Audiobook14 hours
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Written by Carl Sagan
Narrated by LeVar Burton, Seth MacFarlane, Ann Druyan and Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. Featuring a new Introduction by Sagan’s collaborator, Ann Druyan, and a new Foreword by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos retraces the fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into consciousness, exploring such topics as the origin of life, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, spacecraft missions, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies, and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science. Includes introductory music: Heaven and Hell by Vangelis from Cosmos: A Personal Voyage used with permission from Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
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.
Reviews for Cosmos
Rating: 4.15295551492992 out of 5 stars
4/5
1,641 ratings42 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As a B. Dalton science book buyer, this was one of my few "bestsellers"! Gotta love that!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I can remember watching the TV series when it was first shown on UK TV and being awe-struck. It was around the time of the Voyager or was it Pioneer pictures of the outer solar system and really made me think about life the universe and everything.I think I saw the last two episodes on a tiny black and white set, equipped with a very poor arial, in the kitchen of a caravan in Cornwall, surrounded by snoring relatives, nearly all of whom are now dead BTW. Tempus Fugit.I got the book for Xmas and it still has my name and address and a very short phone number written inside the cover.I was slightly apprehensive about re-reading this book after all these years just in case it disappointed me thanks to a combination of 30 years of scientific progress and the golden light of memory. No a bit of it, still a wonderfully approachable introduction to Life the Universe and Everything, told with respect for the readers intelligence and a sense of the awe and sheer enjoyment that can be had in understanding the world we live in which I find infectious. Not many books can include a reference to a mathematical proof as an appendix which actually provides enjoyment.I heartily recommend this book especially, to 10 to 14 year olds.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cosmos tells the fascinating story of how fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution transformed matter and life into consciousness, of how science and civilization grew up together, and of the forces and individuals who helped shape modern science.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reading Carl Sagan's book is just pleasure, I wish my textbooks were like this! Once you start reading the book, its difficult to keep it down.The book talks about variety of topics about cosmos and it's cousins. The scope of the book is just too vast making the book a must read. The book starts with some of the very basic concepts and stretches to the deep corners of the universe.As always, his language is simple makes even complex subjects easily understandable."Biology is more like history than physics. You have to know the past to understand the present."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting and not written too deep or over my head. Nice way of describing our place in the universe.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read this book once as a child, I was perhaps 12, and looking back, seeing the influence it has asserted on western culture since that time, is amazing. So much of myself I can trace directly back to his books, and this one book in particular. To those of you out there who had a chance to meet him, I envy you.