I read this book several years ago because I liked the movie so much. The book is a little different, as is nearly always the case. The book tries harder at characterization than the movie does, and is not as successful at it. I thought there was plenty in the movie to give me an excellent sense of Ellie's character and motives, but that may have been due mostly to Jodie Foster's fine acting. The book goes into some detail about Ellie's life, and I thought it was kind of beside the point. I'm not sure why Carl Sagan wanted to explore that territory. I'm sure that the main character is a woman because the author was acknowledging the importance of the personalities of scientists to scientific discovery, in the sense of determining which theories are taken seriously and pursued. It would be an entirely different book if this were a male scientist. However, there is an unnecessary quantity of details about Ellie's life, and this is not really Carl Sagan's forte.

The aliens have sent signals to Earth, and the scientists must find the message in the signals. In the movie this part was stupid because the way the message was hidden was impossible for scientists to not find if they were even half looking. This part is much more believable in the book, but I can see that it would have taken too much time to explain it in the movie.

RELEASE NOTES:

Released at the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's free performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Went to Boston Common to see the free performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream and found this book sitting right where I was planning on sitting. I was really excited because I have heard of BookCrossing but had never seen any book. I haven't read the book yet but I am planning on taking it with my on my upcoming trip to Pennsylvania and releasing it there :)

CAUGHT IN BOSTON MA USA