Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Exo Project
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.andrewdeyoung.com/
CITY: Saint Paul
STATE: MN
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
^^^ ???
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2017035753
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017035753
HEADING: DeYoung, Andrew
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010 __ |a no2017035753
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca10741044
040 __ |a ICrlF |b eng |e rda |c ICrlF
100 1_ |a DeYoung, Andrew
370 __ |a Saint Paul (Minn.) |2 naf
372 __ |a Young adult literature |a Scienc fiction |a Editing |2 lcsh
374 __ |a Authors |a Editors |2 lcsh
375 __ |a Men |2 lcsh
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a His The Exo Project, 2017 : |b title page (Andrew DeYoung) jack flap (Andrew DeYoung, writer and editor, lives in Saint Paul, Minn.)
670 __ |a His website, Mar. 20, 2017 |b (Andrew DeYoung, writer and editor, lives in Saint Paul)
PERSONAL
Married; children: daughter.
EDUCATION:Studied literature in college.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Editor of children’s books, writer of young adult fiction.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Andrew DeYoung is a children’s book editor and a writer of young adult science-fiction who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. He studied literature in college and graduate school, then moved from academia to publishing. In 2017, DeYoung published his debut novel, The Exo Project. In the story, Earth is rapidly becoming unlivable due to solar radiation, so the government sends volunteers into space to look for a suitable new planet to live on. Seventeen-year-old Matthew Tilson volunteers in return for the government paying for his mother’s cancer treatments. He and the crew are put into 100 years of suspended animation on their one-way journey into the galaxy.
They discover the idyllic prairie planet, Gle’ah, but it is inhabited by gray-skinned people very similar to humans, but who also have telepathic abilities. This planet has radiation as well, but it seems harmless to the natives and to humans. Kiva is the teenage leader of the preindustrial, matriarchal society called the Vagri, and soon she and Matthew are developing an emotional connection. Humans and natives must deal with their xenophobia, as they discover the secrets behind Earth’s real mission and what will happen to the natives if Earth decides to move its people to the new planet, and secrets with the seemingly blissful life of Gle’ah’s inhabitants.
In an interview with Deborah Kalb on the Deborah Kalb Website, DeYoung explained his themes for the book: “I wanted to write something thought-provoking and emotional.” He added that he remembered “the feeling of loneliness that sometimes happens when you’re growing up and it feels like no one understands you. It felt a little bit like being lost in space.” When DeYoung began the book, he had an image of a girl lying in the grass on a prairie. He explained to Jonathan Rosen online at Tuesday Writers: “At the moment the sun sets, the girl closes her eyes and has a vision of a spaceship coming down and landing on the grass, and a boy walking out of it. I … then started asking questions. Who was that girl? What was this prairie planet she lived on? What was her society like? And the boy in the spaceship—who was he? Why was he there? Why did he leave Earth behind?”
On the Andrew DeYoung Website, he talked about how he wrote the Vagri to be the opposite type of society from Earth: “The humans come from a history of patriarchy, they value dominance and force, and they’ve come to the brink of extinction because they’ve basically destroyed their planet. By contrast, the Vagri are matriarchal, they value wisdom and perceptiveness, and they’re completely peaceful,” said DeYoung. He added that by writing Matthew and Kiva’s relationship, “We see this collision of human society and Vagri society, of these two different ways of being in the universe. It’s also really important to remember that these two characters are teens, that this is a story of first love.”
A contributor to Kirkus Reviews noted how “DeYoung crams in multitudes of plot points,” such as space travel, destined romance, magical healing, and a mass shooting, as well as unconvincing scientific versus religious explanations for phenomena, concluding that “It’s fine in pace and flow but disintegrates under scrutiny.” Writing in Publishers Weekly, a reviewer noted some odd plot contrivances that make the ending feel like a letdown, and concluding that “this is perhaps a better pick for readers looking for extraterrestrial romance than for diehard SF fans.” However, according to Booklist reviewer Cindy Welch, “DeYoung offers straightforward yet effective storytelling, which makes for a refreshing change,” and that despite a third-person omniscient point of view which diminishes the emotional impact of the story, the book is nevertheless “an enjoyable read.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2017, Cindy Welch, review of The Exo Project, p. 45.
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2017, review of The Exo Project.
Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2017, review of The Exo Project, p. 68.
ONLINE
Andrew DeYoung Website, http://www.andrewdeyoung.com (November 1, 2017), author profile.
Deborah Kalb blog, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (July 10, 2017), Deborah Kalb, author interview.
Tuesday Writers, http://www.tuesdaywriters.com/ (April 3, 2017), Jonathan Rosen, author interview.
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The Tuesdays. 6 writers. 1 dream. Follow our story.
Interview with Andrew DeYoung, Debut Author of The Exo Project
2 Comments April 3, 2017 Jonathan Rosen
Hello Tuesdays!
Today, I’m pleased to be joined by a fellow 2017 Debut Author, Andrew DeYoung, whose debut young-adult novel, The Exo Project, is scheduled to come out tomorrow, April 4, 2017 from Boyd Mills
JR: Hi, Andrew and thanks for joining us today!
Before we begin, can you tell us a little bit about The Exo Project and the impetus behind writing it?
ADY: The Exo Project is a science fiction novel with two main characters: Matthew, a human boy who joins a mission to find a replacement planet for Earth, and Kiva, a telepathic alien girl who leads a matriarchal society on the planet he finds.
The book started, for me, with an image: a girl, lying on the grass in a huge prairie that stretches to the horizon. At the moment the sun sets, the girl closes her eyes and has a vision of a spaceship coming down and landing on the grass, and a boy walking out of it.
I ran to my computer and wrote out that scene, then started asking questions. Who was that girl? What was this prairie planet she lived on? What was her society like? And the boy in the spaceship—who was he? Why was he there? Why did he leave Earth behind? The whole novel basically grew our of that first image, and the questions it raised.
JR: I saw on your website, www.andrewdeyoung.com, that you have a blog which deals a lot with pop culture. Does that play a part in your novel at all?
ADY: I occasionally blog at a pop culture site called The Stake (thestake.org). At The Stake, we write a lot about the power of genre fiction. I love genres like science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror. I can’t say that anything I’ve written at The Stake directly influenced The Exo Project, but my work in both places is informed by my belief that genre fiction, particularly science fiction, is a place where we as writers and readers can think deeply about the human experience and things that we see happening in society, while also enjoying really entertaining stories.
JR: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey getting to this point?
ADY: I’ve had the dream of being a published novelist since I was in high school! When I was a freshman, an English teacher gave us the assignments of naming out loud the one biggest thing we wanted to do with our lives. In front of my teacher and my classmates, I said I wanted to be a novelist.
I’ve dabbled in writing with varying degrees of dedication ever since then, but it wasn’t until 2012 when I decided that I needed to finally buckle down and go for my dream. I wrote my first novel—a YA historical mystery set in Victorian London—and got my agent on the strength of that novel.
But it didn’t sell. That was hard for me—I’d worked so hard just to finish that novel, and get an agent. But I knew that I could do better, so I started writing a new book, a weird little science fiction story that eventually became The Exo Project.
I finished The Exo Project, revised it thoroughly with my agent, and then we went back out on submission. I was delighted when Boyds Mills Press picked it up!
JR: What’s your writing process like?
ADY: I write every morning before my wife and daughter wake up, starting at 5:30 a.m. That sounds insane to a lot of people, but I’m a morning person so it’s not too bad.
I’m a planner: I outline and plot my novels extensively. But, when I’m writing I often discover that my best-laid plans don’t actually work! My characters don’t always behave the way I want them to. So I make my plans—and then, when the story wanders off in a different direction, I stop everything and make a new plan. It’s not unusual for me to go through three or four completely different outlines on a single book!
As for the writing itself, it depends on the day. Sometimes the words come easy, sometimes they come hard, and sometimes it’s like the story is flying through the tips of my fingers and onto the screen. Either way, I make myself put down the words, then try to make them better in revision!
JR: What’s your favorite book and who’s your favorite author?
ADY: This is too hard! I have literally dozens of “favorite” books and writers. But here are a couple favorite books that influenced The Exo Project in one way or another: Jonathan Lethem’s Girl in Landscape and Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. I LOVE both of these books.
JR: What’s your favorite movie?
ADY: Again, too hard! But here are a couple of sci-fi favorites: 2001: A Space Odyssey and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.
JR: Something people would be surprised to learn about you?
ADY: I don’t know if it would necessarily surprise anyone, but I’m a newish dad. I’ve got a 14-month-old daughter who was born just a little bit after I got my book deal. Being a dad has changed my life more than I ever imagined it would! I love her to death.
JR: Do you do a lot of research when you write?
ADY: Not a ton. I did plenty of research when I wrote my historical novel, the one that didn’t sell, but since then I’ve been writing in genres that require a bit less research.
JR: Here at the Tuesdays, a big part of our success and the purpose of this site, has been being involved in a critique group. Are you involved in one and if so, how has it helped you?
ADY: I sure am! I have an awesome critique group who read all of The Exo Project and helped me make it way, way better. They’re an awesome bunch, and I thank them in the Acknowledgments
JR: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received and is there any advice you can give to writers looking to break in?
ADY: Commit to the process, not to the outcome. Big goals like “write a novel” or “get an agent” or “get a book deal” are so overwhelming that it’s easy to get discouraged and quit. Smaller goals like “write 500 words three times a week” or “send out one query letter every week” are much easier to stick to—but they’ll get you moving in the direction of your big goals. Reward yourself for committing to the process. The outcome will follow.
JR: What are you working on next?
ADY: I have a two-book deal with Boyds Mills, so I’m working on Book 2 for them now. It’s completely different than The Exo Project! I can’t say much about it right now, except to say that it involves murder, and time travel, and ghosts.
JR: Before we go, I always like to ask, who’s your favorite member of The Tuesdays and please don’t say Faran.
ADY: I’m going to tell you what my mom always told us when we asked her which of us she loved best: You’re all my favorite. Now eat your vegetables.
JR: Well, I don’t like that answer, but I guess it’s at least better than saying Faran. Anyway, thanks again Andrew, and good luck with The Exo Project!
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2 thoughts on “Interview with Andrew DeYoung, Debut Author of The Exo Project”
Melody Maysonet
It’s encouraging to read that Andrew DeYoung’s writing process is similar to mine. Outlining and scrapping and outlining again. (I thought maybe I wasn’t doing it right.) Looking forward to reading The Exo Project!
APRIL 3, 2017 AT 10:11 AM REPLY
Pingback: The Exo Project Book Launch This Saturday
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My name is Andrew DeYoung and this is my website.
I'm the author of a YA sci-fi novel called THE EXO PROJECT.
I'm also a children's book editor.
About the Author
Andrew DeYoung is a writer, editor, and dad living in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Exo Project is his first novel. andrewdeyoung.com
Q&A WITH ANDREW DEYOUNG, AUTHOR OF THE EXO PROJECT
There’s a lot going on in The Exo Project thematically—you’ve got environmentalism and the future of the human race, matriarchal societies, space travel. Where did this book begin for you?
All that thematic stuff came later. For me, this book began not with those big ideas, but with a very simple image: a girl sneaking out of her village to watch the sun set, and then getting a telepathic vision of visitors from another planet. From there, I just started asking questions: who is this girl? What kind of world does she live in? And who are these visitors? Why are they coming to the girl’s planet? What do they want?
I discovered pretty quickly that the visitors were humans, and that they were searching for a new planet to replace Earth, which was completely ruined. I also discovered that the girl was part of a matriarchal society on her planet, and that her vision marked her as the future leader of her people. So that’s how the themes started coming forward—but the whole thing began with an image, a scene, a character.
The Earth you portray in the book is a bleak place. The human race is on the brink of extinction, and the Exo Project is launched to explore distant exoplanets and find a new home for humanity. How realistic is this future for our planet?
In the book, Earth is ravaged by two environmental threats: global warming and solar radiation as a result of ozone depletion. Global warming, of course, is a very real threat to the planet and to the human race, ozone depletion a little bit less so since we’ve begun to get CFC emissions under control. There are models and predictions about what will happen to the world if global warming is left unchecked, but I didn’t dig too deeply into that science. My concern was more with general questions about the human race and our ability to care responsibly for our planet. Do we have the collective capability to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reverse global warming? Can we change the way our economy works, the way we create wealth and prosperity, the way we as a species coexist with nature? These are huge questions facing our world, especially as we in the United States have a new president who questions the science on global warming.
I’d love to say that the future I portray in The Exo Project isn’t very plausible, but in my more pessimistic moments I fear it is.
Though the book starts on Earth, most of the action takes place on a world called Gle’ah—a prairie planet with grass as far as the eye can see, and a moon that orbits so close that it affects the planet’s gravitational pull. How did you come up with the details of this world?
I wanted Gle’ah to be as dreamlike as possible. The fact that it’s a prairie planet is probably due to the fact that I’ve lived most of my life in the upper Midwest, so landscapes with rolling plains and prairie grasses—which some find dull—are really beautiful and haunting to me. The rest of the details I threw in just because I thought they were cool, like the moon that affects gravity so that people feel light or find their hair floating around their ears when it’s overhead.
And how about the planet’s matriarchal society, the Vagri? Where did they come from?
The Vagri in many ways are the exact opposite of the human race. The humans come from a history of patriarchy, they value dominance and force, and they’ve come to the brink of extinction because they’ve basically destroyed their planet. By contrast, the Vagri are matriarchal, they value wisdom and perceptiveness, and they’re completely peaceful.
I talked earlier about being pessimistic about humanity’s ability to solve our problems. With the Vagri, it was so fun to create a completely new society from the ground up, and to imagine it working differently than how we see human society working—or not working. The trick was not just imagining how Vagri society functioned, but how it came to be that way: how they came to venerate women above men, how their women got telepathic powers, how they survived for so many years as pacifists. Those explanations become a mystery that helps drive the plot of the novel in the second half.
The Exo Project is, at heart, a teenage romance between your two leads, Matthew and Kiva. How do you think this romance plot comes together with all these big themes you’ve spoken about?
For me, the romance plot between Matthew and Kiva is absolutely the crux of the novel. In Matthew and Kiva’s relationship, we see this collision of human society and Vagri society, of these two different ways of being in the universe.
It’s also really important to remember that these two characters are teens, that this is a story of first love. Matthew and Kiva’s story contains what I think is the emotional truth of the novel: that falling in love is a bit like meeting an alien race, like getting lost on a strange, beautiful planet. It’s scary, and magical, and it changes everything about your outlook on the world. This is what I wanted to explore more than anything, how love changes us and gives us hope in the face of profound uncertainty.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Interview with Andrew DeYoung, author of The Exo Project
Hey, guys! Today, I have the great pleasure of welcoming Andrew DeYoung to the blog. His debut novel, The Exo Project, is available in stores now! I hope you guys enjoy the Q&A, and be sure to check out the link to an excerpt of the book below!
The Exo Project by Andrew DeYoung
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
Pub Date: April 4th 2017
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository
This fast-paced, sharply written multiple-perspective YA science-fiction debut opens on a future Earth ravaged by solar radiation. Desperate for money to save his sick mother, seventeen-year-old Matthew agrees to participate in the Exo Project, a government plan to save the human race by flying across the galaxy in search of a habitable planet for resettlement. He thinks he’s been given a death sentence: 100 years in cryostasis, followed by a quick death on some barren world. But then he lands on Gle’ah, discovering the strange, beautiful creatures who live there, including Kiva, the captivating teenage girl who leads her planet’s matriarchal society. Kiva views Matthew as a threat and for good reason—if he tells Earth that he’s found a suitable planet, it will mean the end of her people’s way of life. But then Kiva and Matthew discover an emotional connection they never expected—and as they begin to delve into the secrets of Matthew’s mission and the dark truth behind the seeming paradise of Gle’ah, the choices they make will have consequences for both of their worlds.
Andrew DeYoung is a writer and editor who has dreamed of being an author ever since his ninth-grade English teacher made him write down his biggest life goal for a class assignment. He studied literature in college and graduate school, writing a thesis on the history of Victorian detective fiction before making the jump from academia to publishing. These days, he lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he edits children's books and lives with his wife, daughter, and a feline companion named June Carter Cat. Andrew's taste in science fiction leans more Star Trek than Star Wars—though only barely. The Exo Project is his debut novel.
Connect with Andrew: Website | Twitter | Facebook
How much research did you have to do for The Exo Project? Did you work with any scientists or astronomers to check accuracy, for example?
My personal rule for writing research is to do enough that I feel confident to keep writing, but not so much that I start to get obsessed with the research at the expense of the story. Generally I start with Wikipedia to get a very general sense of the topic, then follow the sources to get library books and journal articles on a given topic. I had to research a lot of topics for The Exo Project. To portray a future Earth, I investigated models for how global warming will affect our planet in the future. To construct the space program in the book, I looked into the Mars One mission, in which participants volunteer knowing it's a one-way mission and they'll probably die on Mars! To portray a matriarchal society on an alien planet, I researched real-life matriarchal societies, and also read theories from feminist thinkers and social scientists about where patriarchy came from in human societies. That helped me conceptualize how a matriarchal rather than patriarchal society might come to be under different conditions. Plus research into nanotechnology, quantum mechanics, astronomy, and relativity to make sure that all the sci-fi plot points were at least plausible. But, throughout my research, I had to remember that story was the most important thing, and I definitely took liberties with the research when it was necessary for the book. I imagine a lot of authors would say the same thing about research.
What are some of the weirdest things you had to Google while writing?
Effects of radiation on cellular level, nanotechnology cancer treatment, ionized energy, antigravity, cryogenic freezing, telepathy, the list goes on and on!
What are some of the biggest science fiction books, tv shows, or movies that influenced you and your work?
I often think of The Exo Project as a cross between Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG to fans!). The Martian Chronicles is a sci-fi book about planetary colonization and human/alien interaction that's often very dreamlike and strange. In The Exo Project, I wanted to create a similar world, where an alien planet is a sort of dream landscape where I could symbolically explore emotions and ideas that are hard to talk about directly. But, at the same time, I wanted the book to have a compelling story and plot, and that's where TNG came in. Some of my favorite episodes of TNG are basically space-mysteries about some strange phenomenon or alien culture that the crew of the Enterprise have to figure out. The Exo Project has a mystery like that, where the human characters have to figure out what's going on with this planet and this alien culture. So, combine the dreaminess of The Martian Chronicles with the space-mystery aspect of TNG, and you have what I was trying to accomplish in The Exo Project!
What are your favorite and least favorite types of scenes to write, and why?
Tough question! Looking back at the scenes that have come easily and those that haven't, they key seems to be whether or not I have a good handle on the emotional currents of the scene. If I know what the characters are feeling in the scene, and how those emotions motivate what they're doing in the scene, then those are fun scenes to write. They seem to pour out from the tips of my fingers and onto the page. When a scene is tough to write, it sometimes means I don't have a good handle on the emotional content of the scene, or the emotions don't ring true, or worst of all, I've left out emotion completely for the sake of just moving the story forward! Usually, the key is to slow down, have a talk with my characters about what's going on with them, and then try again.
Do you have an all-time favorite fictional couple (or OTP)? What about their relationship makes you love them so much?
I'm going to choose Eleanor and Park from...well, Eleanor & Park. Years after I read it this is still one of my favorite young adult novels ever, with one of my favorite romantic pairings. There's just something so sweet and vulnerable about these two and how their relationship becomes a refuge for both of them in exactly the way they need right then.
Such a fun and interesting interview, Andrew! Thank you so much for stopping by the blog :)
Also, be sure to check out an excerpt of The Exo Project here!
POSTED BY BRITTANYSBOOKRAMBLES AT APRIL 06, 2017
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Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb
Check back often for new Q&As, and for daily historical factoids about books. On Facebook at www.facebook.com/deborahkalbbooks. Follow me on Twitter @deborahkalb.
Monday, July 10, 2017
Q&A with Andrew DeYoung
Andrew DeYoung is the author of the new young adult science fiction novel The Exo Project. He is a children's book editor, and he lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Exo Project, and for your characters Matthew and Kiva?
A: I had been thinking for a long time about writing a YA novel set in space, on a distant planet. I wanted to write something thought-provoking and emotional, set against the backdrop of a beautiful but stark and lonely planet. Basically, I had a genre and a tone that I wanted to work in—but I had no story!
But then, one day, an idea occurred to me. I was thinking about my teenage years, and remembering the feeling of loneliness that sometimes happens when you're growing up and it feels like no one understands you. It felt a little bit like being lost in space. I also remembered the feeling of making a connection—that felt a little like the miracle of finding life in space.
All at once, I knew I had an idea for a book: I'd write about two kids from opposite ends of the galaxy, lonely kids, who make a miraculous connection that changes everything.
Then I rushed to my writing desk and dashed off a scene of a girl named on a distant planet, who sneaks off into the prairie and has a vision of a visitor to her planet, named Matthew. That's how everything began!
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: When I write books, I generally have a good idea of how things will end, but not always a very good idea of everything that will happen between the beginning and the end.
Think of it like a journey where you know where you're going, but you don't necessarily know the route you'll take to get there. That's what writing this book was like. Along the way, I took many false paths that turned out to be dead ends. I had to backtrack a lot and figure out where I took a wrong turn.
Q: You tell the story from several characters’ perspectives. Were there some that you particularly enjoyed writing about?
A: Matthew and Kiva are of course my favorites. They're the emotional heart of the book.
But there is one minor character in particular I enjoyed writing, and that is Po. Po is a childhood acquaintance of Kiva's, a sort of outcast in the village who becomes jealous of Matthew and Kiva's connection.
It's hard to say that I really "enjoyed" writing from Po's perspective—a lot of his thoughts end up in dark places—but I felt sorry for Po, and I think I understood his anger and resentment at the way his life had turned out. To me, he is one of the most complex characters in the book, and the saddest.
Q: Who are some of your favorite writers?
A: Oh, so many! Because this book was science fiction, I thought a lot about Ray Bradbury while I was writing, particularly his science fiction masterpiece The Martian Chronicles. Another was Jonathan Lethem's Girl In Landscape, another tale of struggling with adolescence in space. In YA, I love the writing of Alexandra Duncan, Beth Revis, and Rainbow Rowell.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I always have a lot of projects going, partly because each project will be in different stages: idea, drafting, or revision. In one stage or another, I've got: a ghost story, a postapocalyptic concept, and a time travel idea.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Posted by Deborah Kalb at 6:25 AM
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Print Marked Items
DeYoung, Andrew: THE EXO PROJECT
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
DeYoung, Andrew THE EXO PROJECT Boyds Mills (Children's Fiction) $18.95 4, 4 ISBN: 978-1-62979-610-9
Can humans settle another planet before it's too late?Earth is slowly dying. To fund cancer treatment for his mother,
currently in cryogenic stasis, 17-year-old Matthew volunteers to be cryogenically frozen and sent 100 light-years away
to one of thousands of potentially habitable planets. There's no return--he'll message Earth the results, and if the
planet's unviable, he'll take a suicide pill. On Gle'ah, Matthew's destination planet, 17-year-old Kiva leads a preindustrial,
matriarchal society. Debut novelist DeYoung crams in multitudes of plot points--cross-universe, destined
romance, politics and violence on Gle'ah, weapons of mass destruction, telepathy, magical healing, drugs, and a mass
shooting. A multiperspective narrative approach gives readers broad information but contains only mild
characterization; main characters, especially Matthew, read like place holders. Dunne, a middle-aged black woman on
Matthew's team, specializes in particle physics and medicine but goes largely unconsulted regarding the plot's pivotal
decision; instead, white teen Matthew makes the core decision alone. Kiva's people are "exactly like humans in every
way" except for their gray skin, resulting in a culture of not-quite-white people without characters of color. The
scientific/religious explanations for phenomena on Gle'ah will remind readers of Star Wars' midi-chlorians--and not in
a good way. See Beth Revis' Across the Universe (2011) for cryogenics and Phoebe North's Starglass (2013) for
romance destined across the stars. It's fine in pace and flow but disintegrates under scrutiny. (Science fiction. 13-16)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"DeYoung, Andrew: THE EXO PROJECT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2017. General OneFile,
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p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479234498&it=r&asid=c4b40d1a8594be6b16ae377fbaaf2dcd.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
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The Exo Project
Cindy Welch
Booklist.
113.14 (Mar. 15, 2017): p45.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Exo Project.
By Andrew DeYoung,
Apr. 2017. 448p. Boyds Mills, $18.95 (9781629796109). Gr. 7-10.
On a future Earth that is rapidly dying, OmniCore has introduced the Exo Project to launch volunteers into space to
find the next home for humans. Seventeen-year-old Matthew volunteers, not for the glory but for the huge fee that will
help his younger sister save their very sick mother. He and two co-workers land on distant Gle'ah, only to find others
there before them--a rather primitive matriarchal society run by a 17-year-old girl named Kiva, who has seen Matthew
in her visions. As the two grow closer, Matthew must decide if bringing humans to this new home saves them or
sacrifices the native Vagri. First-time author DeYoung offers straightforward yet effective storytelling, which makes
for a refreshing change from science fiction with convoluted and multilevel plots. The third-person omniscient
narration shifts mostly between the two main characters, Matthew and Kiva; however, this perspective diminishes
some of the emotional intensity of the tale. Overall, though, this is an enjoyable read with abundant STEM
connections.--Cindy Welch
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Welch, Cindy. "The Exo Project." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2017, p. 45. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA490998527&it=r&asid=dd175533699f5d03cf2830fa5aa44d26.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
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The Exo Project
Publishers Weekly.
264.6 (Feb. 6, 2017): p68.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Exo Project
Andrew DeYoung. Boyds Mills, $18.95 (448p)
ISBN 978-1-62979-610-9
In DeYoung's debut novel, climate change is ravaging Earth, and the Exo Project is sending crews on one-way voyages
to find planets that might sustain life. Having volunteered for the project, 17-year-old Matthew Tilson and his
shipmates on the Corvus awaken in orbit around an Earthlike planet and proceed to explore its surface. They're the
canaries in the coal mine: if they don't die, they'll contact Earth and colonists will be sent. The planet is radioactive,
but, oddly, this doesn't affect them. It's also inhabited by a matriarchal society of telepathic aliens who are human in
everything but color, causing immediate problems with Matthew's xenophobic crewmember, Sam. Shifting attention
among multiple characters, the third-person narrative concentrates on the growing love between Matthew and the
native ruler, Kiva, and on the mystery of the aliens' still-active Ancestors. Some odd plot maneuvers (including how
easily the Corvus is retrofitted for a needed return trip) can feel like a letdown--this is perhaps a better pick for readers
looking for extraterrestrial romance than for diehard SF fans. Ages 12-up. Agent: John Rudolph, Dystel, Goderich &
Bourret. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Exo Project." Publishers Weekly, 6 Feb. 2017, p. 68+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480593922&it=r&asid=e219cf4e61bcc79aaedc61ec78c529b9.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A480593922
About the Book
The Exo Project
by Andrew DeYoung
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This fast-paced, sharply written multiple-perspective YA science-fiction debut opens on a future Earth ravaged by solar radiation. Desperate for money to save his sick mother, seventeen-year-old Matthew agrees to participate in the Exo Project, a government plan to save the human race by flying across the galaxy in search of a habitable planet for resettlement. He thinks he’s been given a death sentence: 100 years in cryostasis, followed by a quick death on some barren world. But then he lands on Gle’ah, discovering the strange, beautiful creatures who live there, including Kiva, the captivating teenage girl who leads her planet’s matriarchal society. Kiva views Matthew as a threat and for good reason --- if he tells Earth that he’s found a suitable planet, it will mean the end of her people’s way of life. But then Kiva and Matthew discover an emotional connection they never expected --- and as they begin to delve into the secrets of Matthew’s mission and the dark truth behind the seeming paradise of Gle’ah, the choices they make will have consequences for both of their worlds.
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The Exo Project
by Andrew DeYoung
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult 14+
Hardcover: 455 pages
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
ISBN-10: 1629796107
ISBN-13: 9781629796109