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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love Carl Sagan and this is one of the reasons why. A truly amazing book.
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I've read a few reviews complaining about the writing in this book being too dry; I found it overly sentimental, especially towards the end. Still a great first contact story, that takes into account the nature of governments and people with strong religious convictions, as well as some interesting sci-fi concepts.
Contact is a brilliant novel in which Sagan's intelligence shines through. None of that should surprise you if you know anything about who Carl Sagan was. That one of the most well-known astrophysicist/astronomers of his time was able to craft a believable idea of a first contact experience is basically a given. That being said, the book is not without its flaws. Here are the three reasons it's getting four stars from me instead of five.
1. The book spends a good chunk of time on side-stories not directly related to the central plot. I found most of these to be a detraction because of their sheer number. One or two side-plots is fine, but this had more than I can count on one hand and that's just too many. When the book focused on the main story line, it was great.
2. My issues with the side-plots were probably heavily related to the fact that this is a dry novel. The characters don't have a lot of depth or character, which means I didn't care about them. There's no humor here. No strong character that you really care for. The lead is a female scientist, which is not something you see in a lot of sci-fi, but other than there's nothing memorable about her. To sum up, the novel's brilliance comes from the science and not much else.
3. Speaking of science, Sagan did not dumb himself down. The terminology in this is often needlessly academic and that's a negative for me since this isn't a novel aimed at academics. For example, in one scene the characters are taking about "diagramic material" instead of just saying "diagrams." Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using technical terms when the need is there, but use layman's terms when you can! Especially if you aren't going to explain what the words mean so that many a reader will have to stop and try to look things up. That's not to say that the book doesn't explain anything, it does, but only the big, plot-relevant things. Lots of side comments or minor things are left unexplained and I could see that frustrating readers.
To sum up, the novel is full of brilliant ideas and science that are too cool to get anything less than 4 stars from this astronomy-lover, but the actual things that make something a story are lack-luster. Sagan could have just as easily penned a short-story about people receiving data from another world and doing nothing more than translating it without loosing any of the charm of his 400+ page novel.
1. The book spends a good chunk of time on side-stories not directly related to the central plot. I found most of these to be a detraction because of their sheer number. One or two side-plots is fine, but this had more than I can count on one hand and that's just too many. When the book focused on the main story line, it was great.
2. My issues with the side-plots were probably heavily related to the fact that this is a dry novel. The characters don't have a lot of depth or character, which means I didn't care about them. There's no humor here. No strong character that you really care for. The lead is a female scientist, which is not something you see in a lot of sci-fi, but other than there's nothing memorable about her. To sum up, the novel's brilliance comes from the science and not much else.
3. Speaking of science, Sagan did not dumb himself down. The terminology in this is often needlessly academic and that's a negative for me since this isn't a novel aimed at academics. For example, in one scene the characters are taking about "diagramic material" instead of just saying "diagrams." Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using technical terms when the need is there, but use layman's terms when you can! Especially if you aren't going to explain what the words mean so that many a reader will have to stop and try to look things up. That's not to say that the book doesn't explain anything, it does, but only the big, plot-relevant things. Lots of side comments or minor things are left unexplained and I could see that frustrating readers.
To sum up, the novel is full of brilliant ideas and science that are too cool to get anything less than 4 stars from this astronomy-lover, but the actual things that make something a story are lack-luster. Sagan could have just as easily penned a short-story about people receiving data from another world and doing nothing more than translating it without loosing any of the charm of his 400+ page novel.
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Had been in my TBR for almost a year and 3 weeks ago finally decided to pick it up and give it a read. A slow paced but an interesting book, especially in the later chapters. This is a novel for anyone who would like to bridge politics, religion, science and philosophy of humanity with a philosophy for the universe. Contact is easily one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read.
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Growing up in the nineties, I had no idea about the TV show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Most of my time staring at the idiot box was spent watching old science fiction shows such as either Star Trek or Lost in Space, originally aired in the US in the late sixties. Come to think of it, cable TV landed in my hometown in 1995, just two years before the fictional world of 1997 in which the story of Lost in Space was set.
The first time I came across Carl Sagan’s work was in my final year of postgraduation when I chanced upon the famous excerpt from his book, the Pale Blue Dot in the form of a YouTube video. The video in question is still there on YouTube and has rightfully garnered about eight million views. It still gives me goosebumps. Anyways, at the time, I had no idea that the passage was from a book. In fact, at that time, I had never heard of Carl Sagan as well.
So, here is the premise of the novel.
The protagonist, Ellie and her team conducting SETI research detect a mysterious radio signal coming from the star Vega, about 25 light-years from Earth. Upon decoding it, they discover it contains a sequence of prime numbers — a clear indication of an intelligent origin. However, when decoded, they realize that it is a retransmission of Adolf Hitler’s 1936 Olympic speech. Their best guess is that it is the first TV signal strong enough to escape the earth’s ionosphere. Later, though, they realize that the second round of messages includes instructions for building a complex machine.
This discovery sparks a global scientific, political, and philosophical upheaval. Nations debate whether to build the machine, religious groups protest, and world governments scramble for control. However, eventually, a multinational effort constructs the device.
Unlike the movie, in which Jodie Foster who plays Ellie is the sole traveller in the machine, in the book, Ellie is one of the five who eventually travel on the machine. Out of the five, one is a female scientist from India, a microbiologist named Devi Sukhavati, whose late husband is of the oppressed caste. Sagan uses her fellow travellers, Devi, the Nigerian Physicist Abonnema Eda and the Chinese archaeologist Xi Qiaomu to sprinkle a bit of religious philosophy of the world’s major religions.
I watched the movie almost two decades ago and so I am not sure if my memory is playing games with me, but I think, some of the main characters such as, the billionaire Bill Hadden, who help them build the machine in Hokkaido and decode part of the message, Ken der Heer, the US Presidential Science Advisor with whom Ellie is in a relationship and Ellie’s Russian colleague, Vaygay Lunacharsky, who helps her monitor the signal and is her fellow traveller in the machine are not there in the movie.
I digress! I am always worried when I read/watch a fictional piece with speculative science. Often, it is reduced to science vs. religion and ends up with the lame old, one-doesn’t-know-so-how-can-one-tell-for-sure if god exists. Contact thankfully partially steers away from this and instead devotes a good portion of the book in doing what it promised, i.e. speculative-Sciencing, in dealing with how humans cope with loss and the philosophical reflections of our place in the cosmos when confronted with an intelligent life form!
Originally published https://medium.com/@pavanayi/014-contact-by-carl-sagan-books-i-read-in-2025-70838c17b1bd
The first time I came across Carl Sagan’s work was in my final year of postgraduation when I chanced upon the famous excerpt from his book, the Pale Blue Dot in the form of a YouTube video. The video in question is still there on YouTube and has rightfully garnered about eight million views. It still gives me goosebumps. Anyways, at the time, I had no idea that the passage was from a book. In fact, at that time, I had never heard of Carl Sagan as well.
So, here is the premise of the novel.
The protagonist, Ellie and her team conducting SETI research detect a mysterious radio signal coming from the star Vega, about 25 light-years from Earth. Upon decoding it, they discover it contains a sequence of prime numbers — a clear indication of an intelligent origin. However, when decoded, they realize that it is a retransmission of Adolf Hitler’s 1936 Olympic speech. Their best guess is that it is the first TV signal strong enough to escape the earth’s ionosphere. Later, though, they realize that the second round of messages includes instructions for building a complex machine.
This discovery sparks a global scientific, political, and philosophical upheaval. Nations debate whether to build the machine, religious groups protest, and world governments scramble for control. However, eventually, a multinational effort constructs the device.
Unlike the movie, in which Jodie Foster who plays Ellie is the sole traveller in the machine, in the book, Ellie is one of the five who eventually travel on the machine. Out of the five, one is a female scientist from India, a microbiologist named Devi Sukhavati, whose late husband is of the oppressed caste. Sagan uses her fellow travellers, Devi, the Nigerian Physicist Abonnema Eda and the Chinese archaeologist Xi Qiaomu to sprinkle a bit of religious philosophy of the world’s major religions.
I watched the movie almost two decades ago and so I am not sure if my memory is playing games with me, but I think, some of the main characters such as, the billionaire Bill Hadden, who help them build the machine in Hokkaido and decode part of the message, Ken der Heer, the US Presidential Science Advisor with whom Ellie is in a relationship and Ellie’s Russian colleague, Vaygay Lunacharsky, who helps her monitor the signal and is her fellow traveller in the machine are not there in the movie.
I digress! I am always worried when I read/watch a fictional piece with speculative science. Often, it is reduced to science vs. religion and ends up with the lame old, one-doesn’t-know-so-how-can-one-tell-for-sure if god exists. Contact thankfully partially steers away from this and instead devotes a good portion of the book in doing what it promised, i.e. speculative-Sciencing, in dealing with how humans cope with loss and the philosophical reflections of our place in the cosmos when confronted with an intelligent life form!
Originally published https://medium.com/@pavanayi/014-contact-by-carl-sagan-books-i-read-in-2025-70838c17b1bd
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes