"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!!