The Deep Sky

They left Earth to save humanity. They'll have to save themselves first. 'The Deep Sky is a beautiful tightly-wound mystery. It is both an intimate character portrait and a thriller' Mary Robinette Kowal, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards 'One of the best debuts of the year' Book Riot A Washington Post Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel of 2023, a Kirkus Reviews Best Debut of 2023, a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Science Fiction, and a Tor.com Must-Read Sci-Fi Release of 2023 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. As the mystery unfolds on the ship, poignant flashbacks reveal how Asuka came to be picked for the mission. Despite struggling through training back on Earth, she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left. With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission-or worse, the bomber strikes again.

Yume Kitasei is the author of The Deep Sky and The Stardust Grail. She is Japanese and American and grew up in a space between two cultures-the same space where her stories reside. She lives in Brooklyn with two cats, Boondoggle and Filibuster. Her stories have appeared in publications including New England Review, Catapult, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Baltimore Review.