How to Buy a Planet
Dom Holdsworth
Book description
It’s the Year 2024. Drowning in debt following the pandemic and facing ruin, the world’s leaders have taken the only logical decision.
They’ve sold the planet.
When Toby, a penniless student, and his two new flatmates find out one morning on TV, they’re surprised to find the Earth’s new alien owners are staggeringly cute and bring the promise of a debt-free future. They’re just getting ready to celebrate along with the rest of the world, when a chance encounter with a mysterious professor reveals the truth. And there’s a glitch: the Earth is about to be destroyed.
With only 24 hours to avert the apocalypse, Toby’s flatmates – one paranoid, one gorgeous – drag him on an intergalactic adventure. Battling interplanetary bankers and pursued by pitiless assassins, the gang find that a deadly virus becomes their only chance of salvation.
Fresh, fun and fast-paced, How to Buy a Planet is the unforgettable tale of three students on an impossible quest to beat the system. If you’re a fan of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, or sci-fi hero, Doctor Who, this is the must-read novel of 2020.
“Entertaining and fast-moving science fiction adventure in the spirit of Douglas Adams… Written with a sense of humour, fun, and wonder.” Una McCormack, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author
Author biography
D.A.Holdsworth started his career in finance, serving a two-year apprenticeship in fund management during a turbulent period that took in the bursting of the tech bubble and 9-11. From there he switched industry and built a two-decade career in educational publishing, helping to create textbooks and online resources for maths and other subjects.
For years he resisted the call to writing, until in 2016 he gave in to the inevitable and started work on ‘How To Buy A Planet’. Drawing on his experience of the tech crash and then the credit crunch, ‘How To Buy A Planet’ is both a satire and an adventure, telling the story of three flatmates’ quest to rescue the Earth after it’s been sold to a consortium of financiers from – shall we say – a long, long way away.
D.A.Holdsworth lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and daughter, and is working on the next book in the series.