Contact

Another great book by Carl Sagan. I expected a great book by the Pulitzer Prize winner author of Cosmos... Carl Sagan ( see my review 5 stars) and I was not disappointed. As an amateur astronomer of 40 years I knew of the famous distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan. All of the basic astronomy used in this great Sci Fi I knew about but I know very little of Radio Astronomy. By reading this book I learned a few tidbits about Radio Astronomy. To me this book was fascinating. We see the central character Ellie Arroway growing up and eventually getting a PHD and becoming a world class astronomer in charge of a huge radio telescope... project Argus. Dr. Arroway leads a team and finds an ET signal originating from near the star Vega beaming to Earth. Project Argus receives a signal of prime numbers and then the The ETs beam back a radio signal received from us of Hitler and the Olympic games in the late 30s. Embedded in the signal is a message of instructions for us to build a 2 trillion dollar machine but there is problems getting the "primer" message to understand it. Eventually we get the "primer" and build the machine in the US, Russia and Japan. 5 people are selected to go into the machine ( Dr. Arroway is one of them) and using wormhole technology on double black holes are.....that's enough I wont ruin the book for you. Just to say the famous 5 are threatened to not say what they discovered and let the world think the machine did not work. But it did....! At the end of the book we learn the final message. Carl Sagan was a world class astronomer and scientist that also worked as part of the Viking Mars spacecraft team. One of the things I liked about Carl was his seemingly effortless way of making complex problems in astronomy and science understandable to the general public. That is a rare gift. Many times brilliant men/women can not write to the average laymen complex thoughts in a way for the less educated to understand. Carl was a master at this. This is excellent Sci Fi. Also some real Astronomy and some Radio Astronomy is used. The book reads very well. A fast read. The characters are well established and there is good interaction. As a novice to Radio Astronomy it was great learning a few very, very basic tidbits of Radio Astronomy. Also Contact was a major motion picture from Warner Brothers. I remember seeing the movie and liked it too. The book was just as good.5 stars for a very enjoyable book. Sadly Carl Sagan passed away in 1996. The world misses a great astronomer, scientist and a great man. Even though he never knew of me I considered Carl Sagan a friend who I respected very much.

Good read

This is my first book I've read by Carl Sagan and it was a spectacular ride. It teases all your emotions. So,what would happen in society in all parts of the world IF contact was made?, this is as real as your going to get in my opinion. I saw the film years ago and was upset by the ending but this book covers and goes over what really happened on that trip through the galaxy, and of course the novel is always better. What I got most from this read was an actual education, I learned more science in this book than in school(do they still teach science in school?),I finally understand Pi. Most worthy of what I got out of this book since I'm an Atheist myself was the discussions between characters about the interwoven arguments between science and religion. As well as what an entire world would go through mentally if a alien being was known to us. Fear,happiness,questioning faith,and a feeling that us humans are very very small, and how a world can come together in such a crisis or should I say 'such a moment in our history'. Sagan has a incredible style that is very well thought out and scientific, yet explains it to the reader in such an easy to understand way that like I said, is understood by the casual and hardcore reader. His character development is on point, with so many main characters its hard to fully understand their situations but Sagan had woven their origin perfectly and no character is felt as lackluster or incomplete. I had feelings for these people,loving and hating characters is a sign of great writing. I urge everyone to give this a try for you will learn something of the human race, religion, science, philosophy,and world government, economics and the lessons we need to learn if such a scenario did happen for REAL, the coming together as a species for the benefit of the world. A must read and I'm still thinking about this story days after I finished.

I rated this book 5 stars because it respecfully portrays human awe in the presence of our philosophic questions: who are we, where are we going after this life, are we alone in the universe? The believers of the many faiths in the world are each one displaying different behaviours when asked this questions, but all are equally considered in the book. It sounds like the very old motto : there are various paths to God. Whether you believe or not in the arguments Dr. Sagan is presenting, you end the book with a deeper respect for human life and human achievements. You are led to think on how humble our planet is when compared tho the billions of stars (and possible satellite platens). As Dr. Carl Sagan himself often wrote, whether there is extraterrestrial life or not, you end up realizing how important is life here on earth. You start looking at things at a a certain distance and this is very positive. I recommend this book to anyone interested in speculating about our place in the universe: there are no answers, but suggestions to make you think about Humanity. But I also recommend this book to those who are very satisfied with their faith, because the mere observation of how far human mind can lead a scientist's thought seems to be the reflection a of an Architect's inner thoughts. No matter what your faith is. No matter if you do not profess any faith at all, or if your mind is purely rational, skeptic, You will end up thinking a lot about your place in the Universe and in my opinion this alone makes the book worth reading. But there are other very pleasant and intelligent qualities in this book. After all it was written by a very respected scientist and science-writer. I have read all other books written by Dr. Sagan and it seems like he poured into this book his very hopes about extraterrestrial intelligence, all based on a very credible and logic reasoning. You end the reading with the idea that you have not been fooled at all. On the contrary, Dr. Sagan's ideas are very logic and after all acceptable.

Great story from a great man. I loved this so much that I loaned it to my friends on deployment. RIP to my boy Carl. I hope you’re out surfing among the stars, vibing with the aliens my man. Definitely worth buying the physical copy too — paper is better than screens.

1) Plot (5 stars) - After spending a lifetime listening to the stars, one astronomer finally hears a message to build a machine. But should humanity build it? What will the machine do? Will it be friendly or hostile? The decision pulls all facets of our modern society to the table for a heated debate and the tension of their interplay and the final result was fascinating. Sometimes, however, I felt the pace was a bit slow. 2) Characters (4 stars) - Ellie is the brilliant scientist charging forward for the cause of the rational, while sometimes missing the subtleties of interpersonal relations or emotions. She's a romantic which puts her at odds with her fellow scientists, but also deeply analytical which puts her at odds with much of humanity. On top of it, she's a female in a male dominated profession which allows for sexual and gender conflict as well. I enjoyed riding along with her on this journey. 3) Theme (5 stars) - Are we alone in the universe? It's so immense that it seems almost mathematically impossible for us to be the only "intelligent" life form. But if so, why haven't we made contact? Is it a lack of technology on our side or theirs? A lack of interest? A time or space distance too large to hurdle? Or are we just too different to understand each other? This was the surface question of the book, but underlying it was the theme of faith vs. empirical rationality, and how we need both to dream and advance. A message which was summed up beautifully in the book's conclusion. 4) Voice (4 stars) - Sagan became famous for translating esoteric scientific principles into simple and engaging parlance for non-scientists, and this ability shines through in his prose. Through Sagan's eyes all the prosaic backdrop we take for granted--ants, stars, mathematic concepts--come alive with his curiosity and the teeming science behind them. 5) Setting (4 stars) - The book takes place in a variety of science facilities on Earth, and a bit in outer space. All were described well and I felt transported there. 6) Overall (4 stars) - An excellent story on the role of science in our present and future, made accessible through a strong lead, interesting plot, and a kindly professorial voice. Smart and fun. I'd recommend it.

Politics, theology, and sci-fi possibilities abound in this book, blended together in a brilliant manner. Sagan develops his characters better than Arthur C. Clarke does, though that's not to say that Clarke's work is any less intriguing. But this book addresses the "what if"s quite adeptly, illustrating the classic attempt for some people to blend religion and scientific discovery (personally, I hate the idea of "guided evolution" myself, so I could relate to the protagonist's feelings of pure scientific discovery for its own sake; here, the discussion of whether life is out there and if it's truly more advanced and benevolent as we would expect is unanswered). Most of all, there's no happy, wonderful, flowery ending. Nor is there a bad one, but one that -like all of Sagan's works- leaves the reader thinking. At the end of a book, I want to ask the hard questions rather than have a forced discussion about what parts one enjoyed. This novel enables one to do exactly the former of the two: it sets up arguments, allows for critique and belief in the possibility that we really may be "it" out there, in spite of however much searching we may hope to accomplish. That's not an easy prospect, considering Sagan's "Cosmos" discusses the odds of discovering life and in which stages of development/advancement we'd find it; here, he lets us imagine that we may be the end of the road, and that the non-thinkers who tend to run our societies could end up ultimately lead to our ruination rather than let those who think out-of-the-box take the world by the hand and lead us forth. Hard stuff indeed. Great book, highly recommended.

The story itself is amazing. This product arrived without the dust jacket, though.