About the Book

Book: Above the Circle of Earth

Author: E. Stephen Burnett

Genre: Science Fiction

Release date: March 4, 2025

The fight for the space mission begins in his homeworld.

Brock Rivers never wanted to be a repairman on Mars. Years ago, he failed to protect his family, and now he labors across a frontier planet to keep his children alive and escape CAUSE. But the spacefaring humanist regime is taking over Martian colonies, forcing all to join the secular state.

Back in Brock’s homeworld, his people summon him to fulfill old hopes with a new dream. After decades of cultural isolation, they plan to restore missions for the 22nd century, voyaging beyond Earth to share the gospel in space. Brock must find a ship and recruit a team of misfit believers. They expect opposition from the formidable CAUSE, but not from a more deceptive enemy.

One adversary attacks from the shadows to destroy the faithful. Others unify to oppose the project. Brock and his family must fight to resist these enemies of the space mission or else return to exile forever.

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About the Author

E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and its weekly Fantastical Truth podcast. He is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent and other resources for fans and families. Stephen and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area and serve in their local church.

More from E. Stephen

Today’s earthly life seemed especially rough.

My day job had issues. A family member is facing worse challenges. Home-repair projects are piling up. Oh, plus our two dogs stormed out of the house and, for no discernable reason, attacked the neighbor’s pet (zero injuries reported, so far).

It’s not all bad. As I write, my wife and I aren’t sick. Times of rest are coming soon. We have good work and freedom to worship Jesus. We enjoy shelter and supplies.

Also—we’re not forced into exile on Mars because of secular persecution on Earth.

That last is the scenario of my debut sci-fi novel Above the Circle of Earth. Its creation began with an “original” teenage thought like, “Hey, what if someone made a sci-fi adventure, only with Christian characters?” That grew into a complex futuristic world of fantastic space exploration, but also mixed results for believers in Christ.

ACE isn’t all dystopia. You can still enjoy freedom to practice your faith on Earth. But you need to stay in your religious preserve. If you try to live like a Christian outside that homeworld, the spacefaring humanist regime CAUSE won’t appreciate that.

That’s how Brock and Alicia Rivers ended up fighting to survive on Mars, laboring in the settlements and raising their three children in a dry and weary, waterless land.

Then comes their call to adventure. This is not just a mission, but the Space Mission, the first restored missionary outreach in fifty years. They’ll have to return to Earth and face the death of a loved one, intimidation by the secular CAUSE, and many challenges and greater threats from their own Christian brothers and sisters—all forming a fantastical adventure about how we long to defend our homeworlds.

I started my first version of ACE decades ago. But to tackle big themes like this, I now realize I needed more experience to understand these kinds of struggles. Of course, I’ve never had to diagnose a leaking dome on another planet or resist a technocratic humanist regime. But I have felt the pain of lost job opportunities, grief after the loss of a parent, and the futility of researching odd subjects (from biblical theology to Martian calendars!) that seemed to lead nowhere.

Well, plot twist: All those hard times made this science fiction more realistic. You can’t build spaceships or stories without those struggles. Otherwise the tale ends up bad—inauthentic and corny, with simplistic morals and shallow heroes. Ugh. Few readers want that. And the few who do will barely remember such a book.

Maybe that’s one reason our Author allows the real-world challenges. He’s not just making us holy and more like Jesus Christ. He’s making us to be more human, well-rounded heroes with dimension and realism, for His glory and our good.

Here’s hoping Above the Circle of Earth launches a different kind of Christian-made science fiction, helping us see all hard times in light of our Author’s amazing future.

Godspeed and #GoTherefore!

Stephen Burnett

Author Interview

Can you tell us a little bit about what readers can expect from your books?

Above the Circle of Earth begins with Brock Rivers, a young husband whose foolish ministry choice caused his family to be exiled on Mars. Now he has a chance to restore gospel missions in the 22nd century. He might fulfill his dream of protecting his family while journeying to other settlements in space. Unfortunately, many of his own people disagree. So does a secret adversary in his homeworld. And after them waits a greater foe in CAUSE, the spacefaring humanist regime that governs the solar system and keeps competitor religions “safe” and sheltered on Earth.

What is the greatest advice you have ever been given about writing?

Name your hero and his deep need in your story “pitch,” before you talk about all the worldbuilding and big themes! I’m not sure, however, if anyone ever told me that specifically. Maybe I finally intuited this idea after reading thousands of fantastical novels’ back cover descriptions in the Lorehaven Library.

What book made you fall in love with reading?

I’d have to name a “composite book,” starting naturally with the Bible. Next come classics like Lewis and Tolkien, Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, and newer Christian-made works like the Left Behind series. Frank Peretti’s novel The Visitation (1999) was surprisingly formative. He loves the Church, yet stays honest about her flaws.

Can you share 5 random facts about this book?

Brock and Alicia Rivers were married in their CIRCLE preserve on July 27, 2116.

Jerome Rivers and other CIRCLE leaders bear the names of famous Christians.

Lord willing, each future time/date mention truly syncs between Earth and Mars.

In this century, Mars has two competing calendar systems (CAUSE and Syndic).

The Ark Hotel (and the story’s Ohio setting) was inspired by Answers in Genesis plans for a Noah’s Ark attraction. Now it’s real, and I’ve been there myself.

What was the inspiration behind it?

Once upon a time, a tall and very homeschooled teenage lad witnessed a certain 1999 space franchise prequel hero printed on a pizza box. That’s when this teenaged homeschooled student came up with a brilliantly original thought:

Say, what if there was an adventure story set in space—but, you know, about Christians?

Plot twist: That teen lad was me all along. And some decades later, I revisited this old idea with a lot more life experience and studies of biblical cultural engagement.

Can you share something interesting or surprising you learned while researching for the book?

Oh yes. Martian gravity is about three-fifths of Earth’s. Also, that planet takes nearly two Earth-years to orbit the sun. Given patience and a lot of spreadsheet work, you really can create a Martian calendar (or two). Also, the Arabic language has many different pronunciations depending on where you’re from.

What was the most challenging part of bringing this book to life?

Perhaps the greatest challenge is staying ahead of real-world technology. Many concepts that seemed fantastical ten years ago—like the dominance of private spaceflight, AI, robotics, and quantum computing—now wait (or lurk!) just around the corners of tomorrow. What’s next for us? Cold fusion? Synthetic gravity?

Cultural shifts are also quite fun. To sum up, several religious belief systems that are popular today would ground humanity in permanent harm if the Lord allowed these notions to take over society. So the story needed to sideline these in order to ensure some kind of spacefaring future. As a result, ACE’s villains inherit a small yet growing tradition we can see in today’s secular humanist “big tech” circles.

Finally, foreign language translations prove difficult, especially for the audiobook.

What was the most rewarding?

This took some practice. But after all the editing and it’s-not-ready-yets, I think I most enjoyed reading the complete Above the Circle of Earth aloud to my wife.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book?

I’ll list a few ideas under the story’s big ideas, which you’ll want to explore yourself.

First, that God has created an amazing universe to help us worship Him. And yet before He does return, there’s only so much we can do out there before our own sins poison our souls, or that amazing universe kills us with radiation or vacuum.

Second, faithful missionaries are basically amazing. And so is the Church, despite all the challenges and conflicts we find among Jesus’s future-perfect bride.

Third, spaceships are epic. And the best ships would win in battles with dragons.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Before you go, where can readers keep up with what’s next?

Lorehaven.com is my first mission, to explore fantastical stories for God’s glory. Many faithful creators and I create its weekly podcast, articles, reviews, and a searchable Library to help you find the best Christian-made fantastical novels.