Carl Sagan’s Contact: The movie was fine, but the book is amazing.
What it is: A speculative 1985 science fiction novel by visionary astronomer Carl Sagan, later adapted into a feature film starring Jodie Foster.
What I’ve read: I finished it a week or so ago.
Is it good? Hell yes it is. I hadn’t read any Sagan before and I’m blown away by this book. I bet this book is a lot of people’s favourite book.
Quick thoughts: It’s quickly knocked the movie from my memory except that I can’t help but picture the protagonist Ellie as looking like Jodie Foster. While the movie did a good job of telling one woman’s story, the book (by being a book) is able to tell a more global, far-reaching story. I wish I could see the world the way Carl Sagan sees the world — this luminous mixture of imagination and science. He expresses such wonder at the universe, and his scientific bona-fides only ever enhanced that wonder. This book rules.
An excerpt from the beginning chapters, when we watch Ellie growing up
Party Chat is where we talk about things we’re reading and watching when we’re not playing video games.
Comments
6 responses to “Carl Sagan’s Contact: The Movie Was Fine, But The Book Is Amazing.”
Couldn’t have chosen a better page for an image. I first read the book more than twenty years ago and I still think of that first paragraph every now and then.
One of my favourite books of all time and is absolutely compulsory reading for SciFi fans.
It is one of those rare books that can restore your faith in the ability of humankind to rise above our petty differences to achieve a common goal. The main protagonist, Dr. Ellie Arroway is particularly inspiring and left me wanting to be a more like her, and wishing the rest of the world were too.
First sci fi movie I remember seeing. I love it.
Such a great guy. You should check out pale blue dot, the audio book is even better as you get to hear his passion and intelligence.
The book is almost always better, but damned if that wasn’t an amazing movie.
Loved the movie, more so the book. Demon haunted world changed my life, because of that book I embarked upon a Bsc major in physics and Comp sci.