content: Carl Sagan may be a brilliant public relations man for science. And for that I thank him. But he should have stuck to TV shows. I struggled to enjoy this book and eventually stopped halfway through. The general story line is okay, although rather prosaic, and done before, but his writing and development of characters is pathetic. I got no feeling for the passion that drives anyone to seek understanding. People seem to think that scientists are stoic & unimaginative; nothing is further from the truth. Carl failed to develop real characters within an interesting story. My suggestion to readers - pick a real science fiction writer (who was also a scientist with passion) and read Azimov's robot series - much more entertaining.