China-2008

Amazon.com

It is December 1999, the dawn of the millennium, and a team of international scientists is poised for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team believes they've found a message from an intelligent source--and they travel deep into space to meet it. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan injects Contact, his prophetic adventure story, with scientific details that make it utterly believable. It is a Cold War era novel that parlays the nuclear paranoia of the time into exquisitely wrought tension among the various countries involved. Sagan meditates on science, religion, and government--the elements that define society--and looks to their impact on and role in the future. His ability to pack an exciting read with such rich content is an unusual talent that makes Contact a modern sci-fi classic.

Fantastisch

5 von 5 Punkten
Das Buch hat mich in vielen Bereichen zum Nachdenken und Nachlesen angeregt, so in den Gebieten Religion, Philosophie, Astronomie, Physik allgemein. Darüber hinaus ist es einfach ein Klasse Buch, spannend und tiefgründig. Sagan, ein bekennender Verfechter ausserirdischen Lebens, setzt ein Thema, das ihm sehr am Herzen lag wirklich fantastisch um.

Visionary, Insightful Science Fiction

5 von 5 Punkten
The owner of my local sci-fi bookstore recently complained that science fiction has a bad name. If you write sci-fi in America, you're probably going to be stuck writing sci-fi for the rest of your life. It's why we see so few mainstream authors cross over into science fiction, and it's a shame. The problem, of course, is that too much sci-fi is written strictly to be fun reading. There's nothing wrong with this, but critics want more flesh in their reading. Some science fiction has that flesh, and it is upon such works that we science fiction fans must pin our hopes for any future acceptance of the genre as 'respectable' literature.
Carl Sagan's Contact is without a doubt one of the best examples of this sort of work. The story is set in the near future, a 1999 envisioned from the mid-eighties. Its protagonist, Eleanor Arroway, is a brilliant young astronomer who has dedicated her career to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. When she finds it, the discovery changes her world in ways both radical and global, and personal and profound.
The story's scope is grand. It discusses seriously the effect of the aliens' Message on the nations of the world, and also on the minds of mankind itself, which must now face the fact that it is not alone. Despite a few awkward digressions, Contact is masterfully written, engaging, and stocked with interesting and believable characters. The perhaps over-hashed subjects of "man voyages to the stars" and "man meets slimy aliens" are downplayed in favor of introspective considerations of "man realizes the size of universe" and "man acknowledges the Other."
Science fiction, like any genre, can and should produce fun reading. It is a joy, however, to find that it can also produce stimulating, thought-provoking reading. Fans and foes of sci-fi alike should read Contact and see the potential of the oft pooh-pooh-ed medium.

Spannend, anspruchsvoll, lehrreich..einfach perfekt!

5 von 5 Punkten
Ich habe "Contact" schon lange vor dem Kinofilm gelesen (welcher das Buch erst so richtig populär machte)und war schon damals fanziniert vond er Geschichte (der Film weicht übrigens ziemlich vom Buch ab). Ich finde das Buch sehr anspruchsvoll und tiefgründig. Vieles ist nicht gleich zu verstehen, es sei den man/frau hat in Astrophysik promoviert. Aber gerade das macht den Reiz der Geschichte aus: ich persönlich habe die Begriffe mit denen ich nichts anfangen konnte in Lexika und Fachbüchern nachgeschlagen, was meiner Allgemeinbildung sicher gut getan hat;-)) Zur Story: Elli ist schon als Kind ungewöhnlich begabt und an Astronomie bzw Radioastronomie interessiert. Der Tod ihres geliebten Vaters bewirkt dass sie sich noch viel mehr ihren Studien widmet was von ihrer Umgebung kaum verstanden bzw. akzeptiert wird. Sie schafft es zur Leiterin des SETI-Projektes, welchen mit Hilfe gigantischer Teelskopschüsseln in der Wüste Arizonas die Himmelsphäre nach intelligenten Lebenszeichen "scannt". EInes Tages kommt das entscheidende SIGNAL, wovon Elli ihr Leben lang geträumt hat.... Mit Hilfe vieler Wissenschaftler wird die "Botschaft" (welche die ganze Welt verändert) dechiffriert und eine Maschine gebaut..ich will den Lesern nicht mehr verraten, der Ausgang der Geschichte ist ungewöhnlich und spannend genug. Es sei nur soviel verraten: Die Zahl Pi spielt eine entscheidende Rolle...und Elli erkennt dass ihr eigenes Schicksal mit dem der Menschheit verknüpft ist...ich glaube jeder Leser kann den Schluß anders interpretieren oder seine persönlichen Schlüsse daraus ziehen...ein perfektes Buch für alle die sich für Philosophie, Astronomie, Mathematik und Science Fiction interessieren!

Inner Contact

5 von 5 Punkten
Historically, intellectuals have philosophized their ideas about god. Hitherto, those philosophies have gained popularity in many's minds. The soul of one's spirituality, faith, and belief is similarly touched in this single work of fiction by one of those former intellectuals. Carl Sagan shows us the universality of faith and spirit in all of our lives, and whole-heartedly encourages us to frame our own ideas of faithful reasoning. Ellie Arroway, the main character, shows the puzzlement of our minds and Palmer Joss, her friend, lover at times, is it's firm-minded, though not closed minded, mediator. Her journey from agnostic to enlightened agnostic occurs with this truth seeker throughout lighting the way and proving connections, comparing the scientific mind with the religious, showing that fine line which separates them. The end of the book shows no conclusion, merely the importance of being open-minded and having an astute mind, an accepting spirit and a rational sould as their parent.

If you liked the movie read this!

5 von 5 Punkten
I saw the film Contact based on this novel and was totally blown away, so I went out and bought the book, and I'm very glad I did.
Unlike other novel to film conversions, the film remains largely faithful to the novel. But, if you've already seen the film, not to worry as reading the novel is not merely repeating what was in the film - there's enough unique (and slightly more technicaly involved) material in the novel, along with a slightly different plot, to make reading the novel quite worth it.
Unfortunately, I think the film was slightly dumbed down to be better suited to the movie-going audience - this book is smart, intelligent and thought provoking. And of course the film leaves out a lot of details. For instance, Sagan devotes quite a bit of the beginning of the novel to Elle's childhood - while the film spends some time here, Sagan goes into far more detail in the book, talks at length about Elle's mother etc. In fact, Elle's character in the novel is even better developed than in the film, which is impressive because the film really does an excellent job focusing on Elle and her beliefs.
Lastly, without giving anything away, I think reading the novel is worth it just for the ending, which is a bit different than the book and explores a really cool idea relating to the fundamental nature of the universe (or at least our perception of the universe) which I found to be really intruiging.