Author: Carl Sagan
Average Rating:
Last Reviewed On: November 21, 2001 (by Scott)
Scott's Review:
on November 21, 2001Reading this book was interesting to me. I've already seen the movie, so I spent a large time comparing the book to the movie. Thankfully, they're not that different. From the author's epilogue, I got the feeling that both were written pretty much at the same time, so that would explain the strict similarities.
Though, there are some major differences. The book happens at the same time chronologically, but technology in the book is much more advanced. Well, in some ways, it's more advanced. It's always interesting to see visions of the future in retrospect. The idea that we would still be using a telefax is funny to me. But, obviously whenever this story was written, the concept of e-mail was still a largely unknown one.
All in all, the story is the same as the movie, so I won't rehash it out. The ending however is rather different. I can understand the need to change both, since the movie format doesn't work well, at least in my mind, to how the book worked.
All told, I like the book very much. Without giving anything away, I'll just say the way the book ended left me with much more hope and optimism than the way the movie ended.
-- Scott and Michelle