The counterpart to Obi Kaufmann's previous book from 2019, The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource. Kaufmann's signature 'Atlas' approach and vision of California (told with watercolor maps and paintings) is focused onto one subject in a reference manual style, considering the future of conservation, history, fire behavior across the state, and much more. Obi Kaufmann's books are routinely on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list, and his high-quality and highly detailed books are beloved by book lovers and booksellers. As fires become a more common occurrence in California, more and more education and accessibility is needed on subjects relating to fires, especially conservation and regeneration, and The State of Fire offers a very engaging manual for all types of curious readers, novice and experienced scientists, and hikers. Understanding fire as a natural process is becoming more and more important, and The State of Fire strongly considers this "new" science of fire.  This new understanding of fire, viewing it as a necessary and natural element of our world, is another way this book is set apart from other contemporary fire books.  Three main sections: Fire History, Fire Ecology, and Fire Principles. The history section focuses on Indigenous fire-use and techniques, how things changed with colonial influence, how and why the contemporary "megafires" are different than older fires, and a breakdown by region of California fires in the twenty-first century.  The ecology section zeroes in on how fire develops and affects specific environments in California, covering each of the state's diverse regions, from mountains to deserts.  Perhaps more starkly than ever before in Kaufmann's collection of writings, what it means to observe, document, and conserve the nature around us—given the affects of human activity on the climate and environment and the intensity of this subject—is at its most urgent and necessary.