The Deep Sky

April 24, 2023
Kitasei sets her action-packed near-future debut against the backdrop of impending human extinction. In the face of global warfare, terrorism, and ecological collapse, the ambitious EvenStar project offers humanity a chance to start fresh, sending the spaceship Phoenix to colonize a new world. Asuka is selected for the crew from the crème de la crème of Earth’s youth, but she grapples with imposter syndrome, convinced that her crewmates are all more competent and deserving than she is. When she fails to conceive a child en route, a critical component of the mission, it only compounds her feelings of failure and inadequacy. An explosion throws the Phoenix off course, prompting concerns there may be a terrorist aboard the ship. When suspicion lands on Asuka, she must—with the aid of a buggy and enigmatic AI—find a way to clear her name and keep all hell from breaking loose on the cramped ship. Frequent flashbacks to Asuka’s past on Earth interrupt this tense spacefaring mystery, and though some readers may find this distracting, they successfully add context for and complexity to the resilient heroine. The result is a remarkable story of endurance and hope. Agent: Mary C. Moore, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc.

June 1, 2023
Asuka is one of the 79 crew aboard the Phoenix on a one-way, interstellar voyage to settle a new world. To help them cope with the journey, each member of the crew has a chip installed to stream a digital assistant as well as digitally augmented reality directly to his or her brain, overlaying worn forest trails over standard spaceship hallways. As an alternate with no specific responsibilities, Asuka is summoned for a routine space walk to investigate something on the hull of the ship when things go terribly wrong. In the aftermath, Asuka has to help discover if it was just an accident or something much more sinister. Asuka's story is told from the perspective of her present aboard the Phoenix, her past at the EvenStar campus where the crew of the Phoenix was selected from 800 candidates, and her time in a refugee camp and the tragedy that led her to apply to join the crew and leave Earth behind. Kitasei's debut moves quickly and builds rich characters, with a sense of humor that will appeal to fans of John Scalzi.

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Starred review from June 1, 2023
A ship that left Earth 10 years ago, a crew trained to complete a single mission, and one saboteur hidden among them. Asuka Hoshino-Silva is one of 80 people bound for a far-off planet with the hope of starting a new civilization. After a rigorous training and selection process that began when the crew members were 12 years old, their spaceship finally launched, and they have spent the last 10 years in stasis. Upon awakening, they have found new troubles looming back home and old conflicts surfacing among themselves. For Asuka, this means she isn't reading her mother's letters from Earth and isn't talking to her one-time best friend on the ship. Her problems get worse when Asuka finds herself at the center of an attack meant to sabotage the mission. With every crew member under suspicion, can Asuka uncover the truth, or will old alliances and rivalries tear the crew apart? The present narrative unfolds between flashbacks depicting Asuka's early hardships due to climate change, tension with her Latine father and Japanese mother, and conflicted feelings about representing Japan on the mission, adding depth to the plot and creating a strong, character-driven, and accessible tale. There are no cis men among the crew members, all of whom are expected to be inseminated and produce offspring as part of the mission. They've been recruited from many nations, producing a refreshingly diverse cast that also realistically reflects real-world issues and conflicts. Can something new be built, or is the crew doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past? Cerebral SF, tackling both humanitywide problems and the smaller but ever present conflicts closer to home.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.