mike%bambi@mouton.ARPA (09/23/85)
From: mike%bambi@mouton I've been waiting for this for some time, being a big fan of COSMOS. The good news is that Sagan can write a fairly good novel. The characterization is deft, if a bit heavy-handed, and the plot moves nicely along. The bad news is that it isn't as mind-blowingly interesting as the subject entails. When I first heard that Sagan was working on a movie about first contact, I thought it might be everything CLOSE ENCOUNTERS wasn't. If a movie was made from this novel, it might indeed be that. But the novel itself just moves too slowly. The tone is much like that in James Gunn's THE LISTENERS - though the earlier book did what I consider to be a better job (though less detailed scientifically, it addressed the wonder and probable results of first contact better.) There are many superficial resemblences between CONTACT and THE LISTENERS - such as a sympathetic evangelist and a rise of millenialism. There's a lot more politics in CONTACT. (Astute observers will see a bit of A FOR ANDROMEDA by Fred Hoyle here too.) All in all, a good read (I'm saving the last 50 pages for tomorrow) but you may want to wait for the paperback, since the hardback is an unusually high $18.95. (One also wonders what happened to Proxmire in the universe of CONTACT.) Michael Caplinger mike@bellcore.arpa ihnp4!bambi!mike