Author Description

For as long as anyone can remember, creatures have been collapsing the skyline, pulling unsuspecting families and homes into the depths of the earth one sinkhole at a time. With much of the adult population gone to fight a distant war, it falls to the students of the Citadels to keep their homeland from falling apart. With his father drafted and his mother lost in the bottom of a bottle, sixteen-year-old Hobbes takes a chance at a better future by volunteering to join Echo Citadel. Armed only with a hammer, he is sent into the dark tunnels and collapsed earth to fight the subterranean creatures known as Diggers. Chosen to be a Breaker, his life expectancy is measured in seconds and hammer swings as he protects his teammates who burn the Digger hives and rebuild the foundation of their town. While cave-ins and deadly creatures threaten him below, a vainglorious team captain and a vindictive mentor with a coward's reputation threaten on the surface. To make matters worse, a community of religious zealots worship the Diggers as God's way of righteously cleansing the earth. When one shows up at the Citadel, the chaos in Hobbes' life spins further out of control. With dark eyes and a beautiful smile, she elicits Hobbes' help to find her missing brother. As Hobbes searches, he discovers there are more than just tunnels hidden beneath the surface of the Citadel and that the deadliest creatures may not be Diggers after all.