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

What is your favorite genre of books? Why?

Since childhood I’ve come to enjoy every fantastical genre:

Science fiction explores philosophy and big ideas, often with real-world science and cool technology—best if orbiting the world of humans made in God’s image.

Fantasy, of course, recasts the real world in magical hues, creatures, and mythologies, where good defeats evil in wondrous realms.

Supernatural tales (including horror) casts evil against the hope of Christ’s glory.

Given the advantages of each one, I’m not sure how to pick a favorite!

Are you a one project at a time author or do you have multiple projects going at once?

Usually I’m working multiple projects, but with fantastic crew to help.

For example, I’m blessed to work alongside many Christian creators at the Lorehaven.com mission. There we create new weekly podcast episodes, reviews, articles/news, and Book Quests. Plus we get to maintain the best human-curated searchable library of the best Christian-made fantastical novels we have found.

Meanwhile, these days I’m steering Above the Circle of Earth into new worlds, with an eye toward future stories—more sci-fi, to be sure, yet maybe beyond.

How has your life experience helped in your writing journey?

Perhaps we all need to start with some clichés, so that’s how I too began. “Inspired” by a space-opera hero on a pizza box, I had the very original thought: “Say, what if we had fun fantasy tales like this one appears to be, only, you know, for Christians?”

Alas that I’ve seen many shallow and very “spiritual” stories that result from this logic. In my case, I think I needed to spend the next 25-some-odd years actually learning to love the genre, with all its classic humanism, strange new views of religion, and genuine celebrations of Christian-like heroes.

What is the funniest thing to happen in the process of writing one of your books?

Christian young folks do the funniest things when they feel Gifted for a Mission. (In fact, this impulse also figures into the choices of Above the Circle of Earth’s heroes.)

For me, I once approached a Christian ministry leader with a huge printed draft of a manuscript. In response—well, I’ll put it like this. Have you seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) when Mike Teevee’s dad hands Willy Wonka his business card? “I myself am in the nut business…” Wonka (Johnny Depp) casually flips it away. That’s basically what the ministry leader did to my huge printed novel manuscript. And he was right to do so! Aspiring authors, please don’t do this to ministry leaders.

How do you relax after a long day of writing?

Oh, that would be reading. Or possibly some video games. Sometimes my beloved wife must remind me to play video games. I’m not sure that’s how things should go.

Where do you find your greatest inspiration?

In order: (a) God’s role as loving and righteous Creator, the Hero of His own Story, (b) my wife and family and amazing friends from my church and beyond, (c) so many fantastical stories, many by Christians, some not, that reflect good gifts.

Who is your favorite author? Why?

The very Christian answer is the Word Himself (John 1). Without His creative work in real worldbuilding, we would have no world, no imagination, no subcreations.

After that, I enjoy so many authors across fiction and nonfiction genres.

Do you have extensive outlines when writing or do you write a book as you go?

I’ve tried both approaches and appreciate the advantages of each. Yet I find mega-outlining the best for my own creative approach. It seems to match better my story aspirations, if not the growth of human individuals or even whole civilizations.

Do you remember the first book you read? What sort of impact did it make on you?

That’s a hard one. As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been reading books.

I do, however, remember reading my first science fiction books proper. For that, I started well. I’d seen the Disney version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and wanted to read the book—not an abridged version, not an Illustrated Classic, but the original. So I did, and I loved it. From there I washed up on The Mysterious Island, voyaged From the Earth to the Moon, and travelled to other futuristic worlds.