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A review by nedjemet
Contact by Carl Sagan
4.0
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.