CONTACT

I didn't expect a front cover folded book! Poor Packing! After all, It's from my favourite author.Many people get the feeling for a good book when finished that it should be recognized, read widely enough for the spread of intellectual harmony and happiness. Like many of those, I realised the love of my life very recently. At the time of finishing the book, I felt like a civilian of a far future civilization living in a nearby star system from Earth, feeling proud of the antecedents who had humble inceptions, how interesting the people evolved in time. I felt like it's the Best Novel I've ever read in my life.It was a book named Contact written by Carl Sagan, a late astronomer who had worked on NASA planetary projects and was a professor at Cornell University. He used to contribute a lot through the facade of science to common muggles thus had a prominent role in having created awareness towards the importance of science since early 80's till his demise. Unlike his other books, it was a Novel. It is often propagandized that Novels are most widely written than Nonfiction books. Maybe he wanted this book to be widely read; widely contemplated.The Story starts with a group of radio astronomers of US detecting unambiguous intelligent signal from a nearby star which is rich in tens of complex information. Having several political disputations between the nations, scientific community all over the world began to work the problem and figured that the information was actually for building a machine that could take humans to the star. after much unprecedented sabotages, 5 persons from USA, Russia, India, China, Nigeria were selected representing the Earth. what they encounter during their expedition could change/improve one's perception widely, drastically. There are several things I could say the best regarding the bookPOLITICAL STEREOTYPESNot many people think and realise the national borders are just arbitraries as a result of irrational wars and disputes just because of frequent misunderstandings for the past few centuries. In the story, the signals were sent to Earth by E.T.s only after they received the signal from us (Speech of Adolf Hitler during 1936 Berlin Olympic games). The following things are very likely to occur even in the current global scenario. Silent conspiracies were being run by politicians considering others as competitive in building the machine so that the particular nation could take pride among others (Space race and Cold war times). Various governmental security heads like NSA were too much chauvinistic releasing the scientific information between countries for the purpose of decryption and this nationalistic feel is only a boon up to some level. This can never bring out a solution to the problems faced by the people. We're one interesting species with an interesting mix."To Every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell"CLASH OF THE SCIENCE & RELIGIONThe signal from a nearby forgotten pole star helped many conspiracy theorists, chiliasts, religious propagandists to project their own ideas into the happening. It was interpreted by reverend clergymen that the signal either could be an invitation from the angels or the satan; Some Doomsday machine; some as Trojan Machine. Reminded me of one of the fallibilities of us, we always intend to represent our own nature into nature.LOVE OF MATHEMATICSMathematics is the universal language among intelligent civilisations. Maybe God is just a Mathematician, I remember a book written by Mario Livio. The signal actually sent by ETs was a kind of palimpsest i.e., various messages encoded over the same signal (here in this case phase modulated) one of the messages was about prime numbers that were heading towards the infinity. Even during the visit to those beings, protagonist retrieves data reg their effort in deciphering the pi value assuming it as a message in 11 dimensions. Maybe someone wanted to tell about the elegance of the universe bound of the essence of math. Maybe God is a Mathematician!MATHEMATICS OF LOVEFor the beings like us the vastness is bearable only by love. By the time, the five trained persons reached the alien land through a series of Einstein-Rosen Bridges or Wormholes, they spent the night in a world similar to Earth more likely to be simulated by those beings who did extract all the information from the human brains. They insisted that the humans were very few among the herds who reached them. Many civilisations mess with themselves because of various traits. Our unique abilities like dreams, love are very important. The only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other. And love not just pertaining to the human relationships but as a species; as a caretaker being kind to the other species whom we share our tiny home."Chastity is a wealth that comes from abundance of love."LESSON IN HUMILITYIt was pretty sure that the humans were very backward technologically relative to the bulk beings who works on the galactic centre of the milky way teleporting matter particles over a nearby radio galaxy Cygnus A for the past 600 million years. Even they didn't want to judge the human species upon them. We humans are very adaptable. By the end of the next century or by the time when people start to live on interplanetary colonies, things might get changed.LEAP OF FAITHReligion and Faith weren't the two sides of the same coin at the beginning. However we humans have worked on the faith unconsciously for eons through our antecedents. it's hard to battle the billion-year-old instincts with the million-year-old evolutionary mind. Faith and beliefs made us humans. It made up our evolution process; our pages of the history says so; It will take us to the stars."In the revealing jargon of theortitical physics, the universe was their apple and someone had tunneled through, riddling the interior with passageways that crisscrossed the core. For a bacillus who lived on the surface, it was a miracle. But a being outside the apple might be less impressed"They Bulk beings are in the search of a survey of intelligent beings and their capabilities in the local hood. that's one of the reasons they wanted the humans to reach them. They don't want to harm us or use us for their entertainment unlike we do many things with the fellow beings like insects, animals and birds, et cetera here on our home. Reminds me that Earth is a very small stage in the vast cosmic arena. Sagan wanted us to read it to remind us to be more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the only home we've ever known.

one of the must reads for SETI enthusiasts, and even science enthusiasts as well! the book deals not only with the theme of SETI but also talks about religion, cultures, existentialism, curse of intelligent species, to name a few! And not to forget, this is a tale of a scientist! So it's a storybook with all the above ingredients!

Ever since mankind has realized the vastness of our universe, we have wondered "Are we alone in this universe?"Contact by Carl Sagan is a story where we finally receive a message from somewhere in the vicinity of Vega star system which is about 26 light-years away from us. The civilization which contacted us is presumably vastly superior to us in all manners. Funny thing though, the first message that they send us was replay of speech by Adolf Hitler in 1936 Olympics opening ceremony. What information does the message contain? What does aliens want from us? Receiving of message from extra-terrestrial, intelligent civilization was arguably most important event in history of humanity. Contact book takes us on most amazing journey that will change our world.Something has to be said about writing style of Carl Sagan. He was a poet scientist – anybody who has read Cosmos or watched the series would agree with it. He has this beautiful, lucid style of story-telling which makes this book difficult to put down. He has touched many complex topics such as subtle gender bias in scientific community, misunderstanding and tension between working of science and theology and arms races between USA and Russia till 1990s and politics and military interests interfering with scientific research in very nuanced way. His clarity of thoughts and knowledge about world politics is clearly visible in this book.One small part of book that I especially liked is debate between female protagonist scientist and couple of religious leaders about religious beliefs, God and science in general. It is written in very balanced, unprejudiced way and with great clarity.Highly recommended book! You certainly do not want to miss on the most incredible adventure in history of humanity!

Yet to read the book. But when it comes to talk about cosmos surely Carl Sagan is the first legend who comes in mind. Very curious to read. The book looks genuine but seems like seller had that in shelf for a very long time.

Very well written book. Carl Sagan's creativity is beyond imagination.

Well, the book is great, its small sized compared to most books, not the amt of pages but the dimension of it making it easier to hold and carry or to flip the pages but im not so satisfied with the paper quality. And this is my second time ordering it as the first time i ordered from another account , the shipment failed, though i was refunded. I had to order it again. Which is why those 3 stars, else it was a 5. Oh and.. do read cosmos and pale blue dot if you enjoyed contact.

I didn't get all of it but maybe because it had deeper meanings...my interest in mathematics has just got intensified

I rarely read science-fiction, but this book is a wonder and a must read. I found it very intriguing. Freakishly addictive.

A most enjoyable read that goes well with the motion picture.

Con todo el sustento tecnico y cientifico que el que alguien como Sagan le aporta a una novela de esta naturaleza las cuestiones que plantea al termino de la novela siguen y seguiran siendo muy validas

The subject is fascinating. I particularly love the questions that are conjectured by the author should we be contacted. And I love the answers even more. Much more thorough than the movie starring Jody Foster (another favorite). Maybe the book deserves a mini series like some of today’s shows. A 2 hour movie could not do this justice, the movie Contact is just an appetizer. Well written. Quite an expansive vocabulary. I was happy to read it on my iPad w/ Kindle App so I could highlight a word I didn’t know and get the meaning right away.

A estória é um show. Em relação ao autor, qualquer apresentação é dispensável. Carl Sagan foi um cientista genial e que muito contribuiu para a divulgação da ciência, tendo influenciado milhares de pessoas, incluindo aquele que hoje dá sequência no seu trabalho de divulgação da ciência, o astrofísico americano Neil Degrasse Tyson (a propósito, não deixem de assistir à Série “Cosmos” apresentada por Tyson. Um show de ciência e conhecimento transmitidos de forma leve e compreensível). A estória do livro é linda. O autor conseguiu unir ciência com uma estória que é um verdadeiro thriller. Não dá vontade de parar de ler. É muito, muito legal. A estória é bem mais rica que a aquela contada no filme com Jodie Foster e Matthew McConaughey e tudo fica bem melhor explicado que no filme. Mas o filme também é excelente e foi por causa do filme que comprei o livro. É também uma mensagem clara de amor e da existência indubitável de Deus.

Ho deciso di leggere il libro dopo aver visto il film, che mi era piaciuto moltissimo. Le differenze tra il libro e il film però sono sostanziali, e la storia narrata nel libro è ovviamente più ricca e profonda. Ho particolarmente apprezzato la parte finale, decisamente più bella e interessante rispetto al film.Carl Sagan è stato fenomenale nel riuscire a combinare la narrativa alla divulgazione scientifica, e a trattare le conseguenze politiche, economiche, diplomatiche, religiose e filosofiche di un "Contatto" con una civiltà aliena. Lo consiglio a tutti gli amanti del genere.