THE DEEP SKY by Yume Kitasei – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
Published by Flatiron Books on July 18 2023
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 416
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Yume Kitasei tackles the “survival in space” trope but adds emotional themes as well in this stellar debut novel.

“What was it about mothers, that they could know you so well? And not know you at all.”

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.