As The World Burns by Aaron Ryan follows fifteen-year-old Cooper Jespa Calloway, the son of President Xandrius Calloway, who has spent thirteen years confined seventy-five miles beneath Earth’s surface. When Cooper was two, a failed experiment intended to stabilize the planet’s magnetic field fused part of Earth’s rotational energy into his body. Now every heartbeat accelerates the planet’s spin, pushing temperatures higher as the days grow shorter. Scientists determine that Earth will eventually be destroyed if Cooper remains, placing his life at the heart of a global crisis. After the truth becomes public, pressure mounts on Xandrius to remove his son from the planet. Cooper must decide what he is willing to do as his father searches for another solution while the world closes in around them both.

Aaron Ryan’s As The World Burns is excellent Christian speculative science fiction, pairing future science with moral questions about sacrifice and the value of a single life. The Gravascend, whose electromagnetic columns carry passengers seventy-five miles underground in minutes, gives 2557 a convincing hard SF foundation, as Rosie Campion’s supernatural abilities bring softer speculation into the same world. Cooper Calloway’s vocabulary is oversized for his age, but it adds to his uniqueness and also has the added benefit of keeping technical explanations lively through a teenage voice. This is a Christian storyline, and the best part is when its meaning runs through the symbolism, as the burning planet mirrors public anger once society turns Cooper into a scapegoat. The recurring sparrow represents God watching over a boy the world has condemned, and Cooper’s bond with his father, gives Christian sacrificial love a human form. Readers who like Christian science fiction along the lines of L’Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell are in for a real treat. Very highly recommended.

As the World Burns by Aaron Ryan takes readers to 2557 and opens with a gripping hook: the day has shrunk by eleven minutes, and the horizon is “the color of old blood.” Fifteen-year-old Cooper Calloway knows it is his fault, because at the age of two, he was caught in Ragan’s Degauss Beams during a deep-core experiment meant to stabilize Earth's magnetic field. Somehow, he became inexplicably linked to the magnetism of the Earth’s core. Now his every heartbeat steals angular momentum and converts it to heat. The result is the rage of firestorms, ocean heat, and the models show that the only “clean cut” must be his death before he turns nineteen. Hidden seventy-five miles underground in The Atrium, Cooper is Earth's best-kept secret. That is until the data leaks and twelve billion people learn the President's son is behind the dystopian havoc in the world. Will his father, President Xandrius Calloway, sacrifice him as the world erupts with betrayal, censure, an assassination attempt, and a desperate flight aboard the starship Chrysalis?

Aaron Ryan’s novel is imaginative science fiction infused with realism, cleverly examining faith and sacrifice. The author creates a literary work with a heart beating beneath the chaos. The characters are elaborately drawn and unforgettable, especially Cooper, who hoards multisyllabic words and clutches his MetaDrake Balthazar, a plastic toy designed to mimic monsters of old. Readers cannot forget moments with Xandrius, like humming “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” as Congress deliberates. Other memorable characters are big sister Brooke; Rosie, the angelic girl born the day of the Incident; and Valenté, an android who quotes John 15:13. The worldbuilding is compelling, and As the World Burns conveys the urgency of what happens when Cooper breathes. There is imagery like the fiery glow of the Chasm, the hazmat suits, and EnviroView skies. This book features gut-punch twists, like a betrayal no one sees coming, luminous symbolism, and an explosive, deeply moving denouement.