Rating: 
Summary: Biography of the "Billions and Billions" Scientist
Review: +++++
The author, K. Davidson, has written an engaging book about an exceptional man.
This book has a number of good features:
(1) Davidson's portrayal of Dr. Carl Sagan.
He does not only give a "superstar scientist" media image view of Sagan but also gives us the personal and sometimes unlikeable side of him. The author does this in such a way that the reader gets a balanced view of Sagan. Davidson, as evidenced from the acknowledgements and notes section of the book, does this by drawing on a great wealth of interviews with Sagan's family members, friends, teachers & colleagues (the majority of which were top scientists or Nobel Prize winners), admirers, and detractors, as well as from a large archive of unpublished writings and personal papers.
(2) The science presented by Davidson.
Sagan was involved in many areas of science and Davidson (a science writer) does an excellent job of explaining these areas in non-technical terms.
(3) The author's psychohistorical analysis of Sagan.
Events that happened to Sagan are analysed with respect to either past or future occurrences in Sagan's life. By doing this, Davidson gives his narrative an interesting and enjoyable flow.
(4) The thirty black-and-white photographs.
These photos, located in the middle of the book, give a kind of mini-chronology of Sagan's life.
(5) Over 100 pages of (foot)notes.
These alone make interesting reading and contain revealing information that did not make it into the over 400-page narrative.
(6) The last chapter of the book.
In this chapter, Sagan succumbs to his medical condition. This chapter is done with exquisite taste and sensitivity. As well, we are given a glimpse of how others in Sagan's life are moving on with their life after his death.
My only complaint with this book is Davidson's very harsh treatment of Sagan's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Dragons of Eden." I think the author forgot that this book is subtitled "Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence," the key word being "Speculations."
Finally, I feel that there is an important omission in the book. The author mentions very briefly Dr. Stephen Hawking. However, Davidson fails to mention that Sagan, after his enormous success with his books "Cosmos" and "Contact," wrote an eloquent introduction to Hawking's first major book. In effect, Sagan used his fame to launch Hawking's successful literary career. I think this speaks volumes for Sagan's character.
In summary, Davidson has written a facinating biography about an extraordinary man who had a lifelong love affair with science. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about the life of Dr. Carl Edward Sagan (November 1934 to December 1996).
+++++.
Rating:
Summary: True Story about the "Billions and Billions" Scientist
Review: =====>The author, K. Davidson, has written an engaging book about an exceptional man. This book has a number of good features: (1) Davidson's portrayal of Dr. Carl Sagan. He does not only give a "superstar scientist" media image view of Sagan but also gives us the personal and sometimes unlikeable side of him. The author does this in such a way that the reader gets a balanced view of Sagan. Davidson, as evidenced from the acknowledgements and notes section of the book, does this by drawing on a great wealth of interviews with Sagan's family members, friends, teachers & colleagues (the majority of which were top scientists or Nobel Prize winners), admirers, and detractors, as well as from a large archive of unpublished writings and personal papers. (2) The science presented by Davidson. Sagan was involved in many areas of science and Davidson (a science writer) does an excellent job of explaining these areas in non-technical terms. (3) The author's psychohistorical analysis of Sagan. Events that happened to Sagan are analysed with respect to either past or future occurrences in Sagan's life. By doing this, Davidson gives his narrative an interesting and enjoyable flow. (4) The thirty black-and-white photographs. These photos, located in the middle of the book, give a kind of mini-chronology of Sagan's life. (5) Over 100 pages of notes (footnotes at the end of the book). These alone make interesting reading and contain revealing information that did not make it into the over 400-page narrative. (6) The last chapter of the book. In this chapter, Sagan succumbs to his medical condition. This chapter is done with exquisite taste and sensitivity. As well, we are given a glimpse of how others in Sagan's life are moving on with their life after his death. My only complaint with this book is Davidson's very harsh treatment of Sagan's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Dragons of Eden." I think the author forgot that this book is subtitled "Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence," the key word being "Speculations." Finally, I feel that there is an important omission in the book. The author mentions very briefly Dr. Stephen Hawking. However, Davidson fails to mention that Sagan, after his enormous success with his books "Cosmos" and "Contact," wrote an eloquent introduction to Hawking's first major book. In effect, Sagan used his fame to launch Hawking's successful literary career. I think this speaks volumes for Sagan's character. In summary, Davidson has written a facinating biography about an extraordinary man who had a lifelong love affair with science. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about the life of Dr. Carl Edward Sagan (1934 - 1996). <=====>
Rating: 
Summary: Worthwhile but too long
Review: Biographies about truly exceptional individuals are risky affairs because they are usually written by unexceptional individuals. A good biographer is always aware of this and avoids the worst pitfalls by keeping himself out of the biography, thus allowing the life he is examining to stand on its own. A lousy biographer is blithely unaware of this and will inject his own prejudices and shortcomings into the biography, thus smothering the story in "spin". Davidson is of the lousy sort. Davidson's incessant yammering makes this biography a special form of torture. He plays everything from armchair psychoanalyst to coffee house sage. By the end, it becomes clear that this book is not about his subject matter as much as it is about himself. The life of Carl Sagan is just a convenient hook on which to hang his own politics, values and biases. There are passages where he does not even bother to conceal his scorn. There are others where bias is dressed up to look like objective analysis. It's not clear which is worse. Most readers are capable of reaching their own conclusions. It is neither necessary nor desirable for a biographer to also act as a colour commentator. When such commentary is lobbed at us like mortar shells, the natural reaction is to run for cover. When I picked up this book, I was hoping to form some insights into a man who had fascinated me. But I wanted to form my own insights, not have the biographer's opinions get in my face. I can decide for myself, thank you, whether Sagan was wise to choose a certain course in life, whether he was a good husband and father, whether he sacrificed his scientific integrity in his pursuit of fame. A good biographer exposes all of the wrinkles in the life he is examining: he doesn't try ironing them out for us. If you are the kind of reader who can ignore the clown frantically waving on the sidelines, I suspect that you can glean some essentials about the life of Carl Sagan from the chaff that chokes this offering, and this may make the book worth a read. But if you find it difficult to filter out baloney, you will find this book a tortuous experience filled with biased innuendo, unsolicited moralizing and soapbox opera.
Rating:
Summary: Considers both biographies of Sagan...
Review: Carl Sagan : A Life by Keay Davidson; (see also my review at Carl Sagan : A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone - this review considers both books) Carl Sagan is easily the second most famous scientist of the 20th century. If you came of age in the period 1970-1990, you were influenced by Sagan - period. Whatever you may think of him as a scientist, you must admit that nobody did more to popularize science in the public eye during this period. The two most obvious examples are his Cosmos television series and his numerous appearances with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Poundstone's book reflects Ann Druyan's influence much more than Davidson's. The result is a much more flattering account of Sagan's life, potentially minimizing some of the warts. Davidson, if anything, spends too much effort trying to psychohistorically analyze Sagan's two failed marriages and his fractured relationship with oldest son Dorion. Davidson also focuses much more attention on Sagan's books, attempting to plot the development of his career as a scientist and maturity as a writer based on each book's unique character. Here again, he attempts to delve below the surface into the hidden motives and influences. For instance, while both Poundstone and Davidson detail Sagan's marijuana use, Davidson goes further and suggests that the Pulitzer-winning Dragon's of Eden was largely a marijuana- induced work. William Poundstone Focuses more on his scientific achievements, with emphasis on the many conferences he chaired regarding SETI, exobiology, and his work on the Voyager and Mariner probes to Mars and the gas giants. Some of the reviews of the latter actually read like a popular scientific account of these missions, written around Sagan's contribution and perspective. A very rough generalization would be that Davidson looks more closely at Sagan's personal life while Poundstone looks more closely at his scientific achievemnts, though both books do cover the whole picture. Poundstone's book left me with more of a positive regard for Sagan though, and struck me as the better book of the two. Poundstone's account strikes me as first and foremost a work of scientific biography, with more detail of Sagan's scientific achievements.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough and well researched
Review: Carl Sagan was known to the world for his "Cosmos" miniseries and as a popularizer of science, but few in the general public know the nature and extent of his work on planetary science. This bio of Sagan by Davidson attempts to unravel both the MAN and the SCIENTIST within Carl Sagan, and for the most part succeeds. The book is extremely well researched, and you can feel how much time Davidson spent running around the country interviewing a great number of Sagan's friends, colleagues, and family members. Written in a style that made reading 100 pages at a stretch very pleasant, the main focus of the narrative is Sagan's lifelong struggle between the search for scientific rationality and reason and his sometimes very irrational beliefs in some non-mainstream aspects of science and the search for extraterrestrial life. Make no mistake, Sagan is portrayed as a very real and human person in this book: this is not just a glowing publicity piece. His flaws and unpleasant side get equal time, especially with regards to the treatment of his first two wives and some of his associates. Some have criticized the author for not being more positive about his subject (one review on this site suggests the author even HATED Sagan, a point with which I would strongly disagree). I feel that the portrayal of Sagan is very balanced. He was married three times, held a variety of teaching posts (some of which did not go well for him), and did not get along with everyone he knew:of course he had a darker side. Overall, a very capable job by Davidson. Worth reading for anyone interested in planetary science, or anyone who was inspired by Sagan's works (written or otherwise)
Rating: 
Summary: How do I get my money back????
Review: I couldn't wait to finish this book. The author's account of current history is completely distorted by his narrow and limited viewpoint. After being inflicted by the authors naive political views, I didn't welcome the personal assults on Mr Sagan or for that matter anyone to the right of Jerry Brown or the author's hero, Al Gore. I'll stay with Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Sagan Biography I've read
Review: I guess to be honest, I saw Carl in an almost messianic way. he had stood for all the things I had come to believe, and it was somehow disheartening to learn that he was a flesh and blood human. I realize this is a bit ridiculous for a person such as myself--however, I was at the same time very relieved to see that the man my wife reefers to as my "Hero" was a real person. he had loves and desires and needs and fears and pains--like the rest of us. But unlike so many of us, Carl Sagan did not let himself be defeated by worry or self doubt--he rose above it.
This is arguably the best book anyone can read who desires to know the man Carl Sagan--despite how well they might know the scientist Carl Sagan. I have been a friend of Dorion Sagan for a short time-- I have spoken with several people from Carl's life, and I have read (often more than once) everything Carl published. And yet there were chapters in this book that took me by complete suprise. However, I was never disappointed.
There are not adjectives enough to properly recomend this book. Dr. W. S. Davis
Oakland, 2002
Rating: 
Summary: The Art of Carl Sagan
Review: Imagine if you will - the biographer of Leonardo da Vinci portraying him, not as an artist, not as innovator - but as a failed helicopter designer. What a travesty! That's the feeling I got reading Keay Davidson's biography of Carl Sagan. For the most part the book highlights Sagan's numerous failures in his scientific career. And contains numerous disparaging words on Sagan's "undeserved" fame - the most stinging being Edwards Teller's parting remark of Sagan, "What did he do? What did he discover?" (pg 380) Clearly, Davidson has missed the mark here - not on facts but on focus. Sagan's work was never in the same league with that of - say - Feynman, Bohr or Einstein. We know this. We accept this. And he can hardly be blamed for such a shortcoming since astrophysics has hardly been at the frontiers of science - as, say particle physics or mathematical physics. (Well, perhaps not since the times of Kepler, Galileo and Newton.) Davidson admits to being influenced by Sagan, (more than just once) and he comes across as a fan still pretty much in awe of his idol. I don't really blame him for that. In fact, if Davidson had paid more attention to this line of thought - Sagan's influence - rather than Sagan's science, the book may have come closer to capturing the spirit of awe and wonder that Sagan seemed to wield almost effortlessly, especially to millions of television viewers across the globe. Sagan was more than a scientist. He was more than a teacher. Sagan was - to me and millions of people like me around the globe - a Svengali of science. The first - but hopefully not the last. I can say with absolute certainty that I may never have given a career in physics a second thought, had I not, as child, been dazzled by the television series Cosmos. To Teller's question, I have this to say: Sagan discovered within us the ability to see ourselves as residents of an infinite universe. He made "wonder" a legitimate part of the scientific experience. I just wish Davidson had said something like that in his biography - instead of letting Teller have the last word: "You waste your time writing about a nobody." Don't waste your time with this book - especially if you grew up in awe of Sagan's art.
Rating:
Summary: Carl Sagan: A Character Assassination
Review: Just pure crap. The author tries to persuade you (using a college freshman's understanding of psychology and philosophy) that Carl Sagan was an egomaniacal tyrant who only knew how to use people because he wanted to impress his demanding mother.
Skip this and read the better written and balanced biography by a real science writer, William Poundstone, who knows how to research and didn't just rely on the opinions of Carl Sagan's rivals and ex-wifes to paint a more complete picture of a great scientist and humanist.
The definite biography on Carl Sagan:
Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone
Rating:
Summary: Davidson's book a garbled mess
Review: Let me preface this by saying I am a huge fan of science and the late Dr. Sagan. However, I'm old enough to separate reality from the publicly presented image of Dr. Sagan. Who among us would want our private lives investigated and written about? So, to find that Dr. Sagan could be arrogant, and wasn't always pleasant to be with really wasn't too much of a shock. So he didn't live up to his rhetoric. Yeah, and? Thomas Jefferson didn't either. We all frequently fall short of our ideals. It was disappointing, but that's life. HOWEVER, Mr. Davidson's narrative is disjointed and hard to follow at times because he skips around in time while telling his story. Mr. Davidson may be a fine science writer, but as a biographer, he leaves a lot to be desired. He frequently makes assumptions about motives with no way to verify what he has implied. This book feels rushed, like it was written to fill a niche. It could have used a good editor to polish the edges, and institute a higher level of intellectual integrity.
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