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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I received a complimentary copy of this book, and all opinions given are my own and not an

endorsement of all author's opinions.

Author Interview

1. What was your process to align your book with your target audience?

Christians have struggled with sci-fi. When we like these stories, they’re more like

the classic solar-field fantasies of C. S. Lewis, or the occasional space-marine books

for bros. The reigning champion, of course, remains end-times fiction.

I couldn’t help but wonder—could a sci-fi story balance the high-tech worldbuilding

of a futuristic adventure with the humanity of its heroes? What if Jesus does not yet

return in the next few centuries, and people could really make new technologies to

settle Mars and other planets? We can enjoy imagining what could happen.

That’s what Above the Circle of Earth aims to discover. Which means the story stays

wholesome yet honest, idealistic yet realistic, inviting you aboard a tight-run ship.

2. What was the most challenging part of writing your book?

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.

3. What was the most enjoyable part of writing your book?

That’s hard to choose. Sometimes I stand tall at the “command deck” of plot, action,

big themes, and setting the story’s course. Other times I prefer lingering on the

“living deck,” visiting these heroes and getting to know them. And occasionally I’ll

venture to “labor deck,” where the fusion reactors hum and stats insist I get every

detail right for the ship to fly—energy source, momentum, style, science research.

4. How do you weave Biblical truths into your writing?

Ideally, biblical worldview starts in the worldbuilding. Some people think Christian

authors should start with a moral lesson and build the story around that. Others

suggest that’s none of our business; just tell the story and let these virtues happen.

I favor C. S. Lewis’s approach of letting one’s own starter images “bubble,” then

giving them the form of genre and story, and then discovering their godly purpose.

5. Are any of your characters based off of yourself or those close to you?

One reviewer said Above the Circle of Earth’s cast reminds her of “a wide range of

Christians, from enthusiastically genuine to hardheaded troublemakers.” Here’s

hoping other readers feel the same! Sure, I know the T-shirts and memes warn “be

good or I’ll put you in my book.” I think, however, the best characters aren’t copies

of real people, but composites. Christ’s church is a wonderful, maddening, ugly yet

beautiful place. The best Christian-made stories will reflect many kinds of humans.

6. Was your writing process spontaneous as it came to you or very planned

and organized? Why?

Oh, very planned and organized. I’m a pre-writer, or detailed plotter, or whatever

the pros are calling it these days. That means I get to work out most the surprises

during the pre-writing. Then I enjoy experimenting with pace and style for draft 1.

7. Do you have a favorite time of day you are most productive in your

writing?

That’s almost always in the evenings, once I’ve finished all my other creative work

for Lorehaven.com with its articles, weekly podcast, and social media outreach.

8. Why did you pick this genre for your book?

By now I think I love sometimes about every fantastical fiction genre. Yet somehow

from an early age, when I first read unabridged Jules Verne classics, I felt a special

enjoyment for science fiction. It’s able to explore big heroes, weighty ideas, and

incredible potential futures in ways that other genres naturally can’t do.

9. How many books do you personally own?

My shelves runneth over. The total likely surpasses 1,000, and twice that if you

count the many amazing books my wife brought into our household.

10. What is your next big goal as an author?

Hmm. I might write some more sci-fi. Might see what else I can do. That all depends

on how readers enjoy Above the Circle of Earth. Of course, I’d love to see where this

good ship could next take the Rivers family and their Space Mission recruits.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue publishing Lorehaven.com and building this into the top

mission to help readers explore fantastical stories for God’s glory.

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