Contact

Contact
by Carl Sagan

Contact
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Book Summary Information

Author: Carl Sagan
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1997-07-01
ISBN: 0671004107
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Pocket
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Book Reviews of Contact

Book Review: Prescience
Summary: 5 Stars

While I have read hundreds of books, I can count one hand the books I have re-read. After recently watching the movie Contact again (one of my favorites!), I went to my library and grabbed the book (first edition) which I hadn't read since I originally bought it. I won't go into detail on the book because many other reviews have performed that function, but I did want to point out a couple of prescient things that Mr. Sagan wrote in the book which was published in 1985.

At the start of chapter 8, Ellie is channel surfing and two shows are mentioned, Lifestyles of the Mass Murderers and You Bet Your Ass. Now, while Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous had been on TV a year or so prior to the publication of the book, I thought Mr. Sagan did a great job of predicting the popularity of reality shows and the fact that Ass is no longer a forbidden word on TV. In fact, Wikipedia tells me that there was a show on The Comedy Network in 2005 called You Bet Your Ass.

In chapter 12 there is mention of "robot roving vehicles on Mars". While there had been two failed attempts to land rovers on Mars in 1971, it wasn't until 1997 that there was a successful landing. Given the success of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, this comment struck me as much more apropos for 2009 than 1985. Good job Mr. Sagan!

Summary of Contact

In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out there?

In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future -- and our own.


It is December 1999, the dawn of the millennium, and a team of international scientists is poised for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team believes they've found a message from an intelligent source--and they travel deep into space to meet it. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan injects Contact, his prophetic adventure story, with scientific details that make it utterly believable. It is a Cold War era novel that parlays the nuclear paranoia of the time into exquisitely wrought tension among the various countries involved. Sagan meditates on science, religion, and government--the elements that define society--and looks to their impact on and role in the future. His ability to pack an exciting read with such rich content is an unusual talent that makes Contact a modern sci-fi classic.

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