The Fire This Time: Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville

Faith and family are the intertwined themes of Armageddon Summer, set in July of the millennial year. Award-winning authors Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville co-wrote the book, Yolen narrating the story through the thoughts and word of Marina, a girl who turns fourteen on the fateful day, and Coville creating the character of Jed, a slightly older boy on the fringe of the group of believers.

Marina struggles to push back her doubts and live the role of a true believer, to follow the teachings of Rev. Beelson, the charismatic leader who has prophesied that only 144 of his chosen will survive when the fires of Armageddon begin and consume all those left below. Marina's mother is completely under the spell of Beelson, and her attention has turned away from her children to focus solely on the man and his teachings.

Jed does not believe in the coming Armageddon, but has come out of love for his father, whose wife has left him for another man and whose college-age daughter has refused to follow them to the mountain. When Jed and Marina meet, they are drawn to each other instantly, each sensing the other's doubt and needing someone to whom to reveal their silent questions. Watched constantly, they can only meet briefly at night, but in their brief time together the two form a strong bond.

Jed becomes more and more disturbed as he watches Beelson order the construction of a barbed and electrified fence to keep the "Brethren" inside and the rest of the world out. As the day of prophecy arrives, a crowd of "Last Minute Christers" begging entrance surround the gate, swollen by numbers of estranged parents demanding the release of their children inside. As the armed crowd grows more and more angry, the local police call for reinforcements to control a violent showdown as midnight of what Rev. Beelson declares to be the Last Day approaches.

Brief chapters which consist of police records, local radio broadcasts, and FBI transmissions are interspersed with the alternating narratives of Jed and Marina, a device which adds to the realism and tension of the story. Co-authors Yolen and Coville use their different voices to create two diverse but realistic characters. Jed and Marina emerge as very believable teens caught up in a situation not of their making but within which they must come of age as they struggle with the ultimate questions of life and death.