# Contact, by Carl Sagan



## Omphalos (Dec 10, 2009)

One of the most interesting themes in SF, and also one of my personal favorites, is the theme of first contact. The theme is not exactly unique to SF - think of European contact with the New World, Roman contact with various barbarians, etc.- though these days it would probably seem so. In SF "first contact" stories deal with mankind's first contact with alien races. Even if you exclude all of the uses of this theme in Star Trek, the genre is chock full of examples. And although it is difficult for me to say for certain which one of the many first contact stories is my favorite, my attention is frequently drawn to two in particular: Listeners, by James Gunn, and today's selection, Contact, by Carl Sagan. Sagan's novel made an enormous splash when it came out: Sagan was world renown as a charismatic, handsome, brilliant and likable popularizer and explainer of very advanced astronomy and physics concepts, and was already associated with the PBS television show Cosmos, in which he essentially explained everything in the universe. Personally I consider Cosmos so well done that it was hard for me to see how Sagan ever could have topped it with another non-fiction product; and in fact he never really did. But when Contact came out I really had to stop and ask myself whether he had in fact outdone himself. I think the answer to that question is yes...Please click here, or on the book cover above, to be taken to the complete review..


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## The Procrastinator (Dec 11, 2009)

Good review - good because I happen to agree with it!  I bought Contact many years ago because I watched Cosmos on the telly growing up, and loved it - basically I bought it out of affection for Carl Sagan - and was very impressed with the book, too. The sense of wonder in this book really stood out for me - as in fact it did throughout the Cosmos series. To capture somewhat of the feelings involved in religion while remaining true to science is an achievement indeed. Imagine if he could've done a remake, with modern effects?

The movie was a pretty good adaptation, really.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 6, 2010)

Oh I remember reading thisbook ages ago and loving it! Sagan is/was  a legend!


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## Rodders (Jan 6, 2010)

I've never read this, although i really enjoyed the movie. I might have to pick this up on my next book haul.


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## Parson (Jan 7, 2010)

IMO the book far surpasses the movie. (But don't they always?) I see it as a book of a person who wanted desperately to believe there was the "numinous" but wanted to believe only what could be scientifically proven. In the end the book is a story of hope, I believe his actual feelings were despair at this point.


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## Lady of Winterfell (Jan 7, 2010)

I saw the movie first, and really enjoyed it when it came out. I only recently read the book last year, and thought it was great. I would recommend giving the book a try.


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## The Procrastinator (Jan 7, 2010)

Recently reread the book, Parson, and can't say much hint of despair came through for me! Quite the contrary. Or are you speaking of an interview or some such? I read _Contact_ as Sagan's attempt to communicate the numinous he did indeed find in science - actually my faded memories of the _Cosmos_ series are full of wonder and the numinous as well.


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## Stephen Palmer (Jan 8, 2010)

It's a good film, but a great book.


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## Parson (Jan 8, 2010)

The Procrastinator said:


> Recently reread the book, Parson, and can't say much hint of despair came through for me! Quite the contrary. Or are you speaking of an interview or some such? I read _Contact_ as Sagan's attempt to communicate the numinous he did indeed find in science - actually my faded memories of the _Cosmos_ series are full of wonder and the numinous as well.


 I probably did not say what I meant clearly enough. 

Looking at Contact from the perspective of a person of faith. I found the book a great read, but I thought that it was sadly unfortunate that Sagan set the bar so high to "prove" the existence of the "numinous." I don't believe that God is going to reveal himself to humans in a "scientifically provable" way until the end of time. As I also believe that a relationship with Christ is the door to eternal life; I used the word despair more of my feeling about Sagan's search rather than anything that I know he actually said.


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## Omphalos (Jan 8, 2010)

Parson, what'd you make of the whole message-in-pi thing?  Of everything in the book that is the one that I found most fascinating.


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## Parson (Jan 9, 2010)

I thought the message in pi was a wonderful bit. I'm no real mathematician so it sounded very plausible to me "deeper than anyone had ever solved pi before --- in base 11 no less!" But someone told me (I'm not sure how they knew) that it would be impossible to come up with a binary code of ones and zeros. It would certainly take some guessing as to where on an axis the first point would fall and how they would be in relationship to the others. 

If this could be true, it would make for the kind of proof that not many could ignore and Sagan could have accepted.


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## Anthony G Williams (May 1, 2016)

This is something of a rarity in SF for me, in that I have seen the 1997 film (reviewed here in January 2008) but not previously read the 1985 book. I thought very highly of the film, though, so had great expectations of the book. I was not disappointed.

Ellie Arroway is a radio astronomer in charge of Project Argus, a vast listening post dedicated to SETI – the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. After a discursive few chapters describing her earlier life and how she came to have this job, the reception of the long-awaited message from outer space takes over the story. It is a communication from a far more advanced civilisation, and this immediately kicks off a fierce international political and religious debate about what it means and how to respond to it. It becomes clear that the message is providing instructions concerning a complex machine of unknown purpose, and it is eventually decided to follow the instructions and build it, not without considerable controversy. The machine takes its five occupants (including Ellie) on an incredible journey, but their return merely causes even more problems. Despite this, the story ends on a note of optimism.

To quote his Wiki entry, Carl Sagan was "an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science populariser, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences". His professional knowledge is always evident, as is his understanding of the often political world of big science. There are lots of explanatory passages and he is always willing to park the action in order to include them, which I didn't mind because they are always relevant and interesting. I do like books which inform as well as entertain. Ellie Arroway is an intriguing heroine who readers come to know well, although the other characters are less well described.

*Contact* makes an interesting comparison with Bill Napier's 2002 book *The Lure* (reviewed here in April 2011), which also starts with a message from an alien civilisation, and is also well-informed by the author's day job as an astronomer. There is the same emphasis on the political debates about what response to make, and in fact the aliens don't feature at all – the story is all about the impact on humanity of the message. *The Lure* is more tightly focused than *Contact*, a gripping thriller rather than a discursive exploration of the issues, but I think that both of them are excellent books in their different ways and very well worth reading.

(An extract from my SFF blog: Science Fiction & Fantasy)


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