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Journal FortKnox's Journal: Contact, by Carl Sagan 14

Journal by FortKnox
I finally finished the book Contact by Carl Sagan. I loved the movie (which, I know, a lot of people didn't like), but the book totally blew my mind. What great writing, what fantastic hard science fiction, and what a superb ending. Truely a book worth reading. (I hated book reviews in school, so that's all there is). Anyone else read this before? What was your opinion of it?
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Contact, by Carl Sagan More

Contact, by Carl Sagan

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  • The book rocks. The only unfortunate thing is that as much as I loved the movie, they screwed up the ending.

    But then again, it was a reasonably fair adaptation of the book, and was quite well done. And Jodie Foster was quite the charm ;)

    Both the book and the movie figure in my all time favourite lists.
    • Yeah I would agree... I love the book's ending and the "evidence" but hey, most people watching a movie wouldn't be able to understand the calculating of Pi and how the evidence is burried in that.

      I also liked how in the book there was a team that went on the trip.

      Just thank Kip Thorne for the wormhole device though... originally it was a black hole... but Thorne knew immediately that just wouldn't work :)

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • While the book kicked mucho butt, the movie is really good as well, especially from a "Kickass use of computer graphics" kinda view. One of the first movies to make such extensive and near seamless use of it. When you compare CG in Jurassic park to CG in say the Matrix III (Resolutions, Reparations, Renovations, Restorations or whatever the hell it's called), you begin to have doubts which one was made last year and which one was made 10 years ago. To see dinosaurs walk is damn near breath taking.

          Then of c

  • I remember liking it a lot and being disappointed in the movie compared to the book. Shoot, I can't remember why though. I did think the movie was good, but the book was better, as they say. :)
  • HAH!

    Bet that got your attention.

    Uh, dunno...liked the movie though. Senior Sheen didn't do too bad. Guess it was pre-drug burnout days or something.

    Why am I responding if I haven't read it?

    Because, it's what I do.
  • I saw the movie before having ever read the book. I must say, I felt the movie had better pacing than the book - the book never really moved faster than 'plodding'.

    I liked both, but at different levels. The book was more intellectually entertaining, the movie though was still quite enjoyable with a lot less 'work' to get and enjoy it.
  • I haven't read the book, just seen the movie. There is a constant theme of science v religion. In the end both the main charaters admit that they have to rely on faith. However, the Jodi Foster charater wouldn't have to rely on faith if she only knew what the audience knows, which is that there is evidence being withheld by evil forces! Of course the evil forces in the movie are represented by religious characters.

    So the audience is left with the impression that science has been maligned and is superi

    • However, the Jodi Foster charater wouldn't have to rely on faith if she only knew what the audience knows, which is that there is evidence being withheld by evil forces!

      In the book, no "evidence" is withheld, except for the stories of those in the Machine (in the book there were five people in the Machine, not just Ellie) -- because of the lack of physical evidence, basically the various governments involved decided to treat the whole thing as a conspiracy by Hadden to defraud them (Hadden having died jus

  • But I did read Broca's Brain. Not a story, so much as a splash through various scientific areas.

    The movie sucked, though.
    I mean, why was a priest (or whatever he was) even in the room? Is that really a place requiring metaphysics? Come on.
  • It's been several years since I read it, but near the end, I remember something about .. how can I say this? .. someone had "messed with math."

    I can't take that. It's just wrong for anyone to have hacked pi's digits. Even God (I'm an atheist, but I hope you know what I mean) isn't allowed to do that. Keep your stinking little paws off of mathematics. I was almost offended in a "religious" way. It's bad enough when Q diddles the gravitational constant of the universe on Star Trek TNG... but that's jus

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