Contact

Written by Carl Sagan

Narrated by Jodie Foster

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cosmos and renowned astronomer Carl Sagan’s international bestseller about the discovery of an advanced civilization in the depths of space remains the “greatest adventure of all time” (Associated Press).

The future is here…in an adventure of cosmic dimension. When a signal is discovered that seems to come from far beyond our solar system, a multinational team of scientists decides to find the source. What follows is an eye-opening journey out to the stars to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who—or what—is out there? Why are they watching us? And what do they want with us?

One of the best science fiction novels about communication with extraterrestrial intelligent beings, Contact is a “stunning and satisfying” (Los Angeles Times) classic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jul 1, 1997
• ISBN: 9780743545273

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan was Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager spacecraft expeditions, for which he received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize and the highest awards of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment. His book Cosmos was the bestselling science book ever published in the English language, and his bestselling novel, Contact, was turned into a major motion picture.

Reviews for Contact

[greymowser · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Book club book. Book is better than the movie especially the ending info.

[brookeashley-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've read several of Sagan's non-fiction books prior to this novel, and I strangely found him to be much less engaging here. The first half of Contact reads more like non-fiction than a story, but it's lacking the voice that made his non-fiction so good. The second half of the book, though, once the Machine gets built, suddenly has a lot more heart to it than I was expecting. Now that I'm done with it, I'm finding myself appreciating the whole thing a lot more than I thought I was going to in the beginning.The main character, Ellie Arroway, is basically a voice for Sagan. She has his same sense of wonder balanced by a skeptic's strict requirement for evidence. I liked the vision that Sagan had of a world whose international conflicts died down once we learned we weren't alone in the universe.

[quantum_flapdoodle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A good solid science fiction novel. Sagan boldly creates a female lead character and makes her, for the most part, believable. His story flows along well, but the ending is...well, disappointing. It seems possible that, once he got to the end, he simply didn't really know how to end it, so he went in a strange ending, grafting a spiritual ending onto a scientific novel.

[mirandainspace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure what to say about this novel beyond the fact that I really just loved every second of it. Carl Sagan has a gift for expressing the beauty and wonder of science using the humanities as a point of contact, and the result is almost always amazing. One of those books that you finish and then mope around feeling sorry for yourself because it's over.

[cathepsut · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book about 20 years ago and back then was struggling with the science and the philosophy. I always meant to read it again, as by now I only recall bits and pieces. I remember being disappointed after watching the movie. It's an entertaining movie, but the book is much more in depth and gives plenty of food for thought. Very scientific and technical, from what I do remember.

[tobinelliott · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hmmm. This one was a bit of a weird one for me.

It's basically the book you'd expect if you threw Arthur C. Clarke, Herman Melville, Andy Weir, and...um...some fundamentalist Christian preacher in a room. It's large parts [book:2001: A Space Odyssey|70535] with its first contact aspect, and the journey to get there, and [book:Moby-Dick or, The Whale|153747] with its massive side-trips into everything from explanations of radio telescopes to arguments (and more arguments, and more arguments) about religion—mostly Christianity, but it does often expand to the other religions as wel—versus science.

It's very obvious that Sagan wrote mostly non-fiction, because there's large swaths of non-fiction carpet bombed throughout this book, which does give it a lot of verisimilitude and, honestly, the side trips and explanations and arguments didn't bother me overmuch, but I could see how it could get on readers' nerves. I mean, we all came for the titular CONTACT, right?

Overall, the base story is quite simple. Message is found. Message is decoded. Instructions are followed. Contact. Fallout.

And the first four of those five steps are quite good. But this five-star book dropped to four stars with the ending. I truly felt it was a copout. I won't spoil it (inasmuch as one can spoil a four decade old book), but for all that buildup, I was expecting a heck of a lot more out of that ending.

Yes, I know it wasn't the point, but still...

But in this case, yes, I did enjoy the journey.

[mattries37315 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A machine orbiting a young star identifies artificial radio waves followed by television transmissions over a few decades coming from a small yellow sun, then begins transmitting a signal in return to humans on a little blue dot called Earth. Contact is the only work of fiction by Carl Sagan after converting a co-written screenplay from a stalled film that was later revived and released twelve years after the novel’s publication.

Sagan constructions a narrative about the detection of a radio signal by radio astronomers that signals to humanity that they are not alone thus changing society—with a still on-going Cold War—potentially politically and religiously. The central character of the narrative is Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway and thankful is the best formed character while several others come close to, but characterization wasn’t the best through the book which for a first novel might be as expected. However, Sagan’s narrative more than makes up for the characters as he tackles how scientists would react and coordinate while all around them politicians, religious figures, and the public deal with the news that there is life “out there”. With contacts across various disciplines, Sagan was able to construct a believable scientific element to this science fiction book while communicating it in understandable prose for your average reader. An interesting subplot is the philosophical implications to faith and religion under such circumstances that Sagan portrays in the novel, some might find it tedious or unnecessary, but I was fine with it. Overall, this was a good read.

Contact might be Carl Sagan’s only work of fiction, but it’s a good read.

[keebrook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

not only was Sagan a well-spoken advocate for peaceful, scientific exploration and expansion of our minds and humanity’s potential but he was deeply insightful as well.

his style is clear, interesting, and even eloquent at times but i can’t say it’s delectable to the palate like i find Hoban or Atwood or Tolkien. same with his storyline: clear and not overly convoluted but interesting, nonetheless. i did find a few parts a little naive or under-written but i think he was writing expansively, epically, about a period of years and so chose to gloss over a lot of that time in broad sweeps.

the thoughts and ideas were surprisingly deep. he used this book to shine a light on certain other issues of prime importance to earthlings: practical immortality, advanced mathematics and physics, superluminal travel, etc. he also took on religion but i must confess that i did not expect to see the amount of deference Sagan paid to more cogent “belief” systems like buddhism. he did use the book as a vehicle to make arguments against religion and even against the belief in god- especially the Judeo-Christian god. his reverence and awe of the universe shown through everywhere and even ends with a hint of discovering a possibly deeper order to the universe; not a meaning but a message. information embedded in the very fabric of space-time and the physical laws. he tied everyone together in his conception of the “numinous.”

his balking of what should have been a species-level epiphany was brilliant. it seems entirely plausible that this in the way events would play out should we ever make contact with an extraterrestrial species. the Cassandra metaphor has always fascinated me and we get this in full, frustrating force from Sagan. despite this, and to Sagan’s credit, i felt uplifted and hopeful at the end.

this may not be a masterpiece of lyrical prose, but it certainly is a canny and quietly provocative piece of science fiction. not quite hard-boiled and not purely cerebral, it tells a tale and invokes both our intellect and our emotions; our humanity.

[foof2you · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A radio signal from the Vega star system has been picked by radio telescopes in America. It contains the instructions to build a machine. What the machine does no one knows. The fact there has been a message from outer space cause all sort of issues.

[GILBERT MICHELINI · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hard to believe this was nominated for a Grammy. The direction is not great at all.
I saw the movie years ago and wanted to hear how Sagan wrote it. It's a good story, but Sagan should have left out the science lessons along they way. Just tell the story. Sometimes the protagonist is just plain annoying. Suck it up buttercup!

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I may have enjoyed it more before Y2K. Or if I didn't keep falling asleep after a dozen pages. Or if it were more concise. Or if it didn't skip time & place setting w/out warning (I never knew where they were, or how much time has passed, w/ each new section, chapter, or 'book').

Or, honestly, if there weren't so much religion. I get that Sagan was trying to reach a universal audience, not just those of us who already feel the numinous in nature. But, for me, it was just, ugh. One of the quotes beginning chapter 17 is from *Cicero* about the folly of theology, ferpeetsake.

Still, I'm glad I did finally read it. And I have yet to discuss it in the group for which I read it, SFFBC, at which point I may have more to think about.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I attempted to read this in high school, and it was one of the few books back then that I started and finally just gave up on. All these years later, I understand why, though I'm glad I finished it this time. There's more math, hypothesizing, and character work than story in this novel, and realistically, although a lot happens, it happens very slowly and without much drama of the sort that would normally keep pages turning. In some ways, it's more like reading a fictionalized biography than a novel. All that said, Sagan's writing is lovely to fall into, and considering how much math and build-up drove this novel, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't, however, see myself delving into more of Sagan's fiction.

[wanderlustlover_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm giving this one, in all honesty, something like a 3.7. It's well enough written it shouldn't be a three and yet not compelling enough to deserve a four. And yet I truly enjoyed it. It's been a long time since I spent so much time reading a hard core Sci-Fi novel, and Stephanie and I read them by parts one a week.

I love getting to delve back into Sagan's mind. I've read his texts, but never his non-fiction, and there's a lovely thrill to reading about scientific details you know are completely true based on the background of the author.

Definitely not time wasted.

[mark7mark-15 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Feminist garbage... Evil men, poor oppressed women. Why couldn't the book just be about cool stuff, tech, space and aliens. Why taint it with contemporary politics. I just don't get it.

[Terry Stone · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Expand your mind and your universe with this remarkable book.

[Joshua Gantner · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am disappointed that it is only an abridged version

[Anikattel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think it's a good book and a good story. There are things that escape me because I may not understand those things, and perhaps that has made me enjoy it less.

One aspect that I see and that I haven't liked completely, even though interesting things happen in the book, is that it's written in a flat way; it lacks a bit more enthusiasm, I don't know, it feels somewhat static.

Other than that, it's an interesting book. (Translated from Spanish)

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun excursion into first contact with an alien species. Sagan makes us think about many issues in this semi-prophetic rendering.

[MarilynDelCarmen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After reading A Pale Blue Dot, I wanted to read more books by Carl Sagan. Of course, most of his works were popular science, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Contact (his only novel).

✳️ At first, it seemed to me that it took longer than necessary to start:

I thought that at least the first two chapters could be eliminated or summarized into one and the story would remain the same, although that doesn't mean they were tedious to read. Rather, those chapters serve to put us in context with the story of Ellie, a prominent radio astronomer in charge of Argos, the project that detects the first alien signal coming from a not-so-distant star ??.

✳️ Just from those chapters, many things can be perceived and said:

Sagan was also somewhat known for his liberal opinions on social issues that he left very evident throughout the novel, but mainly in those chapters, such as the difficulties women face in pursuing science, the topic of wars, religion, politics, and even mentions the use of marijuana (yes, because Sagan was into those things too ???‍♀️).

✳️ At some points, I felt that Sagan himself infused some of his traits into Ellie, despite the character being inspired by one of his real-life colleagues:

Ellie was very romantic to be a scientist, and the fact that she was actively working in the search for extraterrestrial life didn’t help improve how others perceived her. On the other hand, I also think the character was very well constructed, and that’s something I would like to emphasize, first, for all the drama Ellie displayed with her parents, mainly with her mom—she spent a lot of time trying to decipher an extraterrestrial message but couldn’t decipher her own story—and because I haven’t seen many gifted characters that really seem genuine. I think it’s a bit difficult to write such an intelligent character without crossing the line into Gary or Mary Sue territory. In this case, Ellie didn’t need the other characters constantly telling her she was smart; on the contrary, there were much more “prominent” characters than she was, but Carl Sagan takes you by the hand to show you the things she did, and then you realize for yourself that she was brilliant. That point leads me to another part of the story: the technical aspect ?.

✳️ Carl Sagan made a great effort to make the novel as "realistic" as possible despite being science fiction:

He asked one of his colleagues for help to try to find the most scientifically possible way to travel through space. He used his own knowledge to describe all the radio astronomy work being done at Argos and, as you might expect, the novel in general can be somewhat technical in some parts. However, I believe that this is not an impediment to moving the story forward. Most of the technical aspects mentioned in the novel, Sagan took the time to explain them in a simple way (that was his specialty ?), and in cases where not much explanation was provided, it doesn’t really seem to be needed (I think).

Finally, I must say that it is not my favorite book of the ones I have read by this man, but it is very entertaining, and I had a great time getting angry with the politicians and the things they said ?, I mean, they had an extraterrestrial message to decipher and were looking elsewhere ??‍♀️. There’s also a romantic storyline that I appreciate didn’t delve too much into it at the end because I would have cried ??. (Translated from Spanish)

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel spans a large amount of time and deals with some of the challenges that would inevitably arise as world nations try to work together. I especially found the parallel of religious faith and Ellie's experience with first contact to be thought provoking. In some ways the story felt like a detailed thought experiment.

[bdgamer-669415 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was wow. Simply wow. It's very technical at times, which isn't surprising considering it's a book about scientists by a scientist, but it offers up philosophical, cultural, and sociological questions that everyone should think about.

Contact obviously broadened my horizons and opened up my mind. <3 Carl Sagan.

[Calalo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I liked it a lot, more than the movie that I actually rewatched. (Translated from Spanish)

[macleod73-292574 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a book. For someone with a vast intellect as Sagan to be able to write a book that is so approachable by all is a feat unto itself. He writes with a wonder that was visible during the "Cosmos" series he hosted. He shows that you don't need to believe in the supernatural to have a wonder about the universe.

Recommended for any and all readers, no matter the genre preference.

[ladyars · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I felt that every phrase of this book carried a special meaning to me. I'll sure be rereading it many times.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It hasn't dated at all despite being written before the collapse of the USSR. Unsurprisingly has a bit of a didactic tone but beyond that it's a superb idea with an execution to match. In all this the characters aren't relegated to just moving the plot forward as many such sci-fi stories tend to do but are well developed and central.

[Zirano57 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really liked it, very human and philosophical, it was a pleasure to have read it. (Translated from Spanish)

[ArnoldoLozano12 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a child, I first saw Carl Sagan on TV. His series Cosmos, and the celestial music of Vangelis, awakened my curiosity to learn more about the infinite Universe of which we are a part. A few months later, I witnessed the landing of NASA's Columbia, at the beginning of space shuttle flights. Sagan, with his vast knowledge of the Cosmos, left us a great legacy through his series and this incredible novel.

How many times do we ask ourselves something, just as Sagan asked himself throughout his life, something that has intrigued us for centuries as we gaze at the stars while walking at night, or when camping and seeing the stars in all their splendor:
Is there life beyond our solar system? (Translated from Spanish)

[Jumadefe · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A masterpiece of science fiction. It is fantastic how it narrates the reaction of the world's population to contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. Not to mention that it is much better than the movie, although the movie is very good. (Translated from Spanish)

[luchojas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good novel. I had already seen the movie, maybe that’s why I only rate it four stars. I love science fiction with substance, and when mixed with philosophy and a bit of religion, I like it even more. Highly recommended, excellent work by a great science communicator like Carl Sagan. (Translated from Spanish)

[Becabooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is incredible, but at the same time, it is so complicated. Carl Sagan does such interesting work to pose the question: what would happen if one day we make contact with another world? How would it affect society? What would this action bring us?

I liked it; I enjoyed every page, every word, and while I enjoyed it, it was also dense due to the scientific work the author does to contextualize everything surrounding the events. But let's be honest, a Sci-fi book is easy to read...

I will provide context on what I liked and what I didn't; my reviews are not usually a summary of the story, but rather what I thought at the moment of reading it.

This year, I have gotten closer to the science fiction genre. At some point, I had to read Contact, and I do not regret it. The way the author develops the story, providing context for everything, and the debates he opens within it, have been mainly my favorite parts.

The development of Ellie is important; how she reaches her goals is significant. It is a book that makes you think a lot about the kind of events that could be triggered by having "extraterrestrial" contact.

What I didn't like was how dense the story is; there's a lot of description and technical words. In this case, I enjoyed it quite a bit despite the fact that physics and chemistry are not my strong suits. I was able to understand several things and become acquainted with this scientific world that is very strange to see.

The only thing I can say is: if you are one of those people who is starting with the science fiction genre, this book is dense and may be complicated to understand. (Translated from Spanish)