Rating: 
Summary: Sad ending to an exceptional life
Review: 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 well. His "Demon Haunted World" is nearly peerless in clarity, importance of ideas and a warning every American should read to comprehend what is happening to us in the present. But "Billions" opens with a chapter describing numbers and yawns through several more sections of similarly simple concepts told a thousand times by Sagan and others, then begins to turn ugly, as not his science and insights are revealed, but Sagan's politics comes forward. He claims "cosmic justice" that light skinned people suffer skin cancer at rates higher than dark skinned because "lights" invented CFCs. Lumping all "light skins" including women and infants, of many nations, into the same bucket as a handful of chemists and business interests who Sagan blames for CFC creation with its subsequent damage to earth's ozone layer. He justifies Japan's ruthless aggression to "protect" oil supplies during World War Two, then rebukes America for doing the same. (That the United States is a wasteful energy glutton is not debatable, but sixties era double standards raise suspicions of truthfulness for careful readers.) After having ignored effective German U-boats in those "vast and impassable oceans" "protecting" America, Sagan disregards fear generated by Soviet betrayal of Potsdam, blockade of Berlin, the "iron curtain", Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, their work on nuclear weapons and Stalin's murderous record as initiators of the arms race - "We had nothing to fear," he writes. "So we built nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. We initiated [the arms race]..." But as Ann Druyan later states, truth was what mattered most to Carl. Sagan's half-truths make this a paradox. Finally, in the last five pages preceding the Epilogue we almost taste the Sagan of old in a pleasant survey of science. In the Epilogue written by Druyan, we witness Sagan demonstrating such strength in confronting his fate that admiration for him soars. Her description of their love makes reading this section unlikely without interruptions for composure. "As we looked deeply into each other's eyes, it was a shared conviction that our wondrous life together was ending forever." Amongst the wreckage of love in our modern era, who could not feel empathy, and envy, for these two lovers at the end of a life as rich and stratospheric as Sagan's? Sadly, Sagan's last book is a poor reflection of his talents and one this reader hopes he will not be recalled for. As I read I kept referring to glittering reviews on the inside cover, wondering what book the New York Times and others were referring to? I can only speculate they were lauding Sagan because he was dead and politically liberal. The non-fiction reader is always on guard, comparing, challenging and reconciling, but rarely does one find themselves so suspect of every line, or simply sedated. I wish Sagan could rise up from his grave, pulling every copy of this book back with him, wiping its memory from the minds of those who suffered through it, such that the better image of Sagan could remain unsoiled.
Rating: 
Summary: Science and Sagan
Review: This book is a kind of summing up of the life and work of Carl Sagan. It contains a moving account of his final struggle against his illness written by the author's wife Ann Druyan. It also contains a lot of consideration of environmental issues. Sagan was one of the greatest of all popularizers of Science, and a very distinguished scientist himself . He was a key person in the whole effort to make contact with extraterrestial intelligence. He was a great and passionate believer in the power of Science and Reason to move Mankind forward. And in fact he seems to believe that Mankind is only a transitional species on the way to some kind of ' higher Intelligence'.
It is possible to wonder as one Amazon reviewer has if Sagan does not at certain points become a kind of ' scientific philospher king' dictating to us the wise answer to all our problems. But I do not think such arrogance is his fundamental tone. I think that he was a person who loved exploration, loved understanding, loved astronomy and through these loves gave Mankind much new insight and hope.
This book has essays and thoughts on a wide variety of subjects. I would highly recommend it as a way of meeting with and learning from one of Science's outstanding teachers of our time.
Rating: 
Summary: Sagan, a green proponent
Review: 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 scientific insights. However, the book began to discuss the power of exponential growth which has led to the fear of overpopulation. Overpopulation led to the discussion of environmentalism and abortion. I never realized what a green proponent Sagan is, and it is heartening to know that a popular scientific mind is touting these issues. Those of you that watched the Cosmos series and enjoyed his work will also enjoy educating yourself on microbiological ideas and insights. The book is very readable and designed to be read for by a layperson. I hope that people that voted republican this year has a clearer insight on how the Republican Party is for big business and not for the future, nor for your children's well being. What surprises me most is when we vote in a president that is in the back pocket of big oil, and most people that voted for him have little to gain except for a few bucks on tax decreases and whole lot more CFCs. This book and Sagan's essasys are especially pertinent when Bush and his hacks want to roll back the reductions on CFCs for his coporate buddies in Texas. Read this book, learn from an educated scientific scholar and don't listen to political rhetoric from a greedy elistist like our current president, GW Bush.
Rating: 
Summary: A book that shows the effecs of Sagan's illness
Review: This book will dissapoint Sagan's fans. The mind of the master is worn and torn by his cancer and yields a bland discussion on an uncoordinated series of topics. In the first few pages, petending to be PC to those with little scientific background, he engages himself on trivial explanations of maths and physics - these will certainly be useful to primary-school students but not to those who have followed his writings. The highlight of the book is an extraordinary discussion on abortion and on the general pro-choice vs. pro-life arguments. Absolutely brillant, especially if you are pro-choice. New readers to Sagan would be better off by buying Shadows of Forgotten Ancerstors or Broca's Brains. Those who have read Sagan, may be better off by stopping at his second to last book, his masterpiece: The Demon Hauted World.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling read
Review: 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 !
Rating:
Summary: Sagan's farewell
Review: This was the last book Carl Sagan wrote before he died of cancer. I can still remember hearing on the radio of his passing as I was driving along one dark December night. I remember feeling all the air go out of my lungs & how depressed I was. In the book Sagan details his fight against cancer as well as a retrospective look back over his magnificent life. The book takes us almost to the very end of his life (the final chapter was written only a few months before he lay on his deathbead). He talks about big numbers, big ideas, big questions and big problems faced by the human race. Two of the biggest issues he tackles in this book are global warming / environmental issues and nuclear war. These are hardly new topics for Sagan - he has discussed both many times in previous books. However, his insights on these matters are always trenchant, fresh & worth reading. He discusses at great length how politics play far too great a role in environmental protection issues & how politicians always tend to pick the one scientist out of a million who supports their agenda while ignoring all the other scientists who unite in a chorus of admonishments and warnings re: technology vs. environment issues. He also repeats his earlier warnings against our complacent attitude towards nuclear weapons in the post Cold War era. His appeals to reason are passionate as he contemplates the thought of someone doing the unthinkable. His points on these issues should cause all of us a moment of pause to think them through. The one thing I did not care for was Sagan's implicit view that science and religion are mutually exclusive. This is why I did not give the book 5 stars. There are many scientists who believe in God, and there are many who do not. Placing an artificial dichotomy between the two is not only incorrect but is rather silly. The Yale physicist Henry Margeneau, for one, has stated that he has not observed this vast bias towards atheism among scientists. Now, some scientists are anti-religion, no doubt. But there are also multitudes out there such as the legendary Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson who would consider themselves agnostics but would also be pro-religion. Now, if Sagan chooses not to believe in God, that is his business. However, to attempt to compel us to believe that his views are representative of every other scientist on the planet is unwarranted. One would expect such an assumption from lesser minds such as Richard Dawkins, but coming from Sagan it is disappointing. At any rate, I do not want to end on a negative note. That Sagan did a heroic job bringing science into the mainstream and making it "fun" there can be no doubt. I am quite sure that I am only one of millions of people whom he inspired during his lifetime. In fact, he was one of the first personages who spurred in me a yearning interest in science and for that I am in his debt. Read this books along with his others and you will find yourself in Carl Sagan's debt as well.
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