The Deep Sky

 The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei (2023) 399 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla. This was recommended by author Mary Robinette Kowal when she spoke and signed books at Left Bank Books last year. There is an explosion on a deep space ship called the Phoenix that kills a small number of crew members. Who did it? The crew had spent ten years in cryogenic sleep. Now they are awake at about the halfway point to an unknown planet. The entire 80-something crew members are women. They are all expected to be impregnated by sperm donors, give birth in space, and then the new generation will continue humanity's existence on the planet that is their destination. Asuka is Japanese-American and a generalist with some skills in many departments. She survived the explosion when she was about to go on a space walk for repairs. She becomes the amateur detective tasked with finding who is sabotaging the mission. A large portion of the story is flashbacks. The Earth is facing environmental collapse. There were hundreds of pre-teen girls from many countries that applied for a highly competitive astronaut training program. We get to know a select group of these girls through their pre-teen and teen years. Some will be part of the deep space mission, some will be eliminated. Their relationships and stressful training adds great context. Countries are competing to have representatives make it through the program besides the interpersonal competition over grades. On Earth and in space virtual and augmented reality is very popular. On the Phoenix, there is a den mother type AI and augmented reality devices are implanted in the crew's temples. What could go wrong as Asuka investigates who planted the explosives??