The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 2 October 1998
by Carl Sagan
Since the early 1960's, scientists on Earth have sporadically engaged in an earnest search for signs of intelligent life in the universe. NASA's SETI program was eventualy cancelled, to be resurrected as the privately-funded Phoenix project at the SETI Institute. Carl Sagan was a prominent advocate of such searches, and was engaged in the development of a message to the universe that was packaged on a disc launched aboard the Voyager spacecraft. In this book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sagan sets out to envision what would happen when the SETI search finally picks up that faint and ellusive signal. Ellie Arroway, brilliant scientist, has spent most of her life searching for that signal. Now, on the brink of having her project cancelled, partly on the advice of her unimaginitive thesis adviser, she suddenly discovers a very strong signal from the relatively nearby star, Vega. What ensues is a world-transforming experience as the message is decrypted, and its profound meaning debated among government, scientific and religious leaders. Sagan's story is a profoundly earnest exploration of the questions that such a magnificent discovery would raise. What would the government do? What would happen to world religions? What skepticism and doubt would greet the scientists discovering the message? The story is permeated with a millennial feeling, anticipatory, forboding and hopeful at the same time. The author's attention to detail is quite remarkable, but occasionally detracts from the flow of the story. Some of his predictions are fantastic. And, while Sagan is a considerate writer, fiction may not have been his calling. The book is a little awkward, and is missing some of the poetry for which such a profound question seems to call. Yet, it may leave the reader with an appreciation of the magnitude of the universe and our place within it. Sagan was eminently hopeful for humankind, while being fearful also of the things we can and will do to ourselves. (The book was followed fairly closely by the excellent 1997 film by the same title.)
Also by Sagan: [The Demon-Haunted World]
See also:
[The Listeners by James E. Gunn]
[Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone]
[Carl Sagan: A Life by Keay Davidson]