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)

Great book, significant differences from the movie

Any additional comments?

My favorite book, written by one of my favorite people (Carl Sagan).

I am writing this review to mainly focus on the major differences between the movie and the book.The book follows the same basic plot as the movie, but with a few exceptions (SPOILER ALERT):

- Ellie's mother is not dead, as in the movie. While Ellie's father passes away, her mother is around throughout her childhood and her adult life.

- Ellie and her stepfather (also not present in the movie) have a strained and reoccurring relationship throughout the book.

- Ellie's childhood, teenage years, and early graduate and internship years are described in a more detail.

- The President of USA has a more prominent, reoccurring role, and is female.

- Ellie has many romantic relationships (i.e., sexual relationships with a lab assistant early in her career, and then with Kent the Russian Scientist later in her career; and sexual tension with Drummond and then to an even greater degree with Vagay), albeit not with Palmer Joss who is the one individual she does have a romantic relationship with in the movie.

- Three machines, not two, are constructed (i.e., in the USA, Japan, and Russia). This was interesting because by the time the story concludes only two machines have been used (or should I say, one has been destroyed and one has been used and possibly is not able to be used again), with the machine in Russia still unused.

- Ellie is not the only individual who makes the trips; several delegates make the trip with her and have their own unique experiences.

- The conversation Ellie has with the alien is much, much more detailed and extensive, and for me was a real highlight of the story.

- Following her voyage in the machine, Ellie learns something interesting about the number for "pi" (i.e., 3.14...) that provides an interesting twist at the conclusion of the story.

In summary, excellent book, and not only because of the writing but due to the narrator's great performance as well. Lefkow did an outstanding job as a true Voice Actor. Most of the supporting characters are male and the narrator (female) did a superb job rising to the challenge of voice acting each male character without sounding odd or goofy.

A bit dated, but definitely worth a read

This is one of those cerebral sci-fi books that will likely work better as a physical book than audiobook. That is not to say that Laurel Lefkoe's narration leaves anything to be desired, quite the contrary, but Carl Sagan's language and prose sounds like it would flow off a page and into the mind better in your own voice.

This book is an achievement in fusion. Combining theories of science and faith, from a scientific perspective, it builds a foundation on which both concepts can be build in tandem. This book is a perfect guide for the progressive intellectuals of today to empathize with religious concepts without trying to replace scientific method with dogma. In a world of controversy and partisan beliefs, it tries to find a middle ground, based on wonder and awe, for both the skeptics and the believers of modern society.

Taking on such a bewildering task leads to a less-than-exciting plot, some pretty dry moments in character building, and many unanswered questions upon its completion. Even so, this is one of my favorite science fiction reads in recent memory.

A must "hear" book

Reader was good, the book phenomenal. I love sci-fi books that I learn things from.

A great choice

This was a great book and I will listen to it often. I remember when the movie came out how much I liked it but as always the books are far more detailed and more enjoyable.

Such a wonderful hope for the Human race.

I can't think of a smarter more hopeful story. It provides the best attempt to tie together science and religion.

Much Better Than The Movie

While the plot is similar to the movie, the book has interesting twist that were left out of the movie. I think the book version is much better. The narrator is great.

Great story annoying reader

Although the story is great and the reader does many accents, her imitation of any male antagonist sounds gargled and exaggerated. Aside from this, the performance was great.

Sagal never met a tangent he didn't like

Any additional comments?

Sagan is like that one professor in college that couldn't stay on topic if his life depended on it. At some points you find yourself sitting there wondering what one Earth is he going on about, but give it a couple minutes and you're back on the story.

I'll be honest, I used the skip button more than a few times. It needed to happen, but once the story got going it was hard to walk away from and then it was over.

Good story, not the best writer

Sagan was a cool t.v.show host and a decent astronomer with a neat vision, but his need to go off on tangents and rants about how the world should really look is off putting. A neat book that could have used some better editing but has a great vision and gives hope in an otherwise oft bleary world.

Alien contact without pictures

Carl Sagan's Contact is a tale of alien first contact. We follow the life and career of a female astronomer as she battles some chauvinism and struggles to manage the SETI project. Eventually a signal from Vega is identified which begins with prime numbers after which another modulated signal of an old TV broadcast is found, leading to another modulated signal that is deciphered as instructions for a device. Eventually the world decides to build the device and she and several other individuals are transported through a wormhole to the galactic core where they learn of galactic intelligences in league with other races from distant galaxies. Unfortunately, when they return, no only have they been gone for less than 20 minutes, but they return with no recordings. Wishing to bury the global embarrassment, she pulls back and spends her days searching for hidden structures in pi.

Sagan stays true to science, especially for the near future action on Earth. While there's a bit of discussion of alien invasion and positioning for nations to grab the alien technology ring, for the most part, this is a science based story for scientists. Once off world, Sagan envisions a galactic wormhole subway system with advanced alien races all focused on scientific discovery at the universal level. He leaves the impression that Earth is several generations removed from being ready to join the club and the message was merely a foretaste of things to come.

The narration is well done with an excellent range of characters as well as the diverse ethnic accents of the major players. Sagan leaves the impression that Earth is no grown up enough for the 'real world' out in the rest of the galaxy.