fiction setting or the inherent thrills that should arise from having a sleeper cell within your midst.

I made it to Chapter 7 before DNFing. There are so many things wrong with the basics of this book that it really isn't worth listening to the end. First, this supposed to be an adult novel, at least the MC is old enough to go on space walking missions AND be the mission leader, but she talks and acts like a teenager raised to be a clueless airhead. Second, the main character appears to be a psychopath. She is not grounded in reality so there is no emotion, shock or grief over what has just happened. Third, the crew is very "who gives a shit' about the fact that their Captain just died as well as two other crew mates. There is a sentence "Everyone was crying' but that's about the only emotion we get. Instead, someone asks "so who's the captain now?" To this the second in command says "I guess that would be me." She is terrified of the job and has apparently had no training for this possibility. That is not how this works. And finally, All the people on board were born on this ship, therefore they didn't not agree to anything imposed on them by previous generations. Yet, the female population is robbed of their choice of whether or not to have children. They are required to if they are fertile. No choice. And the idea of exponentially increasing the population on the ship with each generation of women having more children, is absurd due to the limited resources available on a ship traveling through space.

Wonderful scifi mystery. Fast-paced, end-of-the-world, space survival, brink of death action. Great story and very well narrated. Will get for our library.

Thanks to NetGalley / Macmillan Audio for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the concept more than its execution. Space exploration but became stranded when the ship goes off course sounded really cool, but I didn't expect a really slow build-up. Our protagonist is the most developed while everyone else is just...there. No one irritated me or made me angry, but no one stood out either. I didn't understand why they had to go into space, but I think that was the point. Earth is going through a climate crisis, so instead of creating solutions to make our planet better, world leaders decided to spend money on building a ship with people who can become pregnant to go another planet. The characters had to learn what that meant for them since they were stuck in space. I liked the themes Kitasei was going for, but wished this story wasn't stretched out. I think it's a little long, but still good. The audiobook production was done really good. Sarah Skaer did a great job with keeping me engaged and gave emotion to many of the side characters.

Content Warnings: death, grief, gore, fire/fire injury, murder, pregnancy, violence, blood, child death, infertility, cursing, medical content, mass/school shootings, miscarriage, xenophobia, racism, ableism (minor), hate crime (minor), death of parent (minor), suicidal thoughts (minor), war (minor), vomit (minor)

I was so thrilled by this book! The author does a fantastic job of weaving broader narratives and complex themes into a tightly-paced mystery/action adventure set in deep space. I can hardly believe this is a debut novel, and hope there will be plenty more where this came from. The central story follows the passengers of The Phoenix, a ship carrying 80 passengers picked from a highly competitive program to literally give birth to the next generation of humans while in deep space en route to a new home as Earth is no longer suitable to supporting civilization due to climate catastrophe - half way there a bomb goes off on the ship and everyone is a suspect.
NetGalley and Flatiron Books provided me the opportunity to both read and listen to the audiobook prior to publication - and it’s available now for you to add to your summer reading lists!

It's kind of hard to rate this one because I enjoyed it so much and yet I still found myself drifting in the middle as we started filling in details on Asuka's journey and the different things that led to where we ended up - and these things were important but they also didn't serve to build tension. I really liked the balance of how disconnected the Phoenix crew was from Earth (because they'd all been asleep for 10 years while life carried on for those left behind) but I think Asuka's particular aloofness to Earth's happenings hurt the impact overall.

What really worked for me was the last 15% - fast-paced, tense, and the part where the mistrust that was building throughout really came to a head. And just Asuka's character as a whole: her complex relationship with family (especially her mother), the unique hurt of being everybody's second choice, the way a friendship can fester and how that can drastically impact someone's life. I also really liked how dependent people were on their augmented realities and how they were living almost totally disconnected from each other - and the way that augmented realities essentially made it so that everyone was literally living in their own little worlds.

Overall, a very solid debut and I can't wait to see where Kitasei goes from here - definitely an author to watch!

Immediately no. I'm stopping at 10%, this is giving me the ick. In the middle of a deep space disaster and we're thinking about decade old grudges and a lack of pregnancies? What?! It's giving women-written-by-men but this author identifies as a woman, so I'm lost. There's a time and place for reflective moments and it's not mid-catastrophe..

**Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the Audio ARC**

Fast-paced, engaging, and well-narrated. A recommended purchase in all formats for collections where SF is popular.

This book was an entertaining listen, and I definitely think lots of people will love it. However, based on the few reviews up, I thought it would be more of an adult sci-fi novel, with some people describing it as sci-fi horror. In my opinion this book should be classified as YA and the tone is quite light not at all horror. A large chunk of the plot happens at a school when the characters are 11 to 20. Even on the ship they are only 22ish. Plus the school to ship plot made it rife with what I assume are YA tropes (granted I don't read much YA). Some of the things I found interesting, such as the idea that space travel to get away from ecological disaster being morally dubious where not toughly examined in the way I would expect from adult sci-fi. Also I thought the pregnancy thing was weird (and kind of funny) and not at all looked at in a critical light.
That being said I thought it was very well written for a debut with good characters. People who are a fan of YA/New adult sf/f should check it out.

The Deep Sky is a turbulent space adventure about a team of women of child-bearing age who are selected, after years of fierce competition, to represent their countries on a ship destined for a distant planet. They are sent out on The Phoenix to save/restart mankind, as earth dies behind them from war and irreparable environmental damage.

The "world" of the ship was built mindfully by author Yume Kitasei. The augmented reality and the weight of carrying such a huge responsibility were portrayed so well, these ideas almost seemed new and unique. The dynamics of a large team of only women on a ship is one I haven't seen much, but it is appreciated that the lack of men wasn't even worth mention. As a female engineer myself, I found the situation refreshing and wholly relatable.

Young adult sci-fi isn't usually my go-to, but this one was well worth a read.

Genre: science fiction, mystery
Earth, Near future; space, near future

Asuka is thousands of miles away from earth on a spaceship, as an alternate crew member for the 80 person mission to Planet X to start a Utopian society away from the devastation of climate change and social injustice. They were in deep sleep for a decade, and now awake are starting the next important phase of the mission. Everyone on board the ship - no matter their gender identity - has the biological ability to give birth, and are required to submit to artificial insemination, which will help them populate their new lives on Planet X. A sudden explosion while Asuka is on a space walk jars the ship off course, and suddenly everyone is a suspect, especially last-minute mission addition Asuka.

There is a lot to like about this debut novel from Yume Kitasei, and one of the things I really admire is the worldbuilding. The Generations-style ship harkens to sci-fi classics, where the original passengers board in hibernation to travel to distant stars and evokes the vast blackness of the unknown of space. Kitasei never really has to describe the ship itself, but you know you’re there with Asuka; know the dangers lurking outside the airlocks.

While the main plot takes place on board the ship, the secondary timeline begins prior to launch, while Asuka is a child. The earth is devastated by environmental disasters, and Asuka herself grows up in a refugee camp after California wildfires destroy her home. There is commentary on food shortages, flooding and hurricanes and fires, on influencers and pop culture and super stars, and posturing political powers and wars. And there are the chosen ones - like Asuka - who have been accepted into this elite program to train to someday leave it all behind for space and a new world. It’s background noise, almost, what the earth we know is turning into and what Asuka is leaving. But there’s enough of it there that it drives the decisions of every single person on through their training and on the ship. It’s clever and bold.

While the dual timeline provides that interesting commentary, it doesn’t always balance the pacing of the book. As tensions increase in the present day, we are pulled back to the past and out of the action. On the one hand, we have 2001: A Space Odyssey vibes, and on the other a high school space camp training montage.

The Deep Sky is a stellar debut, and hits more than it misses. Sarah Skaer’s audiobook narration is solid, seamlessly blending the Japanese and English parts of the story, and voicing Asuka’s inner monologues with an appropriate sense of awe and fear.

WOW.

This was a debut?!?!

This novel had me anxious, fascinated, angry, sad, and hopeful SO MANY TIMES throughout the novel. What a journey! If anything, I'm sad there's not more beyond this incident. The audiobook narrator really knocked it out of the park on the performance as well.

With a female dominated society and interstellar travel, this trope seemed more YA than not. Sort of "2001 A Space Odyssey" ("open the pod bay doors Hal") meets dystopian fiction. I didn't care for the sudden jumps in the timeline either. The science didn't gel with me either. Explosions such as described would probably result in total destruction, for example. Characters were likeable for the most part, but it took a while to get to know them. The narrative was sometimes vague. 3 stars.

Amazing debut with riveting action and a unique, fascinating premise. The Deep Sky excels at world building: Phoenix, the ship; Earth, ravaged by climate change; the Evenstar training program and school founded by trillionaire venture capitalist Linda Trembling, inventor of Digitally Augmented Reality (DAR) for the masses. The all -female mission crew sleep for the first decade of the journey. During the second decade the crew are inseminated, so that the children will be ten when they arrive at Planet X. So many thought- provoking themes in The Deep Sky: survivor’s guilt, estranged family relationships; friendship struggles; competition; trust, teamwork.

OMG! I loved this novel and couldn’t put it down. I felt I was on the Phoenix, in deep space, taking a space walk with Asuka, the protagonist. I really, really hope Yume Kitasei will write a sequel because the journey to Planet X was not at end when the novel finished…I want more! The Deep Sky would make a terrific TV series or movie.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this story, it was certainly thrilling and kept me on the edge of my seat. The narrator did an amazing job narrating and differentiating between all the different voices, especially considering that most of the characters were female. She added life to the story.

I really enjoyed Asuka as a main character, her background and complexity as a half-Japanese girl added an additional layer to the story that I thought was really interesting. All of the crew members had interesting backstories as well and well fleshed-out personalities. I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery as I read.

One downside to this novel was that even though all of the characters were in their 20s, it felt more like a YA book than an adult book, which wasn't the vibe I had been expecting.

I liked the narrator for this story, they really added a good amount of life and interest to the reading. I wasn't a huge fan of the story itself. I did like the space horror aspects (that is my favorite genre ever) but the way the characters interacted was a bit strange? Like, the dialogue felt a bit strange. Other than that, though, I had a good time and I thought that the plot was pretty novel and unique, and the pacing was solid.

An epic space odyssey that seamlessly blends the genres of science fiction, mystery, and thriller, leaving you on the edge of your seat and craving for more……

Book Information

"The Deep Sky" authored by Yume Kitasei, spans 416 pages and is set to be launched on July 18, 2023. Sarah Skaer lends her voice to the audio version, which runs for a duration of 12 hours and 16 minutes. Kitasei was raised in the mélange of two distinct cultures, precisely where her compelling narratives often take root. "The Deep Sky" marks her debut novel. Many thanks to MacMillan Audio and Flatiron Books for providing me with an advance reader copy for review.

Summary

On the verge of Earth's impending environmental collapse, a crucial mission hangs in the balance. A lone ship carries the last hope for humanity: eighty exceptional graduates entrusted with the task of birthing a future generation in the depths of space. However, a devastating explosion rocks The Phoenix, claiming three lives and causing the vessel to veer off its intended course. As the sole surviving witness, Asuka finds herself immediately under scrutiny and suspicion.

Even before the explosion, Asuka struggled with feelings of inadequacy. She was the final selection for the mission, faced challenges during training on Earth, and grapples with her dual identity as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. With her strained relationship with her mother and the crew members turning against each other, The Phoenix becomes Asuka's sole anchor.

Determined to unravel the truth and preserve the mission's integrity, Asuka races against time to unmask the perpetrator before faith in their mission crumbles entirely—or worse, before the bomber strikes again. As tensions mount and trust wanes, the fate of their collective survival rests on Asuka's relentless pursuit of justice amidst the vast expanse of space.

My Thoughts

“The Deep Sky” delivers the pulse-pounding thrill of unraveling a web of conspiracy, navigating the complexities of human emotions, and witnessing the indomitable spirit of a diverse crew who have not only their own survival at stake but perhaps the future of humanity itself. It’s a highly captivating space adventure that weaves together elements of sci-fi, mystery, and thriller, while also delving into the depths of human emotions.

The narrative unfolds through alternating timelines, skillfully shifting between the present on the off-course ship and the past ten years leading up to the launch. This clever structure allows readers to discover Asuka's experiences in school and witness the formation of the diverse crew and their unwavering determination to be part of this extraordinary voyage. The structure also gives insight into Asuka’s struggles with imposter syndrome, her constant questioning of herself, and her place within the mission. Her half-Japanese, half-American heritage adds an additional layer of depth as she searches for connections and a sense of belonging.

The flashbacks to the training camp provide crucial clues about the characters and their motivations, deepening the mystery and driving reader engagement. The book excels with the diversity of the characters and the depth of intricate relationships shared among them, which adds layers of complexity to the story.

One aspect that I really enjoyed was the future technology, from the ever-present AI to the ship's ability to adapt, transform and personalize environments based on each crew member's preferences. This creative approach added to the vivid and immersive reading experience.

"The Deep Sky" also felt remarkably real in the moments it presented. I felt like I could connect with each situation even though it was within a future world that we have yet to experience. Whether it's the intricate dynamics of school hierarchies, the complexities of government bureaucracies, the well-meaning but ill-informed conspiracy theorists, or the poignant exploration of lapsed friendships and estranged parents, the emotions and dilemmas faced by the characters resonate authentically. The guilt of survival, the weight of being chosen or left behind, and the characters' intelligence blended with their flaws make them believable and relatable.

With a multitude of twists and a wealth of heartfelt moments, this book takes readers on a wonderous journey. The world-building is both comprehensive and concise, creating a fully realized universe. The exploration of the characters' emotions is particularly enriching, providing a deep and rewarding reading experience.

Also very noteworthy was Sarah Skaer's performance on the audiobook. Given that 99% of the characters were female--her ability to differentiate each one and help the reader remain immersed in the story vs expending effort to keep characters straight was remarkable.

Recommendation

"The Deep Sky" is a must-read for fans of space adventures, sci-fi, mysteries, and thrillers. It combines a thrilling plot with intricate character development, creating a story that will captivate your imagination and touch your heart. Strongly recommended.

Rating

4.5 Asuka Stars