Contact

By: Carl Sagan

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow

Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

The future is here...in an adventure of cosmic dimension. 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.

©1997 Carl Sagan (P)1997 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"Contact deals with issues...worth pondering. The range and depth of ideas is quite uncommon." ( New York Times Book Review)

"Like a good mystery, Contact keeps us curious to the end...ingenious and satisfying." (Newsweek)

Fantastic Read.

it is obviously dated, but it's still an incredible work. it's an interesting look into mid 80s science projected to the turn of the millennium. It definitely holds up.

NOT THE MOVIE!

If you are looking for something similar to the movie, THIS IS NOT IT.
This story is much more in depth and the movie does depart from it significantly.
At first, I had issues trying to figure out where the book and movie matched up. I gave up and enjoyed it immensely.
I enjoyed the listen much more than the watch. I would recommend it to anyone.

Great overall, but narration was distracting

I enjoyed the story. Very detailed, gave deep grounding/explanation for scientific principles, and wound it through the main character’s private life. It felt very real. However, the narrator attempting to provide different voices for the characters of different ethnicities was distracting. I think it would have been better if a different voice actor was assigned to each character.

Great Story - Not Great Narrator

Would you consider the audio edition of Contact to be better than the print version?

na

What was one of the most memorable moments of Contact?

The discovery of the signal from Vega

How did the narrator detract from the book?

All voices and diction sounded the same - hard to tell characters apart.

inspirational

Carl Sagan matches hard science with faith and beautiful story telling. The cosmos meets humanity.

Fantastic narration of a great work of fiction

Laurel Lefkow's voice work is incomparable. She's incredibly talented at changing accents, tone, and pitch to make a massive cast of characters come believably to life.

Contact was a very thought provoking piece of fiction. Sagan's ability to challenge both the faith-minded and the science-minded of his readers, including his ability to render their differences trivial on a cosmic scale, is unparalleled. This is work of incredible artistic value, and I will undoubtedly be rereading (or listening) soon.

Completely biased because I loved Cosmos

Would you listen to Contact again? Why?

I DID listen to it again. I listen to episodes of Cosmos when I can't sleep. No joke. This book is basically the ideas in the end of episode 12 expanded. I loved the movie and - I know it's a cliche - the book is way better.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the little social commentary about male/female relationships in professional settings -- the alternate history - written pre-end-of-cold-war - with 'future' history up until the year 2000 - 14 years after the 'fall' of the Soviet Union - very interesting -- the predictions about future technology, pre-internet.

What does Laurel Lefkow bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I don't know why - but I was surprised this was read by a woman - I guess because the author was male? But it was the perfect choice. She has a soothing, pleasant voice. There are some over-dubs which sound like they're spoken by another person - with a similar voice - but it's a bit jarring... Over all, it's a wonderful performance.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The ending got to me a little :-)

Any additional comments?

Open your mind to this book.

amazing

saw thre movie when I was in high school and have always loved it. finally listened to the book ~24 years later and could not be happier. I'll definitely listen again.

Beautiful, impressive science detail

If you are a scientist/engineer you will absolutely love this. One of the best works if fiction I have ever read.

To Vega, and beyond!

- Josh here

This is a story that I have known was the basis for one of my favorite movies for some time. It wasn't until I decided to search Audible that I found this audiobook. I shouldn't have been surprised but it just never dawned on me to look.

Anyways, good things come to those who wait as this story was more than I ever could have expected when compared to the movie. I really wish more aspects from this book were integrated into the movie (5 seats/astronauts vice 1, the secret meanings revealed laster in the story, etc.)

This was a great listen and Laurel did a fantastic job with the narration. This will definitely be on my "to re-listen" list.

5/5