Contact

I see this book as the greatest alien-related story of all time.

Carl Sagan’s humanity and philosophy make it so much more than a tale of alien contact. This is a human story about how alien contact would affect us and the world around us, from the personal to the political and on all levels from micro to macro.

The breadth of the story’s scope opened my mind in countless ways.

Carl Sagan, a legit scientist, spent a lifetime contemplating what alien life might be like. It’s actually pretty amazing that his one and only novel turned out so well, as the discipline of writing scientific papers is very different from writing fiction, but he really nailed it on the first try.

This book feels mostly independent of everything that came before it and serves as a template for everything that came after.

I especially enjoyed this book because it was written by an astronomer (with some help from his wife, who was a science writer) and because the main character was based on a colleague of mine, Dr. Jill Tarter.

In the book, Carl Sagan tells the story of how a SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) project might actually go about finding a signal from a civilization around another star. (The book was made into a movie, where Jodie Foster played the main scientist who made the discovery. She actually came out to the SETI Institute, where Jill Tarter worked, and spent… show more.

In Contact, Carl Sagan takes us on a wondrous interstellar adventure in which humanity makes contact with an alien civilization.

Although it is a work of fiction, Sagan, a scientist and a master science communicator, seamlessly blends real science into his gripping storytelling. I loved the main character, a woman astronomer by the name of Ellie Arroway, who is based on the real-life scientist Jill Tarter, former director of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute.

A passionate and tenacious scientist who defies gender stereotypes, Ellie’s sense of curiosity and wonder, coupled with her intellect and determination make her… show more.

I’m recommending this book because everyone has seen the movie, but the book throws in a few curveballs that didn’t make it into the screenplay.

Carl Sagan is known for his Cosmos series and his science communication books challenging the growing anti-science sentiment in society, but it’s in this work of fiction where he really gets to speculate on what First Contact might be like and the motivation of aliens reaching out to us.   

Carl Sagan is still one of the most well-known astronomers, renowned for his ability to create wonder and awe in his descriptions of the Universe.

In this book, he’s at his finest form, a science fiction tale of the discovery of an intelligent alien signal coming from space, and how the world reacts to it. It’s a wonderful treatise on religion, science, belief, and evidence.

If you’ve seen the movie, read the book: It’s far superior, and the very last page will give you chills and leave you questioning what you think reality is.

Contact explores the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and humanity's place in the universe. What I loved about Contact is what’s often overlooked in its common description. The contact being made is not only with life beyond Earth but also with those people most dear to us who we’ve loved and lost. This longing to reconnect fits perfectly with the idea of survival, not only for oneself, but for the memories of others.

Sagan's writing is wonderfully descriptive, and he does a masterful job of weaving together science, philosophy, and fiction to create a memorable story. We follow the main character,… show more.

Carl Sagan was a renowned ambassador for science, and his contributions to science were rivalled only by his contributions to science fiction. His novel, Contact, asks us to consider how we would react if we received a real communication from an alien civilization – particularly if it came with a blueprint for how to reach out to them. What kind of dangers come with contacting aliens about whom we know next to nothing, beyond the fact that their technology surpasses our own? This is a time-honoured question, and one which Carl Sagan addresses with a deep insight into human… show more.

A scientist and brilliant astronomer, Carl Sagan was also recognised for his involvement with NASA and the Apollo moon programme. And, perhaps, best known to some for his ‘Pale Blue Dot’ speech, when he referred to the Earth as a small dot, seen by the Voyager 1 space probe at a distance of 5 billion miles away in deep space.

As one of my favourite writers on science and philosophy, Sagan also wrote one of the bestsellers ever conceived about humanity meeting other beings in another universe, aptly named Contact.

I have no doubt, that his scientific works and… show more.

Carl Sagan's PBS series Cosmos influenced my decision to pursue a career in astronomy, but I have always been a science fiction fan. When Sagan released a science fiction novel, I knew I needed it. He doesn't disappoint. He roots his story in the real Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and imagines what could happen if we actually did contact life among the stars and they gave us a way to travel to them. I also love that much of the story is set at the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, where I worked during my senior year… show more.