Down to Dirt

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.