"Contact" by Carl Sagan

I did not expect this Sci-Fi book to be this good! I am familiar with Carl's works and admire him as an educator; however, I'm also sad that he won't be writing any more fiction. The book takes you on a wild journey: for example, you first get outraged by the religious arguments, only to be placed in the religious leader's shoes! This switcheroo took me by insane surprise, and I'm glad I lived through it.

Besides the main part of the book—the Sci-Fi part—Sagan explores politics, spirituality, sociology, hell, what doesn't he explore in the realm of science connecting to other disciplines? This is one of the rare occasions when I was way more involved in the non-Sci-Fi parts of a Sci-Fi book than in the Sci-Fi parts! And I hate when authors push some political mumbo-jumbo at fiction readers.

Besides the funny parts of the book being released in the 80s (e.g. Yugoslavia and USSR predictions), "Contact" is full of conceptual questions that puzzle the readers, like the first installment of "Remembrance of Earth's Past."