You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by april_does_feral_sometimes
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
‘The Deep Sky’ by Yume Kitasei is exciting! I found it difficult to put it down, but of course, I had to eat and sleep.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2023)
Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.
They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.
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 to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.”
Like many books written in the last few years, each chapter switches between two timelines. One follows Asuka as she grows up on an Earth that is experiencing difficulties politically between many countries because of the usual issues, but more virulent because of climate change. The other is Asuka’s present, going about her duties on The Phoenix, a spaceship. Unlike the other crew members, she is a floater, someone who goes wherever she is needed to assist. The crew are all women, and except for Asuka, they are specialists in those jobs necessary for generational survival aboard a ship heading for a distant, hopefully habitable, planet, which they hope to colonize. While going about their daily maintenance duties, once a month they are inseminated from a supply of semen they have brought with them. The plan is to have children before they arrive at their new home. In the year they have been awake from hibernation, ten years after they left earth, some of the women are pregnant. However, it appears Asuka cannot get pregnant despite several inseminations. Her inability to conceive is one more reason she feels inferior to the others.
Asuka is someone who is not comfortable in her own skin. Beside feeling she doesn’t really belong on the ship due to her lack of any deep competency in any required skill, she feels the others dislike her. She is often ashamed of her apparent inability to fit in. Frankly, I found her very irritating because of her constant defensiveness. She becomes upset at the slightest indication she is at fault, especially in her relationships with the others. But she hides her feelings, and rarely opens up. However, readers watch her growing up, why her relationship with her mother is so bad, and where her feelings of not fitting in anywhere begin. It is clear, though, to me, she is someone who is not reading the room accurately. People want to like her, and respect her skills more than she understands. There are things she believes are caused by her inferiority in comparison to the other crewmembers, but actually in my opinion are really because they all are on a spaceship on a dangerous journey, missing their families and Earth.
Asuka has been enjoying the friendship of Kat. Kat gives Asuka a feeling of lightness and acceptance. But then, while on a spacewalk with Kat to check out an anomaly, a strange dark bump on the skin of the ship, it blows up. Asuka is devastated. She had playfully raced Kat to the anomaly, putting them both in unnecessary danger. It goes terribly wrong, and Asuka can’t forgive herself.
And then, suddenly, everything is going wonky on the ship! The AI, Alpha, without whom they can’t survive, is behaving in such a manner that it might mean it is infected with a virus, or that someone is changing its programming. Plus, the explosion knocked them off course. If the AI’s problems doesn’t kill them, being off course will certainly destroy them because of running out of power! What is happening? Is it related to the new wars starting up on Earth, news of which have arrived in their emails and other communications?
Asuka’s backstory explains why she has imposter syndrome. Readers see how political suspicions on Earth are causing some tension on The Phoenix, but I thought this plot thread was undeveloped. However, ‘The Deep Sky’ is an exciting debut novel by Kitasei which was an engrossing beach read. The incidents aboard the ship are very worrying! Will they die? Is one of the crew trying to kill them all, picking them off one by one? Alpha the AI is very interesting, reminding me of HAL-9000 in the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although there are a lot of familiar elements in this story, I liked the science-fiction setting of what really was a murder mystery alternating with a coming-of-age story.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2023)
Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.
They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.
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 to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again.”
Like many books written in the last few years, each chapter switches between two timelines. One follows Asuka as she grows up on an Earth that is experiencing difficulties politically between many countries because of the usual issues, but more virulent because of climate change. The other is Asuka’s present, going about her duties on The Phoenix, a spaceship. Unlike the other crew members, she is a floater, someone who goes wherever she is needed to assist. The crew are all women, and except for Asuka, they are specialists in those jobs necessary for generational survival aboard a ship heading for a distant, hopefully habitable, planet, which they hope to colonize. While going about their daily maintenance duties, once a month they are inseminated from a supply of semen they have brought with them. The plan is to have children before they arrive at their new home. In the year they have been awake from hibernation, ten years after they left earth, some of the women are pregnant. However, it appears Asuka cannot get pregnant despite several inseminations. Her inability to conceive is one more reason she feels inferior to the others.
Asuka is someone who is not comfortable in her own skin. Beside feeling she doesn’t really belong on the ship due to her lack of any deep competency in any required skill, she feels the others dislike her. She is often ashamed of her apparent inability to fit in. Frankly, I found her very irritating because of her constant defensiveness. She becomes upset at the slightest indication she is at fault, especially in her relationships with the others. But she hides her feelings, and rarely opens up. However, readers watch her growing up, why her relationship with her mother is so bad, and where her feelings of not fitting in anywhere begin. It is clear, though, to me, she is someone who is not reading the room accurately. People want to like her, and respect her skills more than she understands. There are things she believes are caused by her inferiority in comparison to the other crewmembers, but actually in my opinion are really because they all are on a spaceship on a dangerous journey, missing their families and Earth.
Asuka has been enjoying the friendship of Kat. Kat gives Asuka a feeling of lightness and acceptance. But then, while on a spacewalk with Kat to check out an anomaly, a strange dark bump on the skin of the ship, it blows up. Asuka is devastated. She had playfully raced Kat to the anomaly, putting them both in unnecessary danger. It goes terribly wrong, and Asuka can’t forgive herself.
And then, suddenly, everything is going wonky on the ship! The AI, Alpha, without whom they can’t survive, is behaving in such a manner that it might mean it is infected with a virus, or that someone is changing its programming. Plus, the explosion knocked them off course. If the AI’s problems doesn’t kill them, being off course will certainly destroy them because of running out of power! What is happening? Is it related to the new wars starting up on Earth, news of which have arrived in their emails and other communications?
Asuka’s backstory explains why she has imposter syndrome. Readers see how political suspicions on Earth are causing some tension on The Phoenix, but I thought this plot thread was undeveloped. However, ‘The Deep Sky’ is an exciting debut novel by Kitasei which was an engrossing beach read. The incidents aboard the ship are very worrying! Will they die? Is one of the crew trying to kill them all, picking them off one by one? Alpha the AI is very interesting, reminding me of HAL-9000 in the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. Although there are a lot of familiar elements in this story, I liked the science-fiction setting of what really was a murder mystery alternating with a coming-of-age story.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Infertility, Murder, Pregnancy