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Narrated by:
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Laurel Lefkow
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By:
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Carl Sagan
About this listen
The future is here...in an adventure of cosmic dimension. In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who - or what - is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future - and our own.
©1997 Carl Sagan (P)1997 Simon & SchusterCritic reviews
"Contact deals with issues...worth pondering. The range and depth of ideas is quite uncommon." ( New York Times Book Review)
"Like a good mystery, Contact keeps us curious to the end...ingenious and satisfying." (Newsweek)
Featured Article: The best audiobooks about aliens for curious humans
Throughout the history of storytelling, we humans have been curious about the possibility of worlds beyond Earth and its inhabitants. Thanks to our endless fascination with extraterrestrial life, there is a mountain of literature, from novels to memoirs, exploring the potential outcomes of interacting with creatures from other planets. Without further ado, here are 20 of our favorite listens about alien life.
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Contact
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Jodie Foster
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who, or what, is out there?
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Well narrated but feel like I have missed alot
- By Erik Aleksander Moe on 08-06-11
By: Carl Sagan
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Cosmos
- A Personal Voyage
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: LeVar Burton, Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space.
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Over-acting voice actors
- By John on 11-09-17
By: Carl Sagan
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Comet
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
- Narrated by: Seth MacFarlane, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Comet begins with a breathtaking journey through space astride a comet. Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan, author of Cosmos and Contact, and writer Ann Druyan explore the origin, nature, and future of comets, and the exotic myths and portents attached to them. The authors show how comets have spurred some of the great discoveries in the history of science and raise intriguing questions about these brilliant visitors from the interstellar dark.
Were the fates of the dinosaurs and the origins of humans tied to the wanderings of a comet?
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Lots of important science and cosmic perspective
- By James Weisner on 10-10-20
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Pale Blue Dot
- A Vision of the Human Future in Space
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time.
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Audio Quality Choices
- By JR on 05-30-17
By: Carl Sagan
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Billions & Billions
- Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Ann Druyan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century?
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To The Stars
- By Judy on 12-31-19
By: Carl Sagan
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The Dragons of Eden
- Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Ann Druyan
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends - and their amazing links to recent discoveries.
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Surprisingly strengthened by historical context
- By RoguePisigit on 12-07-19
By: Carl Sagan
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Contact
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Jodie Foster
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who, or what, is out there?
-
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Well narrated but feel like I have missed alot
- By Erik Aleksander Moe on 08-06-11
By: Carl Sagan
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Cosmos
- A Personal Voyage
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: LeVar Burton, Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space.
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Over-acting voice actors
- By John on 11-09-17
By: Carl Sagan
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Comet
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
- Narrated by: Seth MacFarlane, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Comet begins with a breathtaking journey through space astride a comet. Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan, author of Cosmos and Contact, and writer Ann Druyan explore the origin, nature, and future of comets, and the exotic myths and portents attached to them. The authors show how comets have spurred some of the great discoveries in the history of science and raise intriguing questions about these brilliant visitors from the interstellar dark.
Were the fates of the dinosaurs and the origins of humans tied to the wanderings of a comet?
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Lots of important science and cosmic perspective
- By James Weisner on 10-10-20
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Pale Blue Dot
- A Vision of the Human Future in Space
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time.
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Audio Quality Choices
- By JR on 05-30-17
By: Carl Sagan
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Billions & Billions
- Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Ann Druyan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century?
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To The Stars
- By Judy on 12-31-19
By: Carl Sagan
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The Dragons of Eden
- Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Ann Druyan
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends - and their amazing links to recent discoveries.
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Surprisingly strengthened by historical context
- By RoguePisigit on 12-07-19
By: Carl Sagan
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The Demon-Haunted World
- Science as a Candle in the Dark
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Cary Elwes, Seth MacFarlane
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.
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Some good points, but not a great book
- By William Jenks on 07-25-19
By: Carl Sagan
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Murmurs of Earth
- The Voyager Interstellar Record
- By: Carl Sagan, F. D. Drake, Jon Lomberg, and others
- Narrated by: Timothy Ferris, Ann Druyan, Nick Sagan, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1977, two extraordinary spacecraft called Voyager were launched to the stars. Affixed to each Voyager craft was a gold-coated copped phonograph record as a message to possible extra-terrestrial civilizations that might encounter the spacecraft in some distant space and time.
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Disappointed
- By JohnDoe on 07-27-19
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Broca's Brain
- Reflections on the Romance of Science
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Carl Sagan, writer and scientist, returns from the frontier to tell us about how the world works. In his delightfully down-to-earth style, he explores and explains a mind-boggling future of intelligent robots, extraterrestrial life and its consequences, and other provocative, fascinating quandaries of the future that we want to see today.
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Captivating Read.
- By Cheri on 02-20-18
By: Carl Sagan
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Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
- Narrated by: Nick Sagan, Ann Druyan, Clinnette Minnis
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
World renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a Roots for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits - self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics - are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals.
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A very important read, poor audio performance
- By Tyeen Taylor on 03-17-19
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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The Varieties of Scientific Experience
- A Personal View of the Search for God
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan - editor
- Narrated by: Adrienne C. Moore, Ann Druyan
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.
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Sagan's lectures about the possibility of God
- By David T. on 11-13-17
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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Contacto
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Sol de la Barreda
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Tras cinco años de incesantes búsquedas con los dispositivos más sofisticados del momento, la astrónoma Eleanor Arroway consigue, junto a un equipo de científicos internacionales, conectar con la estrella Vega y demostrar que no estamos solos en el universo. Empieza entonces un trepidante viaje hacia el encuentro más esperado de la historia de la humanidad, y con él Carl Sagan plantea magistralmente cómo afectaría a nuestra sociedad la recepción de mensajes de una civilización inteligente.
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acerca de la lectura del audiolibro
- By Fabiola Alvarez on 06-20-22
By: Carl Sagan
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A Path Where No Man Thought
- Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race
- By: Carl Sagan, Richard Turco
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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In 1982, Professors Sagan and Turco made known their discovery of the concept "nuclear winter", a widespread cold and dark, resulting in agricultural collapse and world famine, that would be generated in even a "small" nuclear war. It was a landmark discovery that revealed in the starkest terms how vulnerable our civilization is to the long-term environmental effects of nuclear war.
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Boring military and political strategy
- By James Weisner on 03-23-22
By: Carl Sagan, and others
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2001
- A Space Odyssey
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
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The Movie Makes More Sense Now
- By Douglas on 12-10-08
By: Arthur C. Clarke
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Visions for the 21st Century
- At the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Carl Sagan
- Length: 2 hrs and 4 mins
- Original Recording
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Performance
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This recording features the highlights of this historic 1995 event sponsored by the Temple of Understanding and includes a talk by the late cosmologist Carl Sagan. Visions for the 21st Century was a powerful forum for religious leaders, diplomats, nongovernmental organizations, and educators to present their visions for the next century.
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Not a Carl Sagan audio.
- By Farhad Masum on 05-17-22
By: Carl Sagan
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A Rare Recording of Astrophysicist Carl Sagan Discussing Planet Earth
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Carl Sagan
- Length: 59 mins
- Original Recording
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Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934-December 20, 1996), born in Brooklyn, NY, was an American astronomer and astrophysicist. His best-known scientific contribution was his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. The following is a lecture Sagan gave in 1977 during which he discussed the place, scale and geometry of earth–the third planet from the Sun, formed 4.5 billion years ago–in our solar system.
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Annoying
- By blackcat416 on 02-18-25
By: Carl Sagan
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Timescape
- By: Gregory Benford
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble, Pete Bradbury
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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In a future wracked by environmental catastrophe and social instability, physicist John Renfrew devises a longshot plan to use tachyons - strange, time-traveling particles - to send a warning to the past. In 1962, Gordon Bernstein, a California researcher, gets Renfrew's message as a strange pattern of interference in an experiment he's conducting.
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An enjoyable book with problems
- By Mike Schultz on 10-26-08
By: Gregory Benford
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The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
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A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
Any additional comments?
My favorite book, written by one of my favorite people (Carl Sagan).I am writing this review to mainly focus on the major differences between the movie and the book.The book follows the same basic plot as the movie, but with a few exceptions (SPOILER ALERT):
- Ellie's mother is not dead, as in the movie. While Ellie's father passes away, her mother is around throughout her childhood and her adult life.
- Ellie and her stepfather (also not present in the movie) have a strained and reoccurring relationship throughout the book.
- Ellie's childhood, teenage years, and early graduate and internship years are described in a more detail.
- The President of USA has a more prominent, reoccurring role, and is female.
- Ellie has many romantic relationships (i.e., sexual relationships with a lab assistant early in her career, and then with Kent the Russian Scientist later in her career; and sexual tension with Drummond and then to an even greater degree with Vagay), albeit not with Palmer Joss who is the one individual she does have a romantic relationship with in the movie.
- Three machines, not two, are constructed (i.e., in the USA, Japan, and Russia). This was interesting because by the time the story concludes only two machines have been used (or should I say, one has been destroyed and one has been used and possibly is not able to be used again), with the machine in Russia still unused.
- Ellie is not the only individual who makes the trips; several delegates make the trip with her and have their own unique experiences.
- The conversation Ellie has with the alien is much, much more detailed and extensive, and for me was a real highlight of the story.
- Following her voyage in the machine, Ellie learns something interesting about the number for "pi" (i.e., 3.14...) that provides an interesting twist at the conclusion of the story.
In summary, excellent book, and not only because of the writing but due to the narrator's great performance as well. Lefkow did an outstanding job as a true Voice Actor. Most of the supporting characters are male and the narrator (female) did a superb job rising to the challenge of voice acting each male character without sounding odd or goofy.
Great book, significant differences from the movie
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This book is an achievement in fusion. Combining theories of science and faith, from a scientific perspective, it builds a foundation on which both concepts can be build in tandem. This book is a perfect guide for the progressive intellectuals of today to empathize with religious concepts without trying to replace scientific method with dogma. In a world of controversy and partisan beliefs, it tries to find a middle ground, based on wonder and awe, for both the skeptics and the believers of modern society.
Taking on such a bewildering task leads to a less-than-exciting plot, some pretty dry moments in character building, and many unanswered questions upon its completion. Even so, this is one of my favorite science fiction reads in recent memory.
A bit dated, but definitely worth a read
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A must "hear" book
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A great choice
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Such a wonderful hope for the Human race.
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Much Better Than The Movie
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Great story annoying reader
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Any additional comments?
Sagan is like that one professor in college that couldn't stay on topic if his life depended on it. At some points you find yourself sitting there wondering what one Earth is he going on about, but give it a couple minutes and you're back on the story.I'll be honest, I used the skip button more than a few times. It needed to happen, but once the story got going it was hard to walk away from and then it was over.
Sagal never met a tangent he didn't like
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Good story, not the best writer
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Sagan stays true to science, especially for the near future action on Earth. While there's a bit of discussion of alien invasion and positioning for nations to grab the alien technology ring, for the most part, this is a science based story for scientists. Once off world, Sagan envisions a galactic wormhole subway system with advanced alien races all focused on scientific discovery at the universal level. He leaves the impression that Earth is several generations removed from being ready to join the club and the message was merely a foretaste of things to come.
The narration is well done with an excellent range of characters as well as the diverse ethnic accents of the major players. Sagan leaves the impression that Earth is no grown up enough for the 'real world' out in the rest of the galaxy.
Alien contact without pictures
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