Appearance
Contact
After reading the book and seeing the movie, I loved them both. The book was great and I only wish that more of it could have been included in the film. I had seen Cosmos, Carl Sagan's TV show, and it's great to see his ideas and views expressed in great piece of contemporary fiction. One of the few books that I can't help but read over and over.
Contact
First let me say that unlike most who apparently have posted here I'm not going to talk about or rate the movie version of this novel. I'm also not going to base my rating on a comparison of the two.I found this book in the late 80's on a local bookstore shelf and decided it sounded interesting. I had actually read an excerpt, I reallized, several years before. The book laid out the "BASIC" themes of contention between fact and faith. Within this discourse the autor found a way to introduce the reader to some amazingly interesting characters. How easy it would have been to go heavy on the science and forget that you're writting about people. Sagan takes us into the "soul" of Dr. Arroway. Yes, her soul was the very thing that eventually drove her to each new accomplishment. The author lets us see that her mind was only the vehicle. This story is her story of discovery and because of that the ending is especially important. The story shows the frailty of the human species when mind and soul are at odds or simply not allowing the other to exist.Sagan goes to a great expense of the English language though to tell his story. Although I didn't count there seemed to be "millions and millions" of extra words thrown in needlessly. Alot of the science though was explained well enough for even me to grasp. I appreciate that. The storyline is well crafted and engaging. The characters are interesting and the book is still the second best novel I've ever read. I'm about to order it again.A MUST READ
Contact
read the book after seeing the movie 7 times. surprised how much better the movie's plot was. Sagan's vision of the aliens as bored galactic engineers was a real let down compared to the movies vision of the aliens as enlightened and spiritual. The whole treatment of the spiritual angle, though, is confused in both the movie and the book
Contact
I would never have guessed that Sagan, a hardheaded, agnostic, scientific type would have in him a book with such a fine sense of character development and emotional pitch. Having read many of his nonfiction books, I was not surprised by the social and religious commentary, which I found to be both perceptive and very even-handed.The science was interesting -- particularly the mode of travel described -- and I found the use of messages buried in irrational numbers to be an imaginative concept that I've never seen before. As a sci-fi story, I would compare this favorably with some of Arthur C. Clarke's best work, including 2001 and Rendezvous With Rama, in terms of the scope and majesty of the universe he creates. My only problem with the story, in fact, is that it is a little bit too derivative of Clarke; the space/dimensional traveling sequence seems to be imitative of 2001, and there are other similarities to Clarke novels, such as Childhood's End, that were a little distracting (this is why Contact gets a 9, rather than the full 10 rating).Nonetheless, I found this a very moving story that has more genuine feeling in it than almost any S-F story I've read. This is a novel that is visionary and almost religious in its awe of the universe, and I only hope that the movie version coming out next month does it justice.
Contact
He became so famous as an astronomer that it's easy to forget he was one heck of a fine wordsmith as well. Yes he was. You've watched six shows, at most, on PBS. Sesame Street, Are You Being Served, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Red Dwarf, and Cosmos with Carl Sagan. If you're brighter than me, throw in The McNeil-Lehrer Report or its sequel. But that's it.Why COSMOS? Well, if I type "billions and billions" in quotes, you hear his voice in your head. Yes you do. The man made astronomy interesting because he was a wordsmith.CONTACT is a novel by Carl Sagan. Copyright 1985, which works for me. I read it when it was new. Back in my security guard days, down in Tampa Florida. (Yo Bob!) I later saw the film, very well done, with Jodie Foster, but I can't remember it. One of the advantages of getting old.How does the book stand the test of time? So well that I'm gonna recommend you get it right now. Of course the science is spot on, since this is Carl Sagan. If we ever do hear from somebody not of this earth, this is how it'll happen. But that's a given. What's easy to forget is that Sagan gave us some very well-drawn characters from his world in an eminently readable style. And, as always, accessible science that makes you marvel at the possibilities. Keep in mind that I've probably never used the word "marvel" in a book or movie review before. I'm too old and jaded to marvel. But heck, I marveled.As if that weren't enough, he had so much fun predicting the future. This far down the road, we can see where he misfired, which was almost never. We can enjoy how accurate he often was. This is where he let his subtle humor roam free, and we can love him for his wit. These are the traits I didn't catch 20 years ago, because I was looking for aliens. Which he also delivers, somewhat, but I don't even care at this point. I just know I love this book.
Contact
In the year 1999, one astronomer makes a discovery that would shake the very foundations of the world. Eleanor Arroway, a graduate of Harvard and California Technological University and a native of Wisconsin, would make such a discovery. Working in a radio telescope compound known as Argus, she searches the sky constantly, in hopes of receiving a message from a distant civilization. Dedicated to her work, she finally makes progress when one of her telescopes receives an overwhelmingly strong signal from a star named Vega. Looking at the screen of 1's and 0's, she discovers that it is a video clip of Adolf Hitler welcoming the world to the 1936 Olympics! After further studying this awkward transmission, she discovers that there is a message underneath the video clip. Quickly, the rest of the world joins in the effort to collect this message and hopefully decipher it. As the message continues, members of the Soviet Union make the discovery that the message may be a blueprint for the construction of a machine. This novel follows the life of Ellie Arroway during this fictional period of discovery. Playing a vital role in the construction of the Machine, she also becomes the representative of the United States to the alien race that sent them the Message. She always believed that there were other intelligent beings in the universe, and for the first time, she has her proof.I enjoyed this book. It was full of exciting "what-ifs." Also, Carl Sagan did an excellent job with the character of Ellie, who was both extremely smart and very much human, unlike other genius characters in other stories that seem to be above everyone else. He gave all the characters deep emotions and backgrounds that kept me interested in the book. I would not recommend this book to those who cannot stand reading anything that isn't full of action. Though there are some exciting points in the book, I would not say it was full of action. Also, the language used in the book was highly scientific, and with my "junior in chemistry class" understanding of science, I could barley understand it. I did, however, have some idea of what was going on at all times. In short, I recommend this book for the open minded and the scientific, otherwise, I suggest staying away from it until you figure out what isomers, harmonic oscillators, and erbium dowels are.