Cosmos (book)

Cosmos

Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

Author Carl Sagan Published 1981-??-?? Type Non-fiction Genre Educational Themes Astronomy, Biology, Climate, History, Nuclear annihilation, Physics, Science Age Group Adult

Cosmos is a non-fiction science book written by Carl Sagan and published in 1981 as the companion to the television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

Like the television show the book is based on, it covers a wide range of scientific topics, particularly about how we've come to understand the things we know.

Personal

Own?	Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.
Read?	Audiobook read by LeVar Burton.
Finished	2024-10-15.

My high school world history teacher showed the class excerpts from Cosmo: A Personal Voyage. This was my first introduction to the TV series which I finally watched in its complete form in the early 2000s. I found this companion book in a used bookstore around that same time, and occasionally flipped through it, but never got around to reading it. Since the book is quite large and difficult to tote around, I instead listened to it in audiobook format.

Review

Overall:

Good

• Much like the TV series, Sagan is able to take complex scientific concepts and simplify them through visual aids and analogies in order to make them accessible to the average person.
• His chapters on the big problems humans are facing (e.g., climate change and nuclear annihilation) are sufficiently terrifying to scare you straight, while his chapters on the importance of the exploration of space will make you feel optimistic toward the endeavor.
• Sagan is quick to point out that science is a tool, so it can be used for good or bad, but also reminds us that, when it comes to identifying facts, it's the only tool we know of that actually works.
• Sagan has a wide vocabulary, uses it adroitly, and, while I had to look up the occasional word, his usage never felt forced.

Bad

• Now over 40 years old, some of the more speculative points aren't as likely to be true as they once were.
• There were a few sections where Sagan gets a bit too far into the weeds and started to bore me, though they are few and far between.
• He mentions that the Great Wall of China can be seen from orbit, which isn't true, at least not with the unaided eye.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Covers

• 

  Hardcover - USA - 1st edition.

• 

  Mass market - USA.

• 

  Paperback - USA - 2013 reprint.

Links