The Deep Sky cover art

The Deep Sky

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Deep Sky

By: Yume Kitasei
Narrated by: Sarah Skaer
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

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.

©2023 Yume Kitasei (P)2023 Macmillan Audio
Friendship Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Space Exploration United States World Literature Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

Ocean's Godori cover art
Future's Edge cover art
Calypso cover art
The Mercy of Gods cover art
14 cover art
High Vaultage cover art
All Systems Red cover art
Fortress Sol cover art
Skyward Inn cover art
Cascade Failure cover art
Electric Angel: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure cover art
Beyond the Fringe cover art
The Ten Percent Thief cover art
Androne cover art
Past Crimes cover art

Critic reviews

"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

"There are so many things to love about Yume Kitasei's debut, but I especially adored how real every moment felt: the politics of boarding school and our future world; the lapsed friendships and estranged parents; the guilt of surviving, of being chosen. In The Deep Sky, Kitasei puts us under the microscope not in judgment but with a fair and caring eye; she looks for the best in us." C. L. Clark, author of The Unbroken

"Smart and exhilarating…A study in belonging and how Asuka’s intersecting identities (Japanese-American, crew member, classmate, friend, daughter and woman) buttress her during the most important moments in her life." BookPage

"The Deep Sky is a smart, emotionally mature, quick-paced climate fiction space whodunit that I already wanted to read again before I even finished it." Associated Press

"Gripping, apocalyptic… Complete with sabotage, secrets, explosions, flashbacks, existential dread and, ultimately, hope, this is a winner." Ms. Magazine

"There’s just so much to love about The Deep Sky...It’s a fast-paced read that invites readers to slow down and really think, an impressive feat for a debut." Geekly, Inc.

"Evocative, engaging, and hard to forget, I really loved this novel." Alex Segura, LA Times Book Prize-winning author of Secret Identity

All stars
Most relevant  
Decent space based whodunnit but with a little too much introspection by the main protagonist for my liking. My main gripe is the narration - all characters, regardless of ethnicity, covered in a narrow range (some sounded identical) of US valley girl accents…I truly hope that’s not a sign of the future!

Annoying narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.