Scholar Max Haiven described the novella as "a chastening lesson in both the potential and the perils of freedom",[2] while author Margaret Atwood said that it "shows us our own natural world as a freshly discovered Paradise Regained, a realm of wonder".

Nothing hides in tiny crevices, waves tendrils, scuttles into shadows, lays eggs, washes its fur, clicks its mandibles, or turns around three times before it lies down with its nose on its tail.

[13] As the children grow older Luis begins to develop an interest in the virtual reality programs that allow people on the ship to explore the planet they have left behind.

Three days after their wedding Hiroshi tells Hsing that the focus of his life's work is not simply navigation, as is generally believed, but concealing a secret from the rest of the ship.

[25] Hiroshi tells Hsing that he and a handful of allies, who believe that the people on the ship should stop at Hsin Ti Chiu, have been keeping news of the acceleration secret.

[18] Both Hsing and Luis have been described as protagonists typical of Le Guin's works, being somewhat isolated from the society they live in, due to their strong individuality and the fact that they do not entirely conform to societal expectations.

[18] As with other members of their generation, Hsing and Luis grow up in an environment devoid of terrestrial ties, as a result of which they are, as children, unfamiliar with the terms "hill", "sky" and "wind".

While a child Hsing has a strongly negative reaction to a virtual reality recording of a tiger in a zoo, demonstrating her complete separation from the "wild" aspect of the earth, and her rejection of things that do not acknowledge her humanness and individuality.

Literature scholar Tonia Payne has written that Paradises Lost is an example of ecocriticism, wherein Le Guin critiques the idea that human beings are separate from their natural environment.

[8] The story briefly quotes Lao Tzu (referring to him as "Old Long Ears"[8]) and suggests that the angels' pursuit of total control over their environment is unwise: it is the "dangerous" planet of New Earth which offers the true possibility of a utopia.

[8] According to scholar Everett Hammer, writing in an anthology examining Le Guin's work, Paradises Lost suggests that any attempt to create a utopia while ignoring the history of the people within it is bound to degenerate into a dystopia.

[9] Le Guin reacted to the tendency within Christian, Islamic, and Hindu fundamentalism to reject scientific thinking and social change, and to use shared beliefs as armor against political pressure.

Le Guin said in her introduction to the story that she was unable to start Paradises Lost until she worked in the religious theme, which in her words "began to entwine itself with the idea of the sealed ship in the dead vacuum of space, like a cocoon, full of transformation, transmutation, invisible life: the pupa body, the winged soul".

"[41] The story also explores why certain characters are resistant to the allure of Bliss; by discussing their background and upbringing, Attebery says, Le Guin "helps us believe in their ability to choose a tough material reality".

[8] The angels use of the phrase "the planetary hypothesis" to refer to their terrestrial origin was a gentle dig at Christian fundamentalism in the United States, with its insistence that evolution is "merely a theory.

[8] A more direct criticism of Christianity comes in Le Guin's depiction of the cult of Bliss being disrespectful of women, as well as of believing in a nuclear, patriarchal family.

[8] Bliss is portrayed as a closed system; members reinforce manipulate the ship's data banks to remove references to Earth and their destination, because they value stability even to the point of denying some of their own knowledge.

[36] This "control" is only possible within the entirely human-made environment aboard the spacecraft, which Le Guin depicts as lacking elements of the "richly textured" real world, and which denies human beings the experiences of "wildness" which make life interesting.

[44] In Payne's view the story challenges the idea, common to Western society, that human beings, and technology, can solve all problems; it does so by presenting an entire planet as a system not amenable to control.

[37] Scholar Max Haiven also said that Paradises Lost demonstrated the human need for myth and spirituality, and the ways in which power structures could arise even in societies planned with the intent of avoiding them.

[2] According to Haiven, the zeroth generation made the mistake of assuming that they could create a completely rational society; instead, the emerging system of religion brought with it coercion and patriarchal standards of behavior.

[1][38][45] According to scholar Sandra Lindow, all of the works in the collection (with the exception of "Old Music and the Slave Women") examine unorthodox sexual relationships and marriage; in the case of Paradises Lost, the tightly controlled reproduction of people aboard the ship.

[3] Haiven wrote that a number of stories in the collection, including Paradises Lost, "Mountain Ways", and "Old Music and the Slave Women", explored anarchist ideas.

[51] A review of a performance that included excerpts of the opera in Portland, Oregon, stated that Taylor had given the music "rhythmic drive and bright sound, with two sopranos, flute, celesta, metallophone and plenty of pizzicato, that were well suited to the theme of celestial travel.

[37] Hansen described the relationship between Hsing and Luis as a "wonderful love story", and also praised the characterization of Bliss as a "remarkable twist on organized religion", saying that the "conflict [made] logical sense".

[37] Writing in 2015, Haiven called Paradises Lost a "telling narrative" and described it as a "grim and timely warning" about religious fundamentalism, and its power to shape society.

[2] Author and literary critic Margaret Atwood, reviewing the volume for New York Books, wrote that Paradises Lost was a part of the "note of renewal" in Birthday of the World.

[48] The review compared the tone and premise of the story with that of science fiction authors Gene Wolfe and Robert A. Heinlein,[48] and said that, as with Le Guin's other works, it explored multiple forms of social stratification.

[48] The collection as a whole received high praise, particularly for the "sheer level of talent and word-wizardry and world-building" in Le Guin's writing, and for taking a "non-dogmatic and fair-minded" approach to politically sensitive subjects.

[48] Attebery also suggested Paradises Lost had similarities with the quartet The Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe in its discussion of religion, as well as with the writing of novelist Molly Gloss.