Contact

a fantastic journey.

I'd forgotten about this book ... I loved it.

To sum up, an interesting story, but filled with digressions, under-developed characters and under-pursued minor plot-lines.

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Contact is an interesting piece of work, as it represents Sagan's attempt at science fiction. I think he largely failed. The main problem with Sagan's approach to Contact is that he treated it more as a vent for his ideas and opinions than a conventional sci-fi story.

I cannot count how many times I lost track of who one of the characters is or what a character's relation is to the current events. I also found myself losing track of the events themselves due to Sagan's habit of digressing a bit too far off topic, usually following a brief mention of a historic event or similar. This is not a bad thing in general, but in Contact, digressions of this type happen far too often.

Character development is poor. Pretty much all of the characters, save for Ellie, are introduced through the unimaginative use of a boring body of text detailing the character's history. A clear example of this is Reverend Joss' history. In addition, various bits of different characters' ideas, opinions, or additional history are mashed in between lines in a very unwieldy fashion.

There are positives, of course. The overarching plot, when it is being pursued, is intriguing. In my case, it was the only thing that kept me going until the end. The minor threads in the plot are, in most cases, unnecessary, and are often scrapped without any noticeable reason. For instance, what happened to Ellie and der Heer towards the end of the story?

SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS

Speaking of the end, the final twist was, I felt, insignificant, as that aspect of Ellie's life was not pursued nearly enough.

A great book. So pleased I read this even after watching the movie years ago.

Actually Carl Sagan was my idol, just about, when growing up and love his references to poetry and the subtle spirituality in the story.

A true classic.

Fantastic as always. Carl was a genius. Terrific version

An incredible book presenting the potential of humanity to come together for a common cause, but with the tragic realisation that human psychology and entrenched interests can present profound barriers. This novel presents Sagan's thought in a fascinating way that successfuly demonstrates how a scientific world view can actually sit quite comfortably alongside religion, when religion is understood in fundamental rather than doctrinal form.