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Contact
by: Carl Sagan |
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780671004101 ISBN: 0671004107 Item Dimensions: Label: Pocket Manufacturer: Pocket Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 448 Publication Date: July 01, 1997 Publisher: Pocket Studio: Pocket Features:
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| Customer Reviews | ||
  - One of my favorite Sci-Fi booksI thought this book was excellent. Sagan does a wonderful job of predicting the reactions of various people --given their occupations, ideologies, worldviews, etc.---were contact with extraterrestrial civilizations ever to be made. Sagan's insight into Ellie's character is understandably, considering his own work as a scientist, apt and in depth --in my opinion. The debates between the scientists and ecclesiastics were something all too real for me, and I thought the interactions between different governments, and their marked suspicion of each other, was both appalling and accurate. One of the hallmarks of GOOD science fiction, in my opinion, is the ability to use real science within the story (of course the occasional divergence into the purely theoretical is sometimes necessary for things such as interstellar travel) and in this respect Sagan hits the mark head on. Definitely one of my favorite science fiction books, apart from the works of Adams and Asimov. I will be giving this book as a gift to a few choice friends. Rating:  - A Scientific Explanation, Perhaps, of ReligionI truly enjoyed the book--and would have enjoyed it more, I'm sure if I had not seen the movie first. So with that caveat, let me proceed.... Sagan has truly done a good job of showing how it COULD happen. It makes sense...though at places it can drag just a bit. The large passage of time (the main part of the story takes place over 12 years) is not readily apparent to the reader. Is it weeks, months, a year, or years that have gone by? However, I give great credit to Sagan (of whom I was under the impression was an atheist, certainly an agnostic) for ultimately "playing fair" with religion. In multiple passages he uses his characters to skewer or belittle fundamental Christianity, yet he also displays respect (again, through his characters) for some very intelligent people who are thoughtful and practicing Christians. Ultimately, we find that the whole alien interaction serves as an analogy to religion. That is, things that are certain on the personal level cannot be "proven" to others' satisfaction. Deep truths and heartfelt emotions are looked upon with great skepticism by others. Just as Ellie, the main character, has done with religion. It leaves us wondering if perhaps our current religions came about the same way. Or perhaps that there are truths that are not accessible to all...except by believing the report of those who have experienced such things. And the fact that the "real" builders of the universe are unknown, even to the highly advanced civilizations of other worlds...well, that smacks of "God" in some shape or form. All in all, a wonderful read (though sometimes it gets a bit bogged down in technical arcana--but that may be because I saw the movie). I recommend it to skeptics and believers alike. Rating: - PrescienceWhile I have read hundreds of books, I can count one hand the books I have re-read. After recently watching the movie Contact again (one of my favorites!), I went to my library and grabbed the book (first edition) which I hadn't read since I originally bought it. I won't go into detail on the book because many other reviews have performed that function, but I did want to point out a couple of prescient things that Mr. Sagan wrote in the book which was published in 1985. At the start of chapter 8, Ellie is channel surfing and two shows are mentioned, Lifestyles of the Mass Murderers and You Bet Your Ass. Now, while Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous had been on TV a year or so prior to the publication of the book, I thought Mr. Sagan did a great job of predicting the popularity of reality shows and the fact that Ass is no longer a forbidden word on TV. In fact, Wikipedia tells me that there was a show on The Comedy Network in 2005 called You Bet Your Ass. In chapter 12 there is mention of "robot roving vehicles on Mars". While there had been two failed attempts to land rovers on Mars in 1971, it wasn't until 1997 that there was a successful landing. Given the success of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, this comment struck me as much more apropos for 2009 than 1985. Good job Mr. Sagan! Rating: - Yet another lessonAs most everyone agrees, the movie is never as good as the book. The better the book, the more disapointing the movie seems to be. Perhaps this is why it's my opinion that Contact movie is one of the worst adaptations of the book given all the changes made from the book to the movie. Spoilers to come. One of the key changes in the movie is Ellie's relationships - one of the key relationships in the book was her relationship with the preacher and the whole message of the book became acceptance between faith and science and even a bit of merging of the two. The movie radicallized both sides and made it about the battle between the faith and science - the book's point was entirely different. In the book, the clash led to acceptance, while in the movie the clash led to Ellie not being selected as the sole person to go (antoher change from the book, given that a team got to go in the book) and the first device being destroyed by religious extremists. While the destruction of one of the devices was in the book, there was an entirely different reason for it. So, all in all, given the content of the book, which I recommend, the movie was totally disappointing and diparts from the book to the extent rarely seen in recent years. Rating: - One of Sagan's best booksContact is one of the most realistically written books of its kind. A young scientist finds a signal from outer space that appears to be the first "contact" with an extraterrestrial species. I won't give any "spoilers" but the story becomes very political, and dramatic as we see the way the Earth's governments and general population react to this unprecedented discovery. Everything that happens after the mysterious signal is discovered is very likely what "would actually" happen in modern day society. Sagan's writing style is special because he finds ways to give you a history and science lesson as he tells the story. But he does go into tangents quite a bit, for example he will go off topic to discuss Russian politics for and extended period, but it's still relevent to the overall story. The Movie is very similar, but the book of course has the wisdom of Sagan's tangents woven into it. |
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