Katelyn's Reviews > The Deep Sky

In this debut sci-fi novel set in the near future, Asuka's family is in shambles when she decides that she wants to compete for a coveted spot on the EvenStar spaceship, on a one-way mission to colonize Planet X. After many years of training, 80 kids (all with uteruses) are selected for the trip. The now-adults have recently woken up in space after 10 years of cryosleep. Each has agreed to use artificial insemination to become pregnant and have children, building a population for their new planet. On the ship they can use DAR, a simulated virtual reality that wraps around the real objects on the ship, displaying them in whatever form they choose (ex: they could see themselves walking through a forest, instead of the white ship halls.) Asuka and her fellow crew mates, many of them now heavily pregnant, must navigate new terrain when mid-journey things start going terribly wrong. As the book goes on, Kitasei expertly peels back layers of the plot, revealing more about the characters and the mother/daughter relationship that is at the heart of this story. I ate this book up! I especially appreciated the depictions of women, and pregnant women, competently handling mechanical and tech systems.