Steven L. Peck

[6] Terryl Givens stated that Peck's work is "full of theological and metaphysical insight and probing".

"[7] In a book review of Wandering Realities published in BYU Studies, Scott R. Parkin described Peck as maybe "the most important Mormon fiction writer producing today.

David Spaltro described the novella as "one of the most original and powerfully moving things I’ve ever read" and has acquired the rights to adapt it into a film.

"[10] Derek Lee at Rational Faiths wrote that the novella encouraged reflection on the nature of the afterlife and what living forever would mean.

[11] The short story collection Wandering Realities (2015) contains stories set on other worlds and this one, and many are "just plain weird" featuring "odd characters driven by peculiar demons, with each tale told in a different voice and structured in a unique way," as described by reviewer Scott R. Parkin in BYU Studies.

Literal interpretations of scripture cheat "both religion, by ignoring what the author of the text was really trying to tell us, and science, by setting up unnecessary oppositions between important religious principles and easily testable facts.

"[7] At the Association for Mormon Letters (AML), Heather Young wrote that Evolving Faith had "enlarged my appreciation for my time on earth and the part I can play in protecting its immeasurable gifts.

"[16] In another Dialogue review, Shane R. Peterson wrote that the book's strength is in its meditations on Mormon theology, and that its weakness was its presentation through the frame story of another character's dissertation, which gave Gilda a "strange distance" from the reader.

[17] The Tragedy of King Leere, Goatherd of the La Sals (2019) received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, where its setting was described as a "fascinating world of technological solutions to global warming".

[18] In Dialogue, Kylie Nielson Turley noticed how the book was difficult to categorize, wondering if it was better to call it "a modern-day ecological interpretation of the famous Shakespearian familial tragedy" or "a dystopian novel that will haunt the reader with visions of a post-apocalyptic future".

[23] His non-fiction essay, "Five Wagers on What Intelligent Life Elsewhere in the Universe Will Be Like", received second place from the 2015 analytical laboratory reader's awards.

The award citation praised his unusual fiction: "If Peck’s works are medicine, they are strong, strange, and sometimes bitter-tasting.

Peck’s unpredictability confronts both the casual and scholarly readers, both the faithful and faithless, forcing them to question stereotypes, simplistic binaries, and straightforward reversals.

[33] On the podcast "Snap Judgement", Peck said that the experience taught him that Satan could block God's influence on him, which affected how he views religious belief.