Sabotage and murder on a one-way interstellar journey

4 min readJan 13, 2025

With a monumental global effort spearheaded by a trillionaire, the starship Phoenix has set out for the yet-to-be-named Planet X. An all-female crew of 80 represents the wealthier countries that have helped fund the project. They’re on a “one-way interstellar voyage to settle a new world,” free of the accumulating damage to Earth that threatens the future of civilization. Why all women? “In the ten-year interstitial period [between two ten-year cycles of hibernation], all the crew were expected to give birth to and raise one to two children, so that they would arrive at Planet X with the most intensive stages of child-rearing behind them. . . (The Phoenix carried sperm from thousands of donors.)” Together, they would represent a new beginning for humanity. This is the bright future they all look ahead to in The Deep Sky, an engrossing science fiction novel by Japanese and American author Yume Kitasei.

AN EXPLOSION ON BOARD, WITH ONE YOUNG WOMAN CHARGED WITH INVESTIGATING

We pick up the story 11 years after launch, 11 months after the crew came out of hibernation. But it’s 21 years after they enrolled as 12-year-olds full of hope in an intensive, competitive training program. Only one in 10 could join the crew. We follow Asuka as she relives the tragic childhood memories that haunt her sleep — and obsesses about her doubts that she is worthy of inclusion in the crew. In fact, with no single specialization such as robotics or programming, Asuka is an Alt, trained just enough in a wide variety of skills to fill in when someone falls ill or is giving birth.

And thus, when an explosion rips through the dining area and punches a large hole in the hull, killing the captain and two other of her crewmates, it’s Asuka whom the acting captain turns to in hopes of learning who is responsible. Because someone in the crew was a killer. And Asuka, already feeling inadequate, hasn’t a clue how to proceed . . . until a makeshift process to lift fingerprints off the bomb fragments offers her a way to start.

THE DEEP SKY BY YUME KITASEI (2023) 358 PAGES ★★★★☆

*Artist’s conception of an interstellar spaceship similar to* The Phoenix of the novel. Image: Concordances and Characters

COMPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES GALORE ON THIS ONE-WAY INTERSTELLAR VOYAGE

Unfortunately, Asuka now runs afoul of the seething resentments and jealousies among the officers and crew. (What else might you expect from eighty people barely out of their teens who were forced to compete for ten years in a high-pressure environment?) The acting captain, who is herself insecure, faces complaints from other officers. One believes she should be captain. And tensions rise further when the mission’s two principal sponsors — the United States and China — go to war. Then the engineers discover that the explosion has thrown The Phoenix off course. And Asuka becomes embroiled in a desperate search for a way to correct their heading.

The Deep Sky is an action-filled murder mystery enlivened by the author’s heart-felt sensitivity to the intense personal relationships that have developed among the crew. The result is deeply satisfying.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Yume Kitasei “is half-Japanese and half-American and grew up in a space between two cultures — the same space where her stories reside,” as she describes herself online. Kitasei is the author of two science fiction novels and a number of short stories. She Is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in Brooklyn.

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