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    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
    Audiobook14 hours

    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

    Written by Carl Sagan

    Narrated by LeVar Burton, Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Ann Druyan

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    RETURNING TO TELEVISION AS AN ALL-NEW MINISERIES ON FOX

    Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. Cosmos retraces the fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into consciousness, exploring such topics as the origin of life, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, spacecraft missions, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies, and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science.

    Includes introductory music: "Heaven and Hell" by Vangelis from Cosmos: A Personal Voyage used with permission from Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

    Praise for Cosmos

    “Magnificent . . . With a lyrical literary style, and a range that touches almost all aspects of human knowledge, Cosmos often seems too good to be true.”—The Plain Dealer

    “Sagan is an astronomer with one eye on the stars, another on history, and a third—his mind’s—on the human condition.”—Newsday

    “Brilliant in its scope and provocative in its suggestions . . . shimmers with a sense of wonder.”—The Miami Herald

    “Sagan dazzles the mind with the miracle of our survival, framed by the stately galaxies of space.”—Cosmopolitan

    “Enticing . . . iridescent . . . imaginatively illustrated.”—The New York Times Book Review

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 30, 2017
    ISBN9781531888046
    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
    Author

    Carl Sagan

    Carl Sagan was Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager spacecraft expeditions, for which he received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize and the highest awards of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation for his contributions to science, literature, education, and the preservation of the environment. His book Cosmos was the bestselling science book ever published in the English language, and his bestselling novel, Contact, was turned into a major motion picture.

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    Reviews for Cosmos

    4.5/5

    1,908 ratings49 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a masterpiece and a wonderful introduction to science. It is beautifully written and provides a cosmic perspective on our responsibility as conscious beings. Some parts may be a bit dated, but overall, it is an eye-opener and an incredible book. The narration is very good, and many readers have listened to it multiple times, learning something new each time. It should be mandatory in school and is highly recommended for anyone seeking wisdom and awe.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Beautiful!! A magnificent book with a narrative that delightfully feels like poetry surfing through complex scientific ideas.
      Thanks to this audio the text is easier to follow.
    • 5/5
      Loved it… amazing details
      Useful for science students n teachers
    • 5/5
      A book that changed my life. Although much of the scientific knowledge discussed has changed, evolved, and grown, the underlying philosophy of science and humanity is timeless.
    • 4/5
      A classic, the companion to his public tv series by the same name. I enjoyed both the book and the series.
    • 5/5
      A brilliant blend of fiction and nonfiction. Wonderful, Great book!
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written history of mans greatest achievement, the scientific method. It delves into the major players of history to which got us to the modern age. Characters that were a detriment to science and figures that were key in unlocking new truths of the universe. It also gives us a cosmic perspective of the responsibility we have as earths conscious arbiters of change. Whether we will self destruct or continue to venture as curious creatures of the cosmos to reach deeper truths.
    • 5/5
      Awesome book by the late Carl Sagan. His wisdom is timeless.
    • 5/5
      A masterpiece. One of the greatest book I have ever read
    • 5/5
      Incredible book! I’m absolutely awestruck. Loved every second of it plus the fact it was written over 40 years ago makes it that much better.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant! Should be mandatory in school. Narration is very good too.
    • 5/5
      An eye opener. I was fortunate enough to find this book.
    • 5/5
      A must see.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful introduction to science. Some parts were a bit dated.
    • 5/5
      What an inspiring book. Very clever guy that Carl Sagan. Will definetly listen to his other books..
    • 5/5
      I’ve listened to this book many, many times. I learn something every time.
    • 5/5
      it is a classic but still a great book to listen to.
    • 5/5
      An amazing book, by a brilliant author. I loved it.
    • 5/5
      I remember Carl Sagan lecturing in this series on PBS. I wish this audiobook had his voice recorded, his soft, calming voice was one of the best parts of the series.
    • 2/5
      A very hard read for me! The first 6 chapters were reasonable and I actually did learn a few interesting things about our universe. After that, I found it to be such a brutally dry read full of science facts way over my head that I could barely understand. It is full of Sagan’s endless dreamy, ‘what if’ situations. I gave it a 2 star simply for the fact that I did learn something from it.One thing I learned from this book is that when scientists speak of finding "aliens" or "Martians" in space, it can actually mean living microbes that they could possibly study and work with...not necessarily other intelligent creatures with intelligent minds like us, living in outer space. (eBook loc 2472) This I can accept! Although, after finishing this book, I do believe that Sagan truly believed that there definitely could exist intelligent creatures in outer space, and that it’s just a matter of time before future generations discover it. I also got the hint that he wasn’t really a firm believer of a divine creator before the universe was created.I love Sagan's explanation of the meaning and truth of Cosmos: "...there are regularities in Nature that permit its secrets to be uncovered. Nature is not entirely unpredictable; there are rules even she must obey. This ordered and admirable character of the universe was called Cosmos." (eBook loc 3187)...but...my opinion, not his...it was all created by God.Without imagination, curiosity and, I will add skepticism, we might still be stuck in the stone ages. And without changes on earth and elsewhere in our universe, we would have no need or desire to ask questions and to search for any truth. But, great scientists who have come before us have paved the way for each new generation, allowing even further progress. When I read that a thousand earths could fit inside Jupiter (eBook loc 1594), it really opened my eyes to the enormity of our universe. ..."this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky." (eBook loc 173). Isn’t that an amazing and beautiful quote! I definitely view the sky and the night stars with a new pair of eyes.The author has a nice theory on the evolution of the beginning of human life, but that's all it is...a theory. He presents proven facts, more recently discovered, on how molecules themselves evolve and change over time. In fact, as a scientist, he concludes that trees and humans share a common ancestry if you go far enough back. We are both made of the same atoms and molecules that work exactly the same, just put together differently, but depend greatly on each other. Trees and plants thrive on the carbon dioxide we humans release, and we humans and animals thrive on the fresh oxygen the trees and plants release. I love Sagan's way of wording it: "What a marvelous cooperative arrangement, plants and animals each inhaling the other's exhalations." This is synergy! Without one or the other, we would all cease to exist. Period!This book is a mix of personal speculations, theories and hypotheses and few facts that have been proven, or disproven, by science over many years. They have NOT proven evolution. There is not one instance or proof that humans were once apes, like an orange was never an apple. But, specific traits (cells, DNA) of each can change to adapt in life. Sagan includes the earlier beliefs in the Greek gods of the universe, as well as the beliefs of atheist scientists and religious scientists throughout time. I believe now, more than ever, that it has to be a Divine being, God, who created such an intricate system that works so perfectly in every single aspect of the human life and of our magnificent universe.For those who want to rate this book on religious merits, Sagan has perfectly summed up his life’s work, and the works of other scientists here: "Many hypotheses proposed by scientist as well as by non-scientists turn out to be wrong. But science is a self-correcting enterprise. To be accepted, all new ideas must survive rigorous standards of evidence...Science is generated by and devoted to free inquiry: the idea that any hypothesis, no matter how strange, deserves to be considered on its merits. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no place in the endeavor of science." (eBook loc 1697)Originally published in 1980.Evidence today is proving that random evolution doesn't hold together. They have discovered, and can't explain, certain things in life that were designed to perform, very specifically, certain jobs in this universe of life. My next read will be on proof that evolution remains to be unproven and based on pure speculations: "Creation: Remarkable Evidence of God's Design" (2003) by Grant R. Jeffrey.
    • 5/5
      Carl Sagan waxes lyrical on the cosmos and on humanity's place in it.
    • 5/5
      This book is great not just for its overview of what we know about the universe, but for tying it into how we treat each other on Earth.
    • 4/5
      A very readable journey through our universe - Sagan has a poetic view of humanity's struggle from an unremarkable mammal to our current level of evolution. His rich descriptions of historical milestones in science are both entertaining and informing.
    • 4/5
      The Cosmos TV series of 1980 seems to have been a life-transforming experience for a lot of people I know, but I somehow missed out on it at the time: I think simply because it was shown on the BBC while I was a physics undergraduate, and we didn't really get the chance to watch TV at all during term-time, even if it was physics-related (too much other stuff going on).Anyway, the book has now popped up on audio, so I thought I'd give it a chance and find out what all the fuss was about.As the title implies, it's an attempt to describe everything, to the extent that it was known in 1980, with the emphasis on astrophysics and planetary science, but a lot of excursions into the history of science and philosophy, biology and the origins of life, prospects for finding other intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy, and so on. All ground that has been gone over by a lot of other people since then, but still very nicely presented, in a way that should be accessible to most people, but without much obvious dumbing-down. Obviously it has the limitations of when it was written and the way it was written as a companion to a TV series: there's a lot of full-on science-evangelism and some very elated passages of awe-and-wonder that haven't aged as well as they might have. But on the whole it still struck me as quite readable, and I'm sure I learnt one or two things I didn't know in between all the recapitulation of things I once knew about the Solar System. Interesting to see how the balance of optimism and terror has shifted since 1980: we don't seem to be as worried about nuclear weapons and population growth as we were forty years ago (even though neither threat has gone away), and equally we seem to have lost a lot of the interest we had in exploring space, but climate-change now has moved from a speculative footnote to centre-stage. I suspect that Sagan, were he still with us, would have been revising down his estimate for the likelihood that intelligent civilisations would achieve interstellar travel before destroying themselves.
    • 5/5
      Carl Sagan wrote COSMOS with his partner to promote human potential. At the end of his vast exploration of incredible world(s), he makes an aside: "Only once before in our history was there the promise of a brilliant scientific civilization." [333] We have lost civilization, perhaps many times. We start to get the excitement, the brilliance gets expressed as beauty and grace, and then greedy idiots waste, kill, and take stuff. Sagan published several books that helped regular people understand ideas about the universe, including Dragons of Eden: Speculations of the Evolution of Human Intelligence (1977), which won the Pulitzer Prize, and this one. According to TWA, "Cosmos" is considered the best-selling science book ever published in English.
    • 5/5
      It's safe to say this book changed my life. I'm so lucky to have found this book at the age of 13 when all my powers of curiosity were heightened and searching. Once you view the world from the perspective of Cosmos, you feel incredibly lucky to be a part of history.
    • 5/5
      Cosmos tells the fascinating story of how fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution transformed matter and life into consciousness, of how science and civilization grew up together, and of the forces and individuals who helped shape modern science.
    • 5/5
      Clearly yet eloquently, astronomer Carl Sagan takes the reader on a magnificent tour of fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution. Focusing on the stars, on history, on the human condition, he weaves a mesmerizing tale of what was, what is, and what may one day be. It’s a dazzling tour de force; this book should be on everyone’s must-read list.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I read this book once as a child, I was perhaps 12, and looking back, seeing the influence it has asserted on western culture since that time, is amazing. So much of myself I can trace directly back to his books, and this one book in particular. To those of you out there who had a chance to meet him, I envy you.
    • 3/5
      Interesting and not written too deep or over my head. Nice way of describing our place in the universe.
    • 1/5
      I have one major complaint about this book. Sagan's certainty in the apparent non-existence of a God (as though nothing outside the empirical can exist) and his penchant for assigning blame for humanity's lack of advancement due to religion (Ex.: the destruction of the Library at Alexandria by early Christians - he forgot to inform the reader that it had been burned to the ground during the rebellion by the Alexandrians against Roman occupation under Caesar in 48 BC).