Overview
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.
"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
"Life On Dirt is jam-packed with indelible characters and lush prose that makes you think of such top-tier 'coming of age' tales as The Dark Beyond the Stars and The Testament of Jessie Lamb, and the kind of tech-heavy and often biting first-person narrative that might make Andy Weir smile." ~ Dayton Ward, NYT Bestselling Author, "Star Trek: Headlong Flight"
"Kevin Killiany's delightfully immersive writing sucks you right into the characters, their situation, their location, and their lives. A most compelling read." ~ Keith R. A. DeCandido, Author of Novels in "Star Trek," "Supernatural," "Sleepy Hollow," and More
BOOK 1: DOWN TO DIRT
Dirt is for losers.
Humankind has stations in space, cities on the moon, and colonies on Mars. In humanity's shadow lies dirt, prison of the unfit—the sick, insane, or criminal—all desperate to escape. Sixteen-year-old Mara Duval, born and raised on Tombaugh Station, is training for the first mission to Jupiter. But before she can embrace her future, she must confront her family's failures. Mara must go down to dirt.
BOOK 2: LIFE ON DIRT
Dirt is for rebels.
Seventeen-year-old Mara Duval, born in space, was destined to be part of humanity's first mission to the moons of Jupiter, until a medical accident left her quarantined on dirt forever. But dirt is not the blighted wasteland she'd been taught it was, and the Space Service is holding humanity's future hostage behind a wall of lies.
BOOK 3: RISE FROM DIRT
Dirt is for heroes.
Mara discovered the Space Service's stranglehold on access to space is built on lies. For this crime, she was "disappeared" without warning. Jael has always known her future lies among the stars, but the contest will be rigged against all minority challengers. Jael's willing to risk everything to prove the best will always rise from dirt.
COMING SOON:
Watch for the 4th book in the "Dirt and Stars" series, For the Stars to release in the not-too-distant future.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940166492531 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Evolved Publishing LLC |
| Publication date: | 08/20/2022 |
| Sold by: | Draft2Digital |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
I was raised in the heart of Florida in the 1950s and ’60s, growing up in a pink cinderblock house in a community hemmed by orange groves against the edge of a swamp and the shore of a lake. I didn’t read anything not assigned by a teacher until the summer of 1967, when an injury—the outcome of an idea that looked good at the time—laid me up for several weeks. In an effort to keep me sane my mother brought me armloads of books from the library, which I used to build forts… until the red-and-yellow cover of Have Space Suit, Will Travel lured me into looking inside. To my surprise, I read it—twice—and was hooked. In later years, I read and loved mysteries, fantasies, and historicals, but my reader’s heart first imprinted on YA science fiction.
I left Florida for California in 1973, and wandered a bit before settling on North Carolina’s coast. Along the way I became a husband, a father (three times), and in 2013 a grandfather. I’ve had a half-dozen careers in those forty years, working in education or mental health. These days, when I’m not writing I’m teaching English at a community college.
Oh, did I not mention writing? I began 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.