Listen for signals from the stars. It starts slow…but continues with the effort to continue the search, the results of actually getting a signal, the wait for the response to our response…and the need to continue searching. This is a story of bureaucratic tension...and what is more likely to happen if we should find a contact. ( )

Summary: A short book about a bunch of scientists tasked with identifying alien communication against all odds.

Things I liked:

The quotes: used quotes throughout to underline the points. I liked this.

Storytelling: I liked how they used the different ways of communication to contrast and compare the points being made.

Things I thought could be improved:

I didn't notice much.

Highlight: I liked the final line. Up until that point I thought the letter was a message for the aliens.
( )

Yet another bk that surprises me. There are, what?, SEVEN editions listed here on GoodReads?! & Gunn was the president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. &, yet, I've only read one other bk by him, wch I liked, & he still seems obscure to me. Thank the Holy Ceiling Light / Astronomical Listening Post / Whatever that there are still SF writers whose work is relatively new to me & interesting. This bk manages to be quite a few things in a somewhat short span: 'human' (ie: w/ characters that're developed), 'epic' (ie: covering a 'long' time span & multiple generations of characters), 'utopian' (ie: in its envisioning of the near future - the widespread use of bicycles, universal living wage, eg) & fairly original (ie: in its take on the search for extra-terrestrial life). There's even a black president (predicted for somewhat later than Obama came). It's unspectacular in the sense that the scientists doing the LISTENING are pretty unglamorous & there aren't any stirring fights or sex w/ extraterrestrials (although the latter is hinted at in a pop-culture reference) & it's spectacular in the sense of there actually being contact & what that contact consists of. All in all, a very well-thought-out bk. ( )

There seem to be very different opinions about this book in the LT reviews I read and I can understand why some readers were bored and some found this to be an amazing book. I, myself, found it to be interesting and thought provoking. Gunn attempts to give the reader a picture of how an organization like SETI might actually work and the length of time it might require for there to actually be a contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. How does one keep the necessary team together for decades and does one reply when a message is actually received?

While the science in this book was believable--if/when we on earth have contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, it is likely to happen in just this way--the human drama was not. That's quite a failing, given the fact the focus of the book was presumably on the characters and how the endeavor of communicating with an alien civilization had on them.

Why do sci-fi authors have so much trouble writing believable characters? Is it because they devote so much of their energy on getting the science right, they have none left over for the characters? Is it because they believe their readership comes to sci-fi because all they care about is the "whiz-bang" stuff, and don't care about the plausibility of the relationships? Or is it simply that they are incapable?

So we have a SETI crew that has been on the job for 20 years, and suddenly they become discouraged with their work, about the throw in the towel, when a signal arrives from another star system! You would think that by this time they would have resigned themselves to a certain routine, and if they were going to become discouraged, it would have happened far before this time. (The only thing that has kept them going before this time, we're told, is a charismatic director who has fueled their morale--but that charisma to the reader is hardly apparent.)

Contact happens on the watch of the first black president of the USA. (!) It's painful to read this characterization. The president sports and Afro, and at one point does an Amos 'n Andy imitation! Ouch! It so happens that he's having relationship problems with his son--no doubt something that would have gone on for years--but lo and behold, it's all he can think about when the radio transmission comes from space! Indeed, to witness this fellow in action, it's hard to see how he ever became President, whatever race or ethnicity he is.

Then the project's charismatic director dies, and his estranged son is sought out to take his place, even though there's little evidence he possesses any practical credentials whatsoever. It's just important to continue the bloodline in the director's position.

Pish-tosh! ( )