![Down to Dirt (Dirt and Stars Book 1) by [Killiany, Kevin]](https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Nb-1hxTXL._SY346_.jpg)
In a fun way, this book is about culture clash. We read entries in the journals of three very different teenage girls. From the first few words, there is a lot of understated humor. For example, “child abuse” very quickly turns out to be inoculations, because a girl born on space station is made to visit relatives on Earth.
The reality this story is set in has a different history. The USA has monopoly in space. Its colonies there were established at a time of out and out racial discrimination. While that has eased down in the “dirt,” the Space Agency is thoroughly racist, and brainwashes its children accordingly.
The other two girls are “twins” within their hearts, although one is a freckled redhead, the other “carob color.” The theme is how the visitor from space learns the truth about “dirt,” and about people different from herself. This is a story most youngsters will enjoy, and perhaps they won’t even notice that they are taught lessons.
The only thing I object to is that the baddie is approximately from my part of the world, but I won’t do a spoiler by explaining.
Product Description
Dirt is for losers.
“DOWN TO DIRT is YA hard science fiction with an attitude, full of technical details as engaging as the characters. I was immediately drawn into the story.” ~ Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of ETERNITY’S MIND
It’s 2021, and humanity has been in space for half a century. Giant space stations are hubs of scientific and industrial research, colonies are spreading across the moon and Mars, and sixteen-year-old Mara Duval, born and raised on Tombaugh Station, is training to be part of humanity’s first mission to the moons of Jupiter.
Life is full of possibilities—opportunities denied those deemed unfit for life in space. The unintelligent, the diseased, the mentally unstable, and the criminal—all who have been rejected by the Space Service—are condemned to live their lives on dirt, a planet everyone knows but no one mentions. Every spacer has relatives on dirt, family members who failed to qualify for space. Some are remembered, some are forgotten; but all are left behind.
To Mara’s horror, her parents have mandated she understand her past before she can pursue her future. If she wants to follow her dream to Jupiter, she must leave the safety of space and get to know her uncle, aunt, and cousin confined to dirt. Given no choice, she submits to medical procedures and intense physical training—bracing herself to survive weeks of exile amid violence, disease, and dangers she can only imagine.
But nothing could prepare Mara for what she discovers when she goes down to dirt.
EVOLVED PUBLISHING PRESENTS the first book in this critically acclaimed, timely, young adult science fiction adventure that’s sure to keep you riveted. [DRM-Free]
Books by Kevin Killiany:
- Down to Dirt (Dirt and Stars – Book 1)
- Life on Dirt (Dirt and Stars – Book 2)
- Rise from Dirt (Dirt and Stars – Book 3)
- For the Stars (Dirt and Stars – Book 4) [Coming Fall 2019]
More Great Sci-Fi from Evolved Publishing:
- "Star City" Series by Edwin Peng
- "Noah Zarc" Series by D. Robert Pease
- "Panhelion Chronicles" Series by Marlin Desault
- "Uploaded" Series by James W. Hughes
- "Whitewashed" Series by Adelaide Thorne
- Two Moons of Sera by P.K. Tyler
- The Silver Sphere by Michael Dadich
About the Author
AUTHOR: I began writing in 1967, right after I started reading, and--if you overlook thousands of rejections and thirty-three years of practice--was an immediate success. Since my first sale in 2000 I've sold three novels, a half-dozen novellas, and thirty-one short stories. I've also co-written or co-edited nineteen role-players' resource and rule books. My writing is fueled by two questions: "What happened?" and "What if?" The first motivates my exploration of lesser-known history, and the second drives my speculations about how our world would be changed if we had chosen differently. From those two streams my stories flow.
EDITOR: Some say I was born with a red pen in my hand, so it's no surprise that my penchant for words and stories ultimately led to a career in writing and editing. My literary tastes vary, but I largely gravitate toward genre fiction. I'll read anything sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western, and so forth. Some of my favorite contemporary authors are Dan Simmons, Chuck Wendig, David Brin, George R. R. Martin, and John Scalzi.
EDITOR: Some say I was born with a red pen in my hand, so it's no surprise that my penchant for words and stories ultimately led to a career in writing and editing. My literary tastes vary, but I largely gravitate toward genre fiction. I'll read anything sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western, and so forth. Some of my favorite contemporary authors are Dan Simmons, Chuck Wendig, David Brin, George R. R. Martin, and John Scalzi.
