Carl Sagan
1985
Around 435 pages
We are on a streak of five star novels lately if you don't count William Burroughs, and I try not to.
Eleanor "Elie" Arroway is a graduate of Harvard and has always demonstrated a high aptitude for science and mathematics. She becomes the director of "Project Argus", a radio telescope array in New Mexico dedicated to the search for aliens. The project eventually discovers a signal containing a series of prime numbers coming from the Vega system, 26 light years away. Naturally, everybody loses their minds over this, but Elie is determined to continue her quest for Truth.
Carl Sagan is the cool science teacher whose experiments are so fun, they don't even feel like learning. Here's a Carl Sagan quote that sums up this novel well: "“The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves - without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster.” I absolutely loved Elie, and couldn't get enough of Sagan's perspective.
Sagan makes me hopeful about the universe, so for that he deserves all the stars in the cosmos.
RATING: *****
Interesting Facts:
The novel originated as a screenplay by Sagan and Ann Druyan (whom he later married) in 1979. When development of the film stalled, Sagan decided to convert the stalled film into a novel. The film concept was subsequently revived and eventually released in 1997.
Reading science fiction and fantasy as a child inspired Sagan to become an astronomer.
UP NEXT: Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
2 comments:
The book has a subplot that did not make it into the movie around a funder of Elie's project that made his fortune on a gadget that would detect TV commercials on the rapid increase in volume and switch to another channel for the duration. I always wanted that device. In Danish it was called "Reklanix".
I will read this. I loved the movie, and I always like the books better. It sounds good!
Post a Comment