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    Audiobook (abridged)4 hours

    Contact

    Written by Carl Sagan

    Narrated by Jodie Foster

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Grammy Award Nominee for Best Spoken Word Album!

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 1, 1997
    ISBN9780743545273
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Contact

    4/5

    2,341 ratings66 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Expand your mind and your universe with this remarkable book.
    • 3/5
      I have to admit that this was written better than I had anticipated. From a literary perspective, the author did a good job of building characters in a way that sucked me into the story. The plot was interesting and the scientific detail (when I understood it) was enjoyable.

      I don't know why I don't rate this book higher but it might have something to do with the ending. It wasn't terrible but it was anti-climatic.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      Book club book. Book is better than the movie especially the ending info.
    • 3/5
      I am disappointed that it is only an abridged version
    • 4/5
      Fun excursion into first contact with an alien species. Sagan makes us think about many issues in this semi-prophetic rendering.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 1/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      I felt that every phrase of this book carried a special meaning to me. I'll sure be rereading it many times.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      I was surprised to actually enjoy this book. This is a book by the scientist/TV star Carl Sagan. He wrote this for TV and it was published in 1985. A book that addressed many issues still present; the struggle of science, politics, religion and equity. The book addresses issues between religion and science s well as other items of globalism. The whole experience of traveling via machine through various passages, talking with someone she had loved in life and then not being able to prove any of it when she returns all parallels a religious experience of wonder. The book reveals a scientist (Sagan) to not be as hard cored atheist as his reputation affirmed. As a novel, it may have been a bit dry, lacking somewhat in the amount of anxiety, fear and tension that would have resulted from a message from space. With that said, I now think about The Three-Body Problem which also is about receiving a message from space.
    • 4/5
      I'm not usually a fan of hard sci-fi, but I really enjoyed this. To be fair, a lot of this book is more about religion than science, but I LOVED the debate and thought the plot was a great idea. Sagan did a great job of not crucifying people of faith (see what I did there :) ) and in the end I felt that he was probably agnostic (I had always assumed he was an atheist). The only thing that seemed to be missing was tension. There was some, but overall, it was pretty "even-keeled" throughout.
    • 3/5
      The movie, as far as I recall, has the same plot. But the tone of the movie fits its plot better, I think, so it works better. Sagan has to stretch his writing to reach his themes, and he's trying too hard; it never really works. I had hoped that the book would be more intelligent than the movie, but not really.
    • 4/5
      Carl Sagan has a message. It's one of collaboration between nations and scientific disciplines. An optimism that brings together men and women across patriotic, ethnic and cultural divisions. Yes, there's a backdrop of science; you get to learn some tidbits about the electromagnetic spectrum, astronomy and black holes. But that's not the reason to read Contact. Nor should you look to Contact for green many-headed aliens and exotic worlds.What you will find is a sensitive and realistic portrayal of how the human race reacts to extraterrestrial intelligence. Of course, such a reaction has many levels: politicians, industrialists and scientists have their own agendas. Most interesting is Sagan's characterization. Nominally the story is told through the eyes of a passionate American scientist who discovers an alien message, but equally vivid are the Soviet astronomer, Chinese archaeologist, Nigerian theoretical physicist and Indian doctor. We are taken through each of their histories, which lead to the novel's climax. Adversaries are found in religious and political spheres to bring some tension to an otherwise linear storyline.I only wonder whether I would have preferred more of Sagan's non-fiction. His Cosmos has an equally profound message but with science playing a more central role.
    • 4/5
      a fantastic journey.
    • 5/5
      I'd forgotten about this book ... I loved it.
    • 4/5
      It's always interesting reading SF books that were written a while ago about the time we are presently experiencing because you can see how accurate the writer's guesses were. This book was written in 1985 and is set around the millenium. The premise is that an advanced civilization broadcasts a message to Earth (as well as many other places in the galaxy) which gives instructions for building a machine. The machine is used to transport a few scientists to the centre of the galaxy where they meet the senders of the message. The details about the message, radioastronomy and the science in general all well done (which you would expect from a renowned astronomer like Sagan). But I thought the characterizations and general story-line were well done too which is quite surprising for a science type. A few things make it obvious the book was written almost 20 years ago. Firstly, everyone still smokes everywhere. Sagan didn't foresee the decline in acceptance of public smoking and it just makes me realize how far we've come in that respect in 20 years. Also, there is no mention of the internet, e-mail or cell phones although Sagan did anticipate a need for rapid communication of thoughts and messages which he addressed by envisioning a rapid telex system. The other glaring error is the failure to anticipate the demise of the Soviet Union. Despite these inconsistencies, I very much enjoyed this book and I'm glad I had an opportunity to fill this void in my science fiction reading.
    • 5/5
      Astrophysicist Ellie Arroway has picked up a message from a radio telescope system. She decodes a message that provides instructions for building a Machine. Along with a small international group of scientists, she travels into space to meet the intelligence that sent the message. But how will they convince the world that they haven’t it’s not a gigantic hoax?A prophetic adventure, speculating on society and the mysteries of the universe, this story, with its credible characters and enough scientific detail to make the tale believable, will keep fans of the genre engrossed in the story.Recommended.
    • 4/5
      A radio-astronomer has her array set toward the heavens, when after many years, something that could be a bi-numeral code is detected. Code it is, and it also contains codes within codes. The receiving civilization must be advanced enough to detect, decipher, and eventually build a machine using technologies and materials not known to mankind but detailed in the received manual.This is an interesting twist to the ‘aliens show up and humans react’ scenario. There are years, decades, in between receiving the message and deciding what to do. Not everyone reacts the same – some believe the machine should not be built because it will be a doomsday machine for earth or perhaps a portal for hostile aliens; others have religious reasons for denying the machine be built. And when it's built, who can say what really did happen? And who should know?Lots of really good scientific details in this one.Now I need to re-watch the movie.
    • 3/5
      I was surprised by how much this book mentions God and religion. I can't say that there were actual aliens in this book. It is suggested but not definite. Interesting story of receiving a radio transmission from space and deciphering the code. I am glad I read the book but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
    • 4/5
      Much better than the movie.
    • 3/5
      Carl Sagan was a science writer first and it shows. Many of the characters are undeveloped and his prose at times reads like a text book. The plot is pretty thin as well.
    • 5/5
      This book surprised me in its power. I actively disliked this novel about halfway through, when it felt like the religious perspective was being unfairly broiled by Ellie. I consider this part of the novel unartful, clumsy, even ham-fisted. Yet: the novel redeems it self. Solidly. This is about aliens and first contact, yes. But really, it's about the nature of faith, of proof, of the mystery of the spirit within math and science. That is a thing of beauty. I came to the end of the book while in Starbucks, nursing a lunch latte, and fought the urge to weep in public. I felt tender for the rest of the day.Sometimes, a story transcends its parts and reminds me of why I read. This is a book worth reading, flaws notwithstanding.
    • 5/5
      So very good. 4.5 stars rounded up. I think It could've used some heavier editing to tighten up the story a bit.