Take a photo of a barcode or cover
So Carl Sagan is one of my all-time favorite people. His gentle and warm way helped to expand my mind beyond our pale blue dot. He’s probably one of the greatest astronomers of all time, if nothing more because he engaged an entire generation of people about space and the universe. I can’t say enough good things about Carl Sagan. Mix that with the fact that Contact is one of my all-time favorite science fiction films, and I thought reading the book would be shere kismet. Well, buddy, that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. While I utterly appreciate what Sagan was doing in the novel, he should have most certainly stuck to nonfiction. I’ve taken astronomy classes in my undergrad years, so this book wasn’t as bad as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but it got extremely close. For me, the film was intellectually action-packed. This verged on painstakingly detailed boredom. There are no fully fleshed out characters, only flimsy caricatures that regurgitate Carl Sagan’s philosophies. This novel was a challenge and left me desperately ready to be done, no matter the upswing the plot took when they finally arrived at the Grand Central Station. I’m ashamed to admit it, but this was a dud for me.
The plot centers around Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer who picks up a signal from space. Upon decoding, they realize that it’s from another intelligent civilization with instructions to building a machine. They build said machine and travel to meet the aliens, have a quick chat, and return. However, no one believes them at the end. I’d put more effort into explaining further, but the film does a pretty faithful adaptation and I’m still too exhausted from reading it to want to explain it. I mean, if you want a painstakingly detailed explanation about how government bureaucrats would respond to a signal from another planet, this book is for you! If you want a jargony explanation of how aliens might contact us in primarily astronomical calculations and theoretics, you’ll be on the edge of your seat! For those of us who want more characterization, maybe feel like there was some thought put into them, then run away from this book. It’s like all the characters are walking around in this story deflated. They’re flat. They’re flatter than flat. You don’t care that Ellie’s dad died. You don’t really care that she doesn’t visit her mother. You don’t care when the revelation comes that her stepfather she reviled turns out to be her actual father. You. Just. Don’t. Care. Why would you? It’s all Carl Sagan. Each character speaks like Carl Sagan. They all have his understanding of the universe, his philosophy, his opinions on science vs. religion, etc. I pictured everyone with Carl Sagan’s face on like something out of Being John Malkovich.
I will note a few things that I noticed about the novel that’s not contained within the vastly superior film. There are a few characters that get smashed together for time’s sake, I’m sure. No complaints about that from me. The multiple extra characters in the novel certainly don’t enhance it. There were a few scenes that did enhance the overall story that I wish they would have either kept in the film or elaborated more on. One was the Hadden arc on the civilian space station that operated as a condo for wealthy old people. I thought it was interesting and at least, during the first two-thirds of the novel, we’re somewhere other than a conference room or a laboratory pouring over data (very specific data and Carl Sagan really wants you to understand). The far superior alien encounter (known here as the Caretakers) was actually the only high point within the novel. I always thought that the film cut that part extremely short. While it is still short in the book, they elaborate so much more and give me information that I was really interested in. They didn’t create the wormhole/black hole traveling system, it was left by someone else. They realize that the universe is expanding and they’re going to close off some space to keep from doing so. They’re creating whole galaxies to fill the universe up with matter. They’re kind of like a Universal Census bureau of sorts, welcoming some, leaving others to their own destinies. I appreciate this scene more in the book than in the film. Unfortunately, that’s all I appreciated. The worst part, as you can probably already tell, was the added information regarding Ellie’s parents, which was so tagged on it wasn’t even funny. No one cared at the end of the day and when the revelation comes, you see what Carl Sagan’s trying to do, but it just falls flat.
The themes here are certainly intriguing. I was surprised to see how much more prominent the religion vs. science debate was in this novel. I definitely appreciated it, although there are better ways to get this out than pretending it could be an entire fictional novel. I did like how Joss and Ellie switch rolls towards the end. At first, Ellie makes Joss defend his arguments in the face of no evidence and after the coverup, Ellie finds herself in the same position. While this wasn’t as fully fleshed out to amount to much, it was mildly interesting.
Carl Sagan used this novel as a vehicle to showcase what a first contact scenario would look like and he sucked all the air out of it. It’s not awe-inspiring or scary or revelvatory. There’s too much bureaucratic drivel and theoretical physics. I’ll reiterate how much I’m inspired by Carl Sagan. So, he’s just not a fiction writer. That’s okay. To me, it doesn’t diminish his spark. He tried something and it didn’t work (for me - others would beg to differ). That’s okay. That’s what experiments are for.
The plot centers around Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer who picks up a signal from space. Upon decoding, they realize that it’s from another intelligent civilization with instructions to building a machine. They build said machine and travel to meet the aliens, have a quick chat, and return. However, no one believes them at the end. I’d put more effort into explaining further, but the film does a pretty faithful adaptation and I’m still too exhausted from reading it to want to explain it. I mean, if you want a painstakingly detailed explanation about how government bureaucrats would respond to a signal from another planet, this book is for you! If you want a jargony explanation of how aliens might contact us in primarily astronomical calculations and theoretics, you’ll be on the edge of your seat! For those of us who want more characterization, maybe feel like there was some thought put into them, then run away from this book. It’s like all the characters are walking around in this story deflated. They’re flat. They’re flatter than flat. You don’t care that Ellie’s dad died. You don’t really care that she doesn’t visit her mother. You don’t care when the revelation comes that her stepfather she reviled turns out to be her actual father. You. Just. Don’t. Care. Why would you? It’s all Carl Sagan. Each character speaks like Carl Sagan. They all have his understanding of the universe, his philosophy, his opinions on science vs. religion, etc. I pictured everyone with Carl Sagan’s face on like something out of Being John Malkovich.
I will note a few things that I noticed about the novel that’s not contained within the vastly superior film. There are a few characters that get smashed together for time’s sake, I’m sure. No complaints about that from me. The multiple extra characters in the novel certainly don’t enhance it. There were a few scenes that did enhance the overall story that I wish they would have either kept in the film or elaborated more on. One was the Hadden arc on the civilian space station that operated as a condo for wealthy old people. I thought it was interesting and at least, during the first two-thirds of the novel, we’re somewhere other than a conference room or a laboratory pouring over data (very specific data and Carl Sagan really wants you to understand). The far superior alien encounter (known here as the Caretakers) was actually the only high point within the novel. I always thought that the film cut that part extremely short. While it is still short in the book, they elaborate so much more and give me information that I was really interested in. They didn’t create the wormhole/black hole traveling system, it was left by someone else. They realize that the universe is expanding and they’re going to close off some space to keep from doing so. They’re creating whole galaxies to fill the universe up with matter. They’re kind of like a Universal Census bureau of sorts, welcoming some, leaving others to their own destinies. I appreciate this scene more in the book than in the film. Unfortunately, that’s all I appreciated. The worst part, as you can probably already tell, was the added information regarding Ellie’s parents, which was so tagged on it wasn’t even funny. No one cared at the end of the day and when the revelation comes, you see what Carl Sagan’s trying to do, but it just falls flat.
The themes here are certainly intriguing. I was surprised to see how much more prominent the religion vs. science debate was in this novel. I definitely appreciated it, although there are better ways to get this out than pretending it could be an entire fictional novel. I did like how Joss and Ellie switch rolls towards the end. At first, Ellie makes Joss defend his arguments in the face of no evidence and after the coverup, Ellie finds herself in the same position. While this wasn’t as fully fleshed out to amount to much, it was mildly interesting.
Carl Sagan used this novel as a vehicle to showcase what a first contact scenario would look like and he sucked all the air out of it. It’s not awe-inspiring or scary or revelvatory. There’s too much bureaucratic drivel and theoretical physics. I’ll reiterate how much I’m inspired by Carl Sagan. So, he’s just not a fiction writer. That’s okay. To me, it doesn’t diminish his spark. He tried something and it didn’t work (for me - others would beg to differ). That’s okay. That’s what experiments are for.