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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In Debbie Hightower’s Christian speculative novel Forged In Flames, after aliens destroy America, surviving colonists on Planet Equinox try to found a human society shaped by Scripture. Mayor Gabriel Lawson leads New Hope, where teacher Gladys Bardick trains children at Heaven’s Gate school to see their settlement as a second beginning under God. Nearby Valley Haven takes in refugees from Hell’s Kitchen after a forest fire destroys their settlement, placing its feared leader, Sawyer Kilpatrick, beside people who escaped his rule after the Magellan crash. His arrival forces Lawson, Sheriff Mack McPherson, tracker Bwanbale Okello, and Valley Haven’s Jack Armstrong to decide how mercy can operate before written law exists. As Cottonville forms outside the gate, the colonies must choose whether their new world will answer danger through biblical justice.
Debbie Hightower’s Forged In Flames follows human colonies on Planet Equinox, where settlement life turns belief into policy after Earth’s destruction. The novel has a well-established hierarchy and world-building that shows how shelter, schooling, shared meals, and courts shape daily life after societal collapse. The author fleshes the world out with stunning visuals, the standout being Mina de Oro, the northern gold mine and its observation tower, where Raven sees fire-scarred land below a sky crossed by pterodactyls. The story is unquestionably Christian in every way. Much of the storytelling comes by way of dialogue, in the form of history lessons on where Earth's humans failed through deviation from scripture and political progression, and in the argument at Valley Haven that biblical law should guide Equinox. Thoughtfully written and unique, this will suit readers who like new-frontier, colony-style science fiction embedded in scripture.
