Celestial Worlds

What happens when the boundaries between science fiction and sacred theology dissolve entirely? In *Celestial Worlds: Science Fiction Through LDS Theology*, author Mizuki Harada crafts a daring and intellectually rich narrative that asks some of humanity's most profound questions — and searches for answers across the stars. At the heart of the book is Priya, a seasoned xenoarchaeologist aboard the survey vessel Meridian, stationed on Varel-4 — a world long considered dead and safely dormant. When she discovers an ancient carved wall deep beneath the planet's surface, its panels trace a cosmological progression that mirrors, with unsettling precision, the theological framework of her Latter-day Saint faith. What unfolds is not merely a story of alien discovery, but a deeply personal reckoning with belief, science, and the shape of the cosmos itself. Harada weaves together two seemingly incompatible worlds with rare subtlety and respect. LDS theology — with its concepts of organized intelligence, eternal progression, and covenantal relationship — becomes not a doctrinal backdrop but a living lens through which Priya, and the reader, must reinterpret everything she finds. The novel never reduces theology to metaphor, nor science to obstacle. Instead, both are granted full weight and dignity. The writing is atmospheric and precise, building quiet tension through meticulous detail: the cold stone beneath a palm, the recycled air of a deep-space vessel, the private light of a tablet in a small room at 3 a.m. Harada excels at rendering interiority — the careful, disciplined mind of a scientist who also prays, who separates her instruments by habit but finds that habit failing her.