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From: mike%bambi@mouton.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Sagan's CONTACT - short review
Message-ID: <3742@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sun, 22-Sep-85 23:48:03 EDT
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Posted: Sun Sep 22 23:48:03 1985
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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