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Billions & Billions (Paperback)

by Carl Sagan (Author) "I never said it ..." (more)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
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Product Description

From Library Journal

It is doubtful that there is anyone unfamiliar with noted astronomer and science writer Sagan's ability to convey the wonder, excitement, and joy of science. This book is a wonderful, if eclectic, collection of essays, some reprinted from magazines of national prominence, covering a wide range of topics: the invention of chess, life on Mars, global warming, abortion, international affairs, the nature of government, and the meaning of morality. Writing with clarity and an understanding of human nature, Sagan offers hope for humanity's future as he illuminates our ability to understand ourselves and to change the world for the better. The last chapter is an account of his struggle with myelodysplasia, the illness that finally took his life in December 1996. An epilog written by his wife is a personal account of the man rather than the scientist admired by so many. This last book is a fitting capstone to a distinguished career. Enthusiastically recommended.
-?James Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


From Booklist

Carl Sagan died last December, and as a result, these essays exude a feeling of interrupted eloquence. The celebrity planetary astronomer possibly had more books to write that could have compared favorably with his Cosmos (1980) or Pale Blue Dot (1994), but disappointingly, this collection does not bloom like those dependable library perennials. Perhaps expectations are overly inflated with a new Sagan exposition in hand--but here, expectations rapidly deflate upon seeing that the contents comprise much reprinted material, such as nonscience articles he and his wife and coauthor, Ann Druyan, wrote for a Sunday newspaper supplement. One Parade piece, advancing their argument in favor of legal abortion, sourly criticizes televangelist Pat Robertson for using his influence to mobilize opposition to the 1990 article, a point that skates over the sway the authors themselves were trying to exert in the abortion controversy by means of their article. In other chapters, the subjects are flat--an explanation of the origin of Sagan's brand-name cliche"billions and billions" --or the subjects are rudimentary. Blemishes apart, this collection offers some worthwhile essays: his account of battling cancer or summaries of the enviro-political issues that he weighed in on, such as ozone depletion and the fossil fuels^-atmospheric warming nexus. However uneven and eclectic, this tome still flashes with Sagan's curiosity, wonder, and humanity concerning the scientific enterprise. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

62 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (62 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read, Dec 24 2003
By Bala Venkata (Folsom, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This is the first book by Sagan that I've read. Simply said, it's written brilliantly ! I was amazed when I read the chapter on abortion. Sagan leads you to start thinking about issues in a different plane altogether. His systematic, analytical & scientific approach to solving problems would help anyone with a little logical bent of mind. The chapter on '20th century' seemed to cover environmental issues (again !) though Sagan had dealt with those exhaustively in earlier chapters.

All in all, definitely worth reading. Pity that we don't have him around to share his views on what is going on in today's world !

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2.0 out of 5 stars Environmental eloquence, mediocre musings., April 27 2003
By Wesley L. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Modesty was a bit difficult for Sagan. The first we learn of the author is that he was a celebrity. Witness the Tonight Show appearances and the Parade Magazine articles (and Sagan makes sure we do). There surfaces a certain immodesty of words as well. Words such as 'geosynchronous' are procured and proliferated (and anthropocentrically so, I might add).
In some ways the book is better than I anticipated and is pellucid and even [modestly] eloquent in the consideration of ozone-depleting ("greenhouse") gases and the cost of environmental irresponsibility. As I have chided Sagan for his immodesty, I must also note that he is humble indeed compared to the swaggering, blustering, anti-environmentalist loudmouths with which we are too familiar. Says Sagan: "It's hard to understand how 'conservatives' could oppose safeguarding the environment that all of us -- including conservatives and their children -- depend on for our very lives. What exactly is it conservatives are conserving?" Had the scope of the book been more modest, i.e., had it stayed closer to environmental issues, it would have been better. But the author intended this volume to be something of a 'summa saganii' (Saganites will love it).
Sheer poetry, of sorts, wins the day in statements like this: "We used [intelligence and tool-making] to compensate for the paucity of natural gifts -- speed, flight, venom, burrowing, and the rest -- freely distributed to other animals ... and cruelly denied to us." Of course, we don't fly for the same wonderful physical reasons that tree sloths and wallabys don't, and it is hardly "cruel" that humans can't inject their opponents with venom. Had humans venom and speed instead of intelligence and tool-making, Sagan's musings could not happen. I myself am happy to possess intelligence and forgo venom. Of course Sagan is too, he just can't resist waxing poetical.
After the consideration of environmental issues, the text degenerates. The discussion of "Pro-Choice" versus "Pro-Life" starts as if it is leading somewhere but ends in a kind of 'hey, we just do the best we can.' The discussion of "ethics" versus "pragmatism" steps into the void. While it is admitted that subjecting ethics to Game Theory may be dubious (even scientifically), Sagan thinks it's fun and perhaps profitable. This is the domain of men without chests.
The author finally makes a case for disarmament and peace; a case for science as a kind of candle in the dark (which includes a bit of scientism bearing the label of science); and a brief discussion of the conflicts and comforts involved in his approaching death.
In summary: the book contains some strengths, some flaws, some errors, some tedium. Not recommended.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Open Minds... READ IT., Feb 14 2003
By ectron (Ceiba, PR United States) - See all my reviews
I think Brett Williams felt attacked by this book. It is certainly true that it challenges a lot of modern ideas about the world and how we all fit into it. It is jam packed with facts to back up his thoughts. This is not a book I would reccommend for my parents generation- the sixty something's and up- but I wish that GW Bush would take a good hard look at it someday really soon before it's too late.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Sad ending to an exceptional life
Sagan ushered in a new opportunity for science - to be comprehensible and uplifting to the masses. The power of science was made manifest by Sagan through his ability to write... Read more
Published on Jul 25 2002 by Brett Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful and readable.
I've used this book in a unique way, being able to site it in just about every paper I wrote for a science class this year. Read more
Published on May 23 2002 by Benjamin Thompson

4.0 out of 5 stars A book with perspective
Carl Sagan was surely a man with perspective. He was involved in great scientific teams and proyects, but he was not only a Scientist doing science in isolation, he had deep... Read more
Published on May 21 2002 by Sergio A. Salazar Lozano

4.0 out of 5 stars on a more philosophical note...
In this work Carl Sagan approaches many of the more philisophical questions that are begged by pondering the nature of the cosmos and the human condidtion. Read more
Published on April 24 2002 by B. P. Hayek

5.0 out of 5 stars Final thoughts
Published not long after his death, this--Sagan's last book--is a collection of essays on a variety of subjects having in common a palpable urgency traceable to both the state of... Read more
Published on Mar 31 2002 by Dennis Littrell

5.0 out of 5 stars Sagan's as brilliant as ever, even while facing death
This is an unbelievably moving and brilliant book. I wasn't prepared for what an environmentalist Sagan was or how much of his last book would be devoted to those causes, but it... Read more
Published on Mar 14 2002 by Thomas S Roche

4.0 out of 5 stars Sagan, a green proponent
This book was admittedly not what I expected, but I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised. When first reading this book Sagan essay's offers insight into more mathematical and... Read more
Published on Feb 19 2002 by David G. Phillips

5.0 out of 5 stars I'll get right to the point here...
This book blew my mind. I've read it 3 times, each time learning something new.
This is a complete mind-ride of a book covering a plethora of intriguing topics- explained in an... Read more
Published on Oct 30 2001 by Jeffrey J. Sanders

5.0 out of 5 stars Great variety of subjects...
This is the first nonfiction book I have read by Carl Sagan, although I have read one of his fiction works, Contact. In this book, Dr. Read more
Published on Jul 21 2001 by never_wrong

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book
No doubt Carl Sagan will go down in history as the greatest science writer ever. Who else can compare? Well, probably nobody. The man was science personified! Read more
Published on Jul 18 2001 by Pellinore

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