Empyrion, by Stephen Lawhead, is less science fiction and more social fiction. True, there is space and time travel, but for the most part it is a story of humans, interacting with each other, as individuals and as societies. The author describes two societies, one that has adopted corporate structures, all the people living as prisoners in the city they built. They live, breathing recycled air, worshipping an evil god, working as drones, each hage ("town") specializing in their own tasks to benefit the whole enclosed city called Dome. They are oppressed, suspicious, mistrusting; yet there is a faction of rebels, who hope to bring about freedom and life. Their self-imprisonment is the result of a horrible occurrence and to keep safe, to assure that they would never experience it again, they enclosed their entire city in a huge glass-like dome.

There is another society, one that lives in freedom, enjoys life, worships the "Infinite", lives in peace and joy, laughing, loving and caring for one another in their open and beautiful city called Fierra. They too, carry sadness and pain related to the memory of a horrible occurrence, but instead of closing themselves in, they allow the pain of the past to make the lives they live now richer, more joyful and more full of light, because their hope and peace emanates from their relationship with "The Infinite". Of course, there is conflict between the two societies, a classic conflict between good and evil. It is a rich and complete story and will draw the reader back to it, right to the end. The author occassionally encumbers it with metaphor, but overall the book is well worth the time to read it. (February, 2005)