Fire Time (Doubleday science fiction)

Fire Time depicts a catastrophic event threatening an alien world and its human inhabitants. On the planet Ishtar, a rare astronomical occurrence called Fire Time approaches—when one of the planet's three suns moves dangerously close to its surface, causing widespread destruction. Facing this crisis, barbaric tribes declare war on more civilized societies in an attempt to survive the coming disaster. Human colonists who settled on Ishtar after leaving Earth find themselves caught between the warring factions. However, they have little ability to assist their Ishtarian allies. Earth's governments are engaged in their own conflict with a hostile alien race and cannot provide aid to the endangered planet. As the fiery apocalypse approaches, the humans can only observe and wait. The novel explores themes of war, alien contact, and environmental catastrophe while examining questions of right and wrong, good and evil, and heroism and villainy.