A Reading List of Mormons and Aliens

This morning I had the great privilege to read my paper “One Great Whole: An Exploration of the Alien as the Self in Mormon Science Fiction” as part of the Association for Mormon Letters 2023 conference. You can watch a recording of the whole panel on YouTube, and you definitely should because my co-presenters Paul Williams and Jesse Christensen brought some great thoughts about Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series and Brazilian missionary novels respectively.

I meant to get this annotated reading list up before the panel, but better after than never. So, here are some interesting readings to consider about Mormons and aliens, divided into fiction and nonfiction and listed in the order discussed in the paper:

Fiction

Hillary Sterling, “The Apocalypse of Kemet III.” Mormon Lit Blitz, “Saints, Spells, and Spaceships” contest, 2021. An extension of Mormon theology to an alien world where the Meek are about the inherit the earth.

Kirk Holland Vestal, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 2017 AD.” Latter-day Science Fiction, volume 1, ed Scott S Smith & Vickie Smith, 1982. It’s difficult to come by copies of this collection, though they occasionally show up on eBay or Amazon. There are several in BYU’s library. This story tells about the colonization of Mars by a remnant of the Lamanites in 650 AD. Not included in the paper are the planet-sized temple on Saturn and new revelations in the Martian language. This guy was ambitious for our future.

Jeanine Bee, “The Investigator.” Mormon Lit Blitz, 2019. A story about two missionaries tracting into a UFO.

Richard M. Reeve, “The First Door.” Latter-day Science Fiction, volume 1, ed Scott S Smith & Vickie Smith, 1982. Another missionary-tracting-aliens story. I couldn’t include in the paper the interesting format of this one, where the reveal of the alien nature of his proselytes doesn’t happen until the last few paragraphs.

Lee Allred, “Golden Contact.” Mormon Lit Blitz, 2016. A reversal of the typical missionary alien story. I love the faux-television news style.

Eric James Stone, “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made,” Analog Science Fiction & Fact, 2010. A must read. This story is, if not the only, then among a very small number of pieces for the mainstream market that address LDS belief and aliens. The interaction between Branch President Harry Stein, his swale congregants, and the great Leviathan is a great example of explicitly Mormon speculative fiction. Won the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novelette.

Zenna Henderson. Ingathering: The Complete People Stories. NESFA, 2020. I specifically discussed her stories “Ararat,” “Pottage,” and “Gilead.” Important to note that Henderson left the Church in her mid-30s as far as I can tell, but her stories do seem to fit the pattern I’m trying to show.

Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. Tor Books. I particularly recommend the forward to Speaker and the afterward to Children as relevant to those studying these works.

Brandon Sanderson. The Stormlight Archive. Tor. I only touched on it briefly, but the construction of Shadesmar and general cosmere mechanics are relevant to my paper. I’m excited to see what happens in the next decade as we approach a time of greater interconnectedness in the Cosmere which should bring more “alien” discussions to the forefront.

Nonfiction

Kent Nielsen, “People on Other Worlds.” New Era, Apr. 1971. Published in the wake of the moon landing. Kent Nielsen was an associate professor of astronomy at BYU at the time of publication.

Erich Robert Paul. “Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Mormon Cosmology.” Science, Religion, and Mormon Cosmology, University of Illinois Press, 1992, pp. 193–223. BYU’s library has a copy of this in their Ancient Studies room with marginalia by Hugh Nibley, which is always fun.

Hollis R. Johnson, “Worlds.” The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York : Macmillan, 1992, pp. 1595–96. Hollis Johnson was a professor of astronomy at Indiana University at the time he wrote this.

Gregory L. Reece, “UFOs, Scientology, and Other SF Religions.” The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, edited by Rob Latham, Oxford University Press, 2014. This article doesn’t discuss Mormonism directly but provides an interesting contrast for other alien-positive religions.

Preston Hunter, “Zenna Henderson’s People Stories.” Irreantum, vol. 2, no. 4, 2000, pp. 87–93. An extensive and thorough review of Zenna Henderson’s People stories from a Mormon literature perspective.

Clara Moskowitz, “Did Jesus Save the Klingons?” Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2014. Discusses the perspective of various religions on extraterrestrials.