Review: Contact

Contact by Carl Sagan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chosen for discussion by Midtown Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club on Jun 23, 2024.

One might expect Sagan to write a dry story, but his characters seem well-developed.  One might expect him to write a heavily scientific story, full of skepticism, but the central theme of this book is spiritual.  Even with the evangelical character, Sagan is granting benefit of doubt - he actually believes what he's preaching. More benefit than I would give. In fact, Sagan underplays the fanatic. In my experience, they are the most close-minded bunch.

Sagan's optimism also displays itself in the story.  The world becoming more peaceful after learning that there is intelligent life elsewhere? More likely, we'd tear ourselves apart.  Then again, he didn't live to see Trump.  

I found the debate over whether to build the machine amusing.  I'm fairly sure that the entire message would show up on Wikileaks.  It would be a matter of which billionaire did it first.  Again, Sagan wrote this prior to today's Internet and today's billionaires.

I do wish that we could have had AdNix.  Would have made such a difference in reigning in capitalism.

The ending is where we really see Sagan's spiritual side.  When I first read it, I was also much younger, and more open to such things.  "The creators of the universe left us messages" felt good then, but today it feels like a literary cop-out.  It might even reinforce the idea that we live in a simulation, if written today.  We even see the union of science and religion, as Ellie and the evangelist come close to hooking up.

I'm still not sure what possible difference it makes that Ellie's step-father was her bio father? He was a real jerk, and Ellie had good reason to hate him apart from the fact that he was not the lost Dad.  

Overall, I'd have given this five stars in the early 90s.  Today, only three.

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