Celestial by M.D. Lachlan

Celestial Reviews

• 
  Brian Clegg

  An important point first - despite being labelled as such, this is not science fiction at all. It's science fantasy, a once-popular genre that has become relatively uncommon these days. Celestial is very much in the same category as Roger Zelazny's Roadmarks and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.
  
  The setting is an alternative 1977, where the US and the USSR are both sending manned missions to the Moon. A mysterious hatch has been discovered in the Moon's surface, leading to what may be alien technology - something both sides want to get their hands on. The central character, Ziggy da Luca is a linguist, an apparently strange choice for a NASA crew, who ends up having to deal with difficulties both from her own crew and Soviet cosmonauts. I ought to stress it being an alternative 1977 isn't why I'm calling it fantasy - that seems to be a pretty much accepted part of the SF genre.
  
  So far, so Arrival. But once they're through the hatch, the astronauts and cosmonauts experience a world of total weirdness that for me seemed to have three strong points of comparison. The first is the final segment of the film 2001, A Space Odyssey - with its combination of psychedelic effects on the way in and distinctly mystical woo in what then occurs. The second is Lewis Carroll's work. There's both the nightmare/dream aspects of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and the mix of dark/light in the quest of The Hunting of the Snark - though in this case totally lacking any sense of humour.
  
  Finally, there was a lot that reminded me of the weird lost ships in Karl Drinkwater's Lost Solace series, though Celestial benefits considerably from having a group of people to react to what's happening, rather than a single individual with only an AI for company in Lost Solace.
  
  For me, there was just too much weirdness - I can cope with the bit at the end of 2001 because the main part of the film is so brilliant, but here, apart from opening and closing chapters, pretty much the entire book is set in the randomly odd environment, which has very little attempt at scientific plausibility, relying instead on a mythical/fantasy foundation.
  
  Nonetheless, the book is well written and I stuck with it rather than giving up part way through because there was always the promise of rationality returning (it just never did). If you want to try something really different from a traditional space SF novel, this is well worth a try. But for me, this snark was a boojum.
• 
  Bookphenomena (Micky)

  Headlines:
  Conceptually fascinating
  Space race tensions
  Somewhat whacky
  
  Celestial was a historically set sci-fi adventure set in 1977 with the political cold war tensions between the US and the then Soviet Union you'd expect of that era. In some ways this book gave me an initial vibe of Sylvain Neuvel's writing but it did diverge from that feeling as the book progressed. The context for this story was some strange happenings on the moon with a buddist language and linguist sent to investigate (the buddist element became important).
  
  I found the first third of the book the most exciting part of the plot, the second third was a 'let's just go with it' experience and the final third was somewhat esoteric where I had to trust the process. Sci-fi has a solid history in taking us places that seek to explore the existential and this book definitely took that direction.
  
  Ziggy was a worthy lead for this book and you can imagine the misogyny she experienced in the 1970s as a female mixed race linguist amongst white male scientists and soldiers. I had one moment where I had to close the book in ire at one comment she received, but I'm sure that's pretty realistic. This book is peppered with racist (micro)agressions from one vile character to a range of other characters but Ziggy did have some champions alongside, not least herself.
  
  Kovac was a really odd character, pretty unfathomable to the last. I can't say I liked her and I feel like my gut bore me out on this one. Toog was a great character and some of the Russians were endearing and yet odd.
  
  I do recommend this one even though it does go strange places in the plot.
  
  Thank you to Gollancz for the review copy.
  
  3.75 stars rounded up.
  
  Find this review at
  A Take From Two Cities Blog.
• 
  Carlex

  Three and a half stars.
  
  A peculiar reading, with a taste of New Wave but adapted to current times. I started reading this book because a known author recommended it. So I started without even having read the synopsis and I must confess that my expectation was one and the reading experience has been quite different. When I started reading I thought it was a hard alternative history novel about the Space Race between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, Ian Sales style, and I found a very different story; although some aspect that Mr. Sales develops in The Apollo Quartet stories (highly recommended by the way) is also present here but... my lips are sealed.
  
  I must say that the development has been a bit long for me and maybe some of the situations created by the characters could have been shortened. So most of the book is like a lysergic trip that lasts a little too long… So along the way I have had time to think about… a flawed novel? But not really. An excessive plot pretentiousness? In the end, I verify that neither is the case.
  
  The novel deals about a mysterious discovery on the Moon, but this is actually an excuse for an introspective journey of humanity itself, and particularly of the astronauts and cosmonauts involved in this situation. Recalling a time in my life when I enjoyed meditation - although my knowledge of the subject remains superficial - the novel makes sense and its main premise I think is well-thought-out.
  
  In summary, in my opinion what the author proposes is difficult to achieve, but I believe that he comes out successful with the proposal.
  
  
  
• 
  Ben

  Awful. Truly, what a bloody mess.
  
  Celestial fronts as a Sci-fi esc trip to the moon. The blurb on the back had me captured as NASA has discovered that there's a Hatch on the moon and so our lead character Ziggy, an expert in ancient/religious language is pulled into a team and fired up to the moon to investigate.
  
  So far, so good. The opening chapters start strong, the rest of the cast are introduced and the pacing is great.
  On route to the hatch, those pesky commies start firing at them and it's clear that it's now a race to the hatch. A classic America vs Russia space race. Nice.
  
  The Americans get to the hatch and then the book utterly shits its pants and the author takes us on a nonsense psychedelic, quasi religious trip through the moon with psychic abilities of some nature, The world serpent along with Yggdrasil. You know the norse tree of life that contains the 9 realms. It's on the moon mate. It's next to the giant ocean and the Vietnamese base that the gang runs into whilst trying to escape attack helicopters while riding a Babayaga...(A house on legs, it's an eastern European folk story type of deal) (One shows up in the Witcher)
  
  Astronauts falling through the walls, a man dressed as a squirrel pulls a rocket out of nowhere and they battle with ascending to Godhood. It's a mess.
  
  For the first half of this nonsense I was genuinely entertained. It got weirder and weirder, silly me thinking that the conclusion would be satisfying and being it all together but the back end of this really suffers. The pacing just goes out the window and the read becomes an absolute slog to get through. Let me tell you, slogging through nonsense? A good book, it does not make.
  
  The final 50 pages. The wrap up, the conclusion to it all made me absolutely hate this title. I had this sat at a comfy 4 star rating up until shortly over the halfway mark.
  
  Maybe I felt gaslit into what type of story I was being told or maybe this is just too intelligent for me to get but I'm fairly confident this is all just nonsense.
  
  I am thrilled that it is over.
• 
  Sam

  I’m going to put this book on the same mental shelf as my teenage Aragorn-look and the summer of tango classes. In other words, they’re terrible and I’m raging I persisted with them for so long. Celestial by M.D. Lachlan, promised everything; an underestimated Asian scientist-come-linguist is picked by NASA to go investigate a mysterious hatch on the moon discovered by the Russians? Sign me up, lads!
  
  I suppose I should have questioned any story that rips the main character (Ziggy) from her established life and LANDS HER ON THE MOON in less than thirty pages. We gloss over Area 51, her training, her fiancé, the launch, and even what it’s like being in space, in favour of a flashback to her dead sister and the backstory of one of the other astronauts – a Vietnam War veteran. Clearly NASA only sends people on Top Secret missions if they’re severely traumatised and you won’t be surprised that we spend most of the time listening to Ziggy talk aloud to her dead sister.
  
  One-hundred pages in and still no bloody aliens have rocked up. Instead, we spend ages with the three-person Astronaut team going through some kind of tunnel deep inside the moon which makes them all have hallucinations. There is a gunfight with the Russians (which is lit) but only lasts half a page. Then we return to the visions and Ziggy asking her sister for advice (the sister was Earth-bound so why her ghost would know anything helpful is beyond me). And because of the visions, Ziggy discovers she has the power of thought and somehow summons the remaining (Russian) Cosmonauts to her side so they can give her an oxygen tank.
  
  I could probs get on board with the mind-power stuff if just one bloody alien turned up.
  
  But they don’t.
  
  Instead, the Vietnam Vet’s trauma becomes so pronounced he somehow mind-transports them into an imaginary forest where the Vietcong start attacking them. At this point, Ziggy starts waxing lyrical about the “Twilight Language” and the Six Dharmas of Naropa (I had to Google it, it’s based on Buddhism, apparently).
  
  
  Half the characters get killed off by the brought-to-life nightmares of the Vietnam lad but at no point is there even a hint of mourning because Ziggy is either meditating or having visions of her sister being shot by an Iraqi (I’m being very literal here). Eventually, they find a giant (symbolic?) mind-tree where a Russian-talking-squirrel guides them to a space-launch platform, allowing them to escape back to Earth (again, I’m being literal, this really happens in the book).
  
  Homeward bound, the only other female character (Kovacs the Russian) reveals herself to be a baddy and tries to stop Ziggy from becoming a Dakini of Mandala (a goodie Queen of Enlightenment). Using the classic dead-sister-guilt, Kovacs tries to make Ziggy commit suicide so that she can become a Dakini In The Form Of The Wrathful Mother (Buddhism, maybe?). They have a big mind-battle where, thank goodness, the traumatised Vietnam vet loses his sh*t and just shoots Kovacs (yay for PTSD?).
  
  Saved from “Enlightenment though the yoga of Kapalika” (I’m still being literal) they all fly home because Ziggy has learnt how to mind-pilot an abandoned alien spacecraft – NOT THAT ANY ALIENS EVER APPEAR.
  
  So all in all, a book which promises Cold War heroics is actually just some weird ham-fisted group therapy session where our own minds turn out to be the most dangerous thing (not the Russians with guns, not the Vacuum of Space, and not even a 7ft tall talking Squirrel). It’s your mind, you sick freak, which is more dangerous than running out of oxygen. The other message of the book? Anyone clever is a villain, which seems a terrible life lesson, but then again, that was what Trump and Boris were preaching during COVID, wasn’t it?
• 
  Peter Baran

  Celestial suffers a little from bad timing. Whilst historical science fiction (sci-fi set in the past) has always been with us, the period chosen her - mid-seventies NASA - has recently been very well covered by Apple TV's For All Mankind. Is less serendipitous is having a female protagonist suffering sexism and racism, For All Mankind, and in its own way the Lady Astronaut series have picked these issues off. This isn't a problem if your story is good, and at least it means the background scenario is familiar, but unfortunately the version of the space race painted is tissue-thin, and the same can be said of the cosmonauts when they turn up.
  
  This is largely moon-bound though and is a variation on the "mysterious artifact" narrative. A hatch has been found on the moon, and is covered in language, our heroine Ziggy Da Luca is a linguist and so in theory it all makes sense. There is a question as the book unfolds as to how much use a linguist is, as the artifact soon starts playing with their minds, and summoning up impossible objects and people. At the heart of it the book is about fear and unrepressed desires and has the sense of some seventies sci-fi (when it is set) that extrapolates imagination into reality. Unfortunately, this is where the problem with the tissue-thin characterisation of NASA comes in. Ziggy is adequately fleshed out but has a psychological sister issue which makes her dreaming make sense. Her male, sexist, racist, VietNam vet companion is clearly the source of all tension and problem on the mission, even when they catch up with the Russians, and nearly all of the conflict would be over if he was taken out of the equation. The reader can see this, the characters can't and so a frustrating em passe kicks in.
  
  The book clicks along, and perhaps if you haven't read or seen anything like it before it might work, but I found it a bit of a slog in the back end. It was also more than clear where it was going, and more or less how it was going to get there. Not a slight on Star Trek to say its done this story a number of times, and each time better, I found this frustrating.
• 
  Mark

  Ziggy Da Luca is not an astronaut – she’s a Buddhist linguist. And yet she quickly finds herself as an additional extra on board a US spaceship heading to the Moon. The reason? A recently intercepted communication shows that the Russians have discovered a mysterious hatch on the Moon.  The discoverers of this mysterious hatch have now disappeared. There is now, in this alternative 1977, a race between the Russians and the Americans to get to the Moon and find out what has happened. Ziggy’s skills may be needed to decipher the alien symbols.
  
  However, Ziggy feels that she is out of her depth. Relatively untrained in space operations, with little experience of even using a gun, she is seen by at least one of the crew as necessary but unwanted excess cargo. Ziggy has to put up with Griffin’s antagonistic behaviour for the good of the mission, even though he knows that it is wrong and does little to moderate it.
  
  The team arrive on the Moon to see their Luna-orbiting command module destroyed whilst they are on the way down to the Moon surface. With little alternative choice, Ziggy and the rest of the surviving astronauts (which unfortunately still includes Griffin) have to enter the alien artifact to survive.
  
  Once inside, things get very strange, and not necessarily what they appear to be. The Americans meet the Russians who are as bemused as they are. This strange world inside the alien artifact feels a little like Fantastic Voyage (1966) as the group travel inside a world of expanding and contacting spaces, surrounded by pipes with strange fluids and symbols drifting inside. Ziggy and Kovacs, her Russian counterpart, find that they can speak to each other by telepathy and can see inside other’s minds. The story is then filled with images and flashbacks of their individual memories. But to what purpose?
  
  The rest of the book is about how (and if) Ziggy and the team survive with the Russian cosmonauts to return home, as well as try together to uncover the mystery of the alien artifact in changed circumstances. Needless to say, revelations about human past history and the reasons for their vivid imagery mean that the future of humankind could be changed for ever.
  
  An alien first-contact story, Celestial shows that M. D. knows his science fiction. There’s the alien artefact like the monolith in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or even his Rendezvous with Rama (1973). The idea of first contact and the process of trying to decipher alien languages reminded me of Ted Chang’s Arrival. In other places, the Cold War standoff between the Russians and the Americans reminded me of the ending of the movie Ice Station Zebra (1968). There’s even a nice nod to Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999.
  
  This is not necessarily a bad thing. Lachlan takes all these familiar aspects and does what a writer should do - turns them into a story that is not what you expect, nor can you predict.
  
  Celestial is deliberately quite different in style to Lachlan’s usual Fantasy writing, although it does feel more like soft-styled ‘New Wave’ Science Fiction rather than anything particularly hard-SF based. What happens inside of the artifact reads a little like a contemporary version of Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris (1961), or perhaps Tarkovsky’s movie of it (1972), or the biggest psychedelic trip since the 1960’s (see also  2001: A Space Odyssey.)
  
  Expect lots of introverted navel-gazing and fractured visions, dreamlike flashbacks as the human presence inside the alien ‘thing’ causes changes to happen, both to the humans and the environment they are in. Each person seems to get different responses. Is what happens due to the aliens trying to make contact, to create a means of communication with the humans, or is it something more? Is it just the impact of psychological stress, of being there, with the strange environment amplifying the group’s emotions and relaying them back?
  
  Things are initially unclear, and Lachlan does well to keep all options open and all the plates spinning as the plot develops. What Ziggy and her colleagues see as visions take up most of the book, which keeps the reader guessing, until by the end world religions, mythology and self-enlightenment are all involved.
  
  On the downside, I can see that this book may not be for everyone. What feels like a typical Analog-style story to start with ends up being rather esoteric towards the end. As the alien contact seems to amplify human emotion, feelings of love, hate, revenge and everything in-between are on display and ramped up to eleven, which some readers may find annoying. In particular, Griffin seems to be particularly unsubtle, although the reasons for his attitude are explained along the way.
  
  Overall, I thought that Celestial was pleasantly surprising.
  
  This one may not be for everyone, but its elegant unravelling of an unusual plot and imaginative use of science fictional tropes made Celestial an enjoyable read for me.
• 
  Emsal

  Okay, so I am writing this review right after finishing this book. And I don’t know how in-depth this review is going to be because I’ll be honest, I’m not completely sure what I’ve just read.
  
  For the first 100 pages this was a 4.5 star read for me and then as we go through the book, it becomes very fast paced and via that fast paced-ness it begins to lose sense. Which I feel is the whole point of the novel but in parts there were a few plot points that I felt didn’t make any sense, and were sort of unfinished.
  
  Celestial reminds me of Arrival and Annihilation, absolutely nothing is founded on our reality as we know it and everything has its own logical pathway. I loved the film Arrival and the short story it was based on, and Annihilation was fantastic in book and adaptation. I’m not sure why then that Celestial fell a bit short for me. I think I agree on a few other reviews that Celestial feels more Fantasy than it does Sci-Fi and perhaps this is what makes the novel slightly confusing.
  
  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading Griffin, he was a really interesting side character and every time he spoke I really paid attention. I felt like the author was using him to push the story forward and I think without Griffin there wouldn’t have been that “grounding” that keeps us in the centre. The tension between him and Ziggy was constantly intriguing and I wondered when it would hit a point of no return.
  
  The writing was very well done and I thought it was a strong piece, however, I think it wasn’t necessarily the book that I thought it was when I was going into it. I liked it but I didn’t love it like I hoped I would.
  
  Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy!
• 
  Kath

  So... Ziggy is recruited by NASA. She isn't quite sure why as she isn't an astronaut, instead, she's a linguist, specialising in ancient languages - spoken and written. She is sworn to secrecy and fast tracked to a launch. Sent to the moon where there's a hatch that had been discovered by another party who failed to return. And it soon becomes apparent why she is there. But they are not the only interested party. There are the Russians who first made the discovery... And they are back and they also want answers...
  And that's all I am saying. For full fun and frolics, it's best to go in knowing as little as possible for maximum reaction.
  Ziggy herself is a cracking character who I took to straight away. She's in an environment that she knows little about and initially she is a bit subservient and cowing. But that soon changes once she find her feet and, woe betide those who dare to cross her!
  It's set in the past - the late 70s and that era has been recreated well, especially the attitudes and technologies available. I found this to be convincing and also consistent throughout the book.
  As for the realism... it's a bit on the bonkers side but also strangely credible too. Improbable but not implausible I think is the best way to describe it.
  All in all, a cracking space romp that I thoroughly enjoyed. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
• 
  Dawn

  "Celestial" is a cracking story, with great characters, great writing, and (obviously!) a great setting. For me though, the plot felt a bit forced and didn't quite live up to what the opening promised. I'll admit it: I sighed in disappointment a few times. It's still a very, very good book though and a nice bit of escapism.
  
  My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.
• 
  Jerome Turner

  First few pages were a lovely setup. The trip to and arrival on the moon was somehow unsatisfying. I mean I like action and dialogue but at least description of the wonder of space travel might have helped, given this was essentially the protagonist’s lifelong dream. Middle 90% of the book was just a bit trippy but also satisfying and the rushed explanation in the last five pages was confusing and crammed in. Like I say, lovely premise but then essentially unsatisfying.
• 
  Annarella

  I had a lot of fun in reading this alternate history that mixes sci-fi and actions. Some parts are bit over the top but it's a well plotted and gripping story.
  Loved Ziggy and the world building, good storytelling.
  Recommended.
  Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
• 
  James

  Abandoned: quite well written overall, but I was looking for interesting ideas/hard SF, not more of the Erich von Däniken stuff too much SF is plagued with.
• 
  Dave

  Woah
  
  Really beautiful. Loved how different this was to what I expected. Mind-bending. Challenging. It’s made me want to understand enlightenment more.
• 
  Suzanne Berget

  So weeeeeird!
• 
  harri !

  what the hell did i just read
• 
  Frank Brett

  Actually, I found it strangely readable. Nicely ethereal. I know Griffin is a pain, but that turns out to be important later.
• 
  Joshua

  Strange book, a bit esoteric but I enjoyed it.
• 
  Jodie

  Calling all sci-fi readers, here’s one for your consideration. Celestial by M.D Lachlan is a sci-fi book with a Buddhist twist. An alternate reality set in the 70’s. A space race that gets weird fast. Honestly worth reading it just for the ’squirrel’ living in the tree of life. There’s some solid lessons in the philosophical discussions that crop up. Trigger warning on the language, it does serve a purpose though.
• 
  Nikk Effingham

  What the actual hell was this meant to be about?