Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful, heart-warming SF novel, 3 Oct 2001
This book is proof enough that one of the world's greatest space scientists can also write great SF!
It is a super SF novel, but it's more than that. Throughout the book, Carl Sagan's love and hope for the human race shine through.
Eleanora Arroway, a woman who has known her fair share of bad times in her life, eventually becomes the head of a space center which listens for messages from intelligent extraterrestrials. Against all the odds, a message is discovered and deciphered. Instead of being a message telling us how to create the perfect society, or a religious revelation, it turns out to be a blueprint for a highly-advanced machine.
Do they dare build it? And if they do, what will the machine do? Religious fundamentalists battle with governments and scientists to destroy the project. For the machine, chillingly, is clearly designed to carry a team of people...
If the machine is built, who will ride in it, and where will it take them? You will have to read it to find out!
This book has been made into a movie, but, although it's good, I felt that it did not really do justice to the book. This is one of the finest SF novels I've read - great characters, a gripping plot, high adventure, and to cap it all, a wonderful ending (which is not the same as the movie). An uplifting book which I recommend to one and all. Simply fab!
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So human, so scientific, 18 Dec 2001
This book is simply brilliant,it flowlessly combines science, science fiction, and a deeply moving story. What would happen if an alien civilization much more advanced than us made contact with us? What would they think about us? How would we feel when we knew that we're no so special as we thought, that there are people more intelligent, more advanced and above all, more civilliced than us? Sagan brilliantly played with these questions along the story, wich tells us about the life of Ellie Arroway, the most deeply involved astronomer in the whole affair of finding a message from allien beings, decoding it, and finally make contact. Through Ellie's point of view, we witness the whole story: Team work of scientist around the globe, political affairs (deep criticism of virtually every political system is descreetly included in Ellie's conversations with her coleages), religious affairs, the achievement of the goal, the hipocrisy and cruelty of politicians, and private aspects of Ellie's life as the death of her father, her relation with her mother and stepfather, her love affairs; this may seem beside the point in this story, but, are scientific questions and doubts such as the existence of extra terrestrial intelligence more important than "simple" personal questions and doubts about our lives? Sagan also played brillantly with this question, and when I finished the book, I started to ponder a few things, as the scientific I am, and as the human being I am. As I said, a deeply moving and exciting story.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most profound and humbling book I have read., 2 Jun 2000
By A Customer
Having seen the movie first, and loved it, my expectations were high.I was not in the least disappointed. This is a conciousness altering book that provides food for the soul. Inspiring, deeply moving and full of a wonder that makes you feel young again. Immediately after finishing Contact I went outside and gazed up at the stars. And smiled.
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by Carl Sagan
![Contact (Special Edition) [1997] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HZNSJSJYL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Jodie Foster
by Carl Sagan
