In a chilling opening sequence, a 28-year-old woman is released from captivity. It seems that she is on some kind of distant moon, and that her captors had been using her for some sort of grotesque human experiments. She clutches her well-used Ember. A friend tells her that she was locked up for counter-revolutionary activities against the universe, including a bombing that killed hundreds. And that it was necessary to wipe out her memory, as part of her rehabilitation. But slowly she regains her memory, and she starts to learn the truth about her arrest and imprisonment. And she realizes that parts of the Ember - a collection of writings - are missing. Poetry, songs and some ancient history remain. But the stories of the start of the holy fire and the teachings to receive and retain it are gone. This is a highly enjoyable short novel - part futuristic science fiction adventure tale and part love story, as well as a powerful Christian parable. Martin Roth