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The first three-quarters I'd rate 2 stars. Last quarter is 3 or so.
My main feeling throughout the book was boredom. I didn't realise it would be so much about the politics and administration of receiving the alien Message. It's quite pedestrian. I pushed on through it even though it wasn't doing much for me, and as expected, it got better once the focus shifted away from Earth. But still.
This book reads like speculative fiction from the 80s in sometimes very naive ways. The USSR is still alive and kicking, but there are holograms. There's no internet, but some people live in low Earth orbit. It's weird. I think it would have aged better had it been set squarely in the 1985 that the book was written in instead of a 1990s that feels jarring in the ways it's inaccurate. (On the other hand, the feminist bent feels refreshingly progressive for its time.)
A lot of time is spent on discussing the social ramifications of finding out we're not alone in the universe. How religions react, how it affects national and global politics, etc etc. I might have found this interesting if I'd read it when it was written but it felt like a wearying retread of established ideas in 2023. It didn't give me a lot to chew on.
The third act and its conclusion was more like what I thought I'd be getting from the book, and veered from its mundane start into true science fiction. The ideas were interesting and I felt that it all tied together pretty nicely. It was a satisfying ending. I guess it was just enough to salvage the book given how I felt about the rest of it.
Probably wouldn't recommend unless you specifically care about what Carl Sagan in the 80s thought might be the outcome of receiving a message from an alien civilisation.
My main feeling throughout the book was boredom. I didn't realise it would be so much about the politics and administration of receiving the alien Message. It's quite pedestrian. I pushed on through it even though it wasn't doing much for me, and as expected, it got better once the focus shifted away from Earth. But still.
This book reads like speculative fiction from the 80s in sometimes very naive ways. The USSR is still alive and kicking, but there are holograms. There's no internet, but some people live in low Earth orbit. It's weird. I think it would have aged better had it been set squarely in the 1985 that the book was written in instead of a 1990s that feels jarring in the ways it's inaccurate. (On the other hand, the feminist bent feels refreshingly progressive for its time.)
A lot of time is spent on discussing the social ramifications of finding out we're not alone in the universe. How religions react, how it affects national and global politics, etc etc. I might have found this interesting if I'd read it when it was written but it felt like a wearying retread of established ideas in 2023. It didn't give me a lot to chew on.
The third act and its conclusion was more like what I thought I'd be getting from the book, and veered from its mundane start into true science fiction. The ideas were interesting and I felt that it all tied together pretty nicely. It was a satisfying ending. I guess it was just enough to salvage the book given how I felt about the rest of it.
Probably wouldn't recommend unless you specifically care about what Carl Sagan in the 80s thought might be the outcome of receiving a message from an alien civilisation.