General Information
Author – Yume Kitasei
Genre – Science Fiction
Publication Year – 2023
Synopsis – 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 livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.
Review
For the Interstellar Book Club for the month of November, we chose the debut novel ‘The Deep Sky’ by Yumi Kitasei. When one of the members of the book club said this was a thriller murder mystery with components of Among Us, I was immediately hooked. And it turned out to be one of my favorite books of 2023.
Told from alternating timelines form Asuka, Earth is no longer as stable as it used to be, so EvanStar has taken a crew to travel to Planet X in hopes of saving the human race. We see Asuka as a student training in the hopes of being selected to this elite crew aboard The Phoenix a decade in the making and during present day after launch. After witnessing an explosion, she becomes responsible for trying to figure out what happened after three end up dead.
From the beginning, we are introduced to a fast-paced story that keeps you on your toes the entire time. Everything is complete chaos after the explosion happens because it is discovered that this was not an accident. The remaining crew members are now on edge as there is a murderer among them. It goes from traditional science-fiction to thriller in a blink of an eye, and that is what keeps the story moving the entire time.
With the constant alternating between school-aged Asuka and her present role on their ship, we get to learn a lot about not just her but her friends and coworkers as they grew up. You learn how their nationalities and sense of identity plays into their personalities. Some are more competitive than others because countries are given a certain number of slots on the ship depending on how much they have decided to pay for. The competition is already tough, but the slot number plus the boarding school setting brings out the worst in everyone, making each of these characters more compelling to dive into.
This novel has a stunning story on how complex it is to be a human. How do you even evaluate what is important for survival when people can offer so much beyond the typical classroom setting? That is explored in detail and really makes you think about what humanity needs to sustain a reliable future. There is so much to love about people even though we see so much negativity but if you give everyone the chance to prove themselves they are going to not just survive but thrive. The novel wanted to show how humanity can show its ugly side when there is competition, but in a time of crisis, everyone can bring something special to the table.
Overall, this novel has a fun story that turns into a thriller real quick with characters you can never stop questioning until the very end.
