The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

★★★

Reviewed by Jo-Anne Blanco
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Mystery
Time Period: The Future
Major Regions: Space, USA, Japan
Subgenres/Themes: Debut, Dealing with Loss, Generational & Family Sagas, Asian Writers, Female Friendships, LGBTQ+

As Earth teeters on the verge of environmental collapse, an elite group of eighty women are chosen to travel into deep space to repopulate a new planet. When a bomb planted on the ship kills several crew members, Asuka is assigned the task of finding out who is behind the explosion. Could it be one of the groups on Earth who oppose their mission … or is there a saboteur on board?

Review

In Yume Kitasei’s sci-fi mystery-thriller The Deep Sky, Earth is in chaos. Environmental catastrophe is spreading, hostilities are escalating, and the future of humanity is at risk. A global project is set up to train female children for an interstellar mission to Planet X, a recently discovered Earth-like planet. After ten years in stasis, the now-adult crew is to become pregnant by artificial insemination and give birth prior to arriving on Planet X, where the next generations will establish a new human colony.

Asuka is a American woman of Japanese and Latinx heritage, with a history of trauma. Despite her mother’s objections, Asuka joins the mission program as a child and becomes the “Alternate”, the last to be chosen and only because Japan’s first choice drops out. While she is on an EVA, a bomb explodes, killing three crew members. Asuka is assigned to find out who or what is responsible: whether the ship’s AI has gone awry, a group opposed to the mission planted the bomb, or one of their own is sabotaging the ship.

The Deep Sky is a well-written debut, with a carefully crafted plot interspersed with flashbacks to Asuka’s childhood and training. Unfortunately, the characters are given very little depth, making it hard for the reader to care about them. Asuka’s impostor syndrome and self-doubt provide a great opportunity for character development; however, she is mostly immature and resentful, has no arc to speak of, and remains the same throughout, being difficult to like or empathize with. Perhaps the author intends her to be prickly and sullen, but the fact that she goes on no inner journey to reflect the enormity of her celestial voyage does not make for a compelling protagonist.

Science fiction rises and falls on its believability and realism, and much about The Deep Sky casts doubt on the viability of its mission. The crew are alarmingly dependent on Digitally Augmented Reality (DAR), provided by their ship’s AI, known as Alpha, which the novel suggests is a good thing. However, in space, though virtual entertainment would be needed, being rooted in reality is essential, and a matter of life and death. Constantly mixing virtual reality with the reality of space travel is a hazardous concept and flies in the face of all common sense. After the bomb explodes, those outside cannot communicate with the ship’s AI because it only communicates through DAR from inside, which makes no sense on a space mission.

Another issue is the concept of the mission itself. The idea of sending only fertile women to populate a new planet might be trying to send a feminist message, but has the opposite effect. Many of the crew leaders being pregnant at the same time is dangerous and highly irresponsible, and the fact that only women able to bear children are deemed suitable for an interstellar mission could be construed as anti-feminist in the extreme. Having no men on board to provide balance as the other half of humanity is also questionable, suggesting a rather juvenile brand of feminism and an idea that has not been thought through as a feasible concept.

It could have worked if the women had been portrayed as exceptionally competent, gifted, and self-sufficient – as would be expected from those chosen for such a mission. Instead, they are rendered in a decidedly anti-feminist manner, adhering to problematic sexist stereotypes of being emotional, irrational, selfish; unable to cope with stress and tough situations; betraying each other; and obsessing over relationships, rivalries, and getting pregnant. They come across as petty, self-absorbed, infighting adolescents, not as the mature, brilliant, and capable women they would need to be.

Effective tension is created when the plot veers into horror territory, as terrifying delusions are planted in Asuka’s vision/brain via DAR. The suggestion that Alpha is breaking down and becoming malevolent like 2001’s HAL lends added dimension to the story. However, the dénouement is disappointing and the story goes out with a whimper rather than a bang. Ultimately, The Deep Sky is a novel of intriguing possibilities let down by an unconvincing premise, unsatisfactory resolution, and, above all, the lack of depth, maturity, and proficiency afforded its female characters.

Jo-Anne Blanco for BookBrowse

©Jo-Anne Blanco 2023