Carl Sagan
Contact (1985)
Reviewed: 1997-04-13

Expectations were high when renowned astronomer, successful popular science writer, and SETI advocate Carl Sagan accepted in 1981 a two million dollar advance to produce a novel. Considering his background, it comes as no surprise that he chose to write about a successful SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project and the subsequent first contact between humanity and an alien species.

To add some human interest, Contact is also the life story of Ellie Arroway. Her childhood impressions, her education, her involvement with SETI, her relationships, her discovery of the Message, her search for love, her work for the project, her grand mission, her experience with the numinous, her recognition of herself, and finally her finding rest. And you thought radio astronomers were boring people. While the other protagonists remain two-dimensional extras, Ellie's character comes very much to life.

The novel is mostly geared to a mainstream audience. With non-technical readers in mind, Sagan glosses over much of the technical and all the linguistic details which would have been of so much interest to those of us with a curious mind for these matters. Oh, and checking for phase modulation is certainly one of the first things to come to mind, not one of the last.

Considering the intended audience, Contact is surprisingly original in later parts, although the very end shows a return to mainstream conventions. Some parts are more than a little reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssee. Occasionally straying uncomfortably close to preaching, Sagan openly advocates against nationalism, sexism, and religious fundamentalism, the latter especially in the American Christian variety. Written just before the fall of the Soviet Union, the book's extrapolation of Cold War politics is fortunately dated. Altogether, Contact, while not making a big splash with the genre readers, is a competently written novel.


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