Contact » (Reissue)

Carl Sagan

The books of Carl Sagan, the distinguished astronomer, are the most widely read scientific works in the world. Cosmos, first published in 1980, is the bestselling science book ever published in the English language. The accompanying Peabody and Emmy Award winning television series was broadcast in sixty countries. His other books include The Dragons of Eden, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1978, Broca's Brain, and the bestseller (with Ann Druyan), Comet.

Dr. Sagan was deeply involved in both spacecraft exploration of the planets and the radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence. His numerous awards included the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and for Distinguished Public Service, the John F. kennedy Astronautics Award, the Honda Prize, the Joseph Priestly Award "for distinguished contributions to the welfare of mankind," and the National Academy of Science Public Service Medal. The National Science Foundation states his "research revolutionized planetary science...his gifts to mankind were infinite."

Dr. Sagan was the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell University, where he also served as director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. He died in 1996.

In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who — or what — is out there?

In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future — and our own.

Publishers Weekly

Who could be better qualified than the author of the highly successful Cosmos to turn the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, and humankind's first contact with it, into imaginative reality? This is precisely what Sagan does in this eagerly awaited and, as it turns out, engrossing first novel. The basic plot is very simple. A worldwide system of radio telescopes, in the charge of brilliant astrophysicist Ellie Arroway, picks up a ``Message'' from outer space. Ellie is instrumental in decoding the message and building the ``Machine'' for which it gives instructions (despite stiff opposition from religious fundamentalists and those scientists and politicians who fear it may be a Trojan Horse). Then she and fellow members of a small multinational team board the machine, take a startling trip into outer spaceand on their return must convince the scientific community that they are not the perpetrators of a hoax. Sagan's characters, mostly scientists, are credible without being memorable, and he supplies a love interest that is less than compelling. However, his informed and dramatically enacted speculations into the mysteries of the universe, taken to the point where science and religion touch, make his story an exciting intellectual adventure and science fiction of a high order. First serial to Discover Magazine; BOMC selection. Foreign rights: S & S. October 1