The World of Red Soil

Entrenched systems of power, rapacious inter-planetary corporations, political intrigue, and their own demons all face the characters of the Red Soil universe. Set in a not-so-distant future in which massive private companies have established colonies and settlements across the solar system, a better life for most is something only to be dreamed of — but it is a dream for which they are willing to fight.

Kindle Users: I no longer distribute on Amazon. However, you can still read my books! Buy from Smashwords, and you will be able to download the book in .mobi format. You will need to move the .mobi file to your Kindle (via USB), or you can read it via the Kindle Reader mobile or desktop apps.

What Readers Are Saying

“A fun, thought-provoking, quick, action-packed read. The writer has clearly thought about a billion aspects of colonizing Mars that never would have even crossed my mind. And he raises some really important questions. I finished the book weeks ago and I’m still thinking about it!”Karen B, Amazon Reader.

“[…] a surprising depth and complexity emerges from Red Soil’s inhabitants. The tight focus on a few characters helps keep the action moving and free of annoying digressions. The theme of engineered existence extends through the book, the possibilities and perils of human beings’ control of nature revealed in ways both grand and subtle. […] The world that Ratnayake summons into being is one still sadly underrepresented in genre fiction; a future that is proudly, irreducibly multi-cultural and multi-polar.”Morgan Crooks, Ancient Logic.

“What was great about this book was the realistic approach to Sci-Fi.[…] The analysis of human nature is very much on point. […] the storyline gripped my attention and wouldn’t let me go until the very end – I read the book in two days.”Amazon Customer.

“…a fascinating combination of socio-political issues and the future of engineering and space travel.”Juliana Ulrich, GoodReads review.

Book 1: Red Soil Through Our Fingers

A Mars colonist accepts a deal with a mining company to start a new life on humanity’s off-world frontier. But idealism turns to unease when reality becomes darker than the fine print foretold. With his farm under bio-genetic attack and the most powerful player on the planet as an enemy, Mahela has no choice but to run… and expose economic slavery on an interplanetary scale.

The blog SciFi Policy has posted an in-depth interview with N.A. Ratnayake about the social, political, economic, and technical issues in Red Soil Through Our Fingers.

More details.

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Book 2: When the Ground Beneath Us Shifted

Charles Kenton faces down a troubled past as he fights an underground shadow war for the future of Hellas-Dao, a Mars colony caught in a power struggle that now ripples across the solar system. Surrounded by enemies and a web of deception that grows thicker by the day, Kenton must forge alliances in unlikely places… before war sweeps over Red Soil, and snuffs out the last hope for freedom on humanity’s fragile frontier in space.

(Work in progress, no projected completion date at this time.)

Book 3: Far From the Sun That Warms Us

After thirty years of freedom fighting, Ashok Parekh is through. But a last request from a dying friend pulls him back into the fray. An insurrection on a gas mining station in the Jovian system goes horribly wrong, forcing him to reconcile with the moral questions he’s been running from for decades and rekindle courage when hope is fading.

(Work in progress, no projected completion date at this time.)