For those of you familiar with the film version of Carl Sagan’s fine novel, ‘
Contact’, the original book will prove to contain
some pronounced differences and a narrative that is much more explanatory and biographical.
Essentially, it revolves round the life of star-gazer Ellie Arroway. Fascinated with all things celestial since a young girl, she embarks on a career in the exacting, scientific discipline of astronomy. Much to the dismay of her peers, she becomes fixated on the idea of extra-terrestrial life and ends up joining that band of scientists making up the fringe organization SETI - the ‘Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence’.
In amongst all this happening in the present, we are treated to flashbacks of her childhood: her relationship with her beloved father, her despised step father and her terminally ill mother and how it has developed her personality and character over the years. She is a non-believer.
Science is her God.
At first, Ellie’s quest to discover a signal from space that is the product of intelligence is financed by the US government, but the powers that be
eventually withdraw assistance. To them, it is a waste of money; no-one’s ever going to find anything; the space program needs extra funding; so forth.
Ellie has to go, cap in hand, for independent finance and eventually finds it, from billionaire industrialist, S. R. Hadden. There is much in the book describing this eccentric recluse’s various inventions in the field of electronics and communications, but this is incidental. Ellie has her money.
The book is in three sections: The Message; The Machine; The Universe. The first section culminates with what we had all been waiting for: Ellie receives her message from the stars. This is where the fun starts. After some extremely convincing technical jargon (what you’d expect from Sagan) describing the method of deciphering the Message, we discover that it contains instructions to build some sort of apparatus. Nobody knows its purpose - will it be dangerous? - how much will it cost? - does Earth science possess the required advanced level of technology? Despite all misgivings, the construction of this machine eventually goes ahead and, again, it is described in rigorous scientific detail. The thing is enormous and turns out to contain a number of seats - seats designed for humans! It is, obviously, some form of transport - but to travel to where? Various polls all over the planet are carried out to select the privileged few who will be the passengers, the guinea pigs. Ellie, eventually, is one of the chosen.
The final section of the book, detailing what happens when the machine is activated and the subsequent journey is dealt with in a thoughtful and thought-provoking way. Ellie’s love for her dead father is brought into play and the vehemently atheistic woman is touched by something akin to spiritual faith.
It is an emotional book, showing, I think, most realistically the way that contact with an alien civilization would affect the minds and souls of Earth’s population. The most breathtaking moment, for me, comes in the final, short chapter, where Sagan, very cleverly, manages to establish an incredible link between science and religion.
If you like your sci-fi to be both scientifically authentic and, at the same time, awe-inspiring, then ‘Contact’ is for you.