# Contact by Carl Sagan

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/contact/

6 people recommended Contact by Carl Sagan in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 4 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

3 of the 6 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “SETI Home Flags 100 Signals After Sorting 12B Others”.

**Verdict:** People recommend the novel and its audiobook and rate the 1997 film above Interstellar. The most common caveat is that the film misses the novel's ending punchline.

Summary written by Claude from 7 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Better than Interstellar (2 comments in the sample): "For me much better than Interstellar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46643348)) "Way, waaay better than Interstellar." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46643448))

## What people warn about

- Film misses the novel's ending punchline (1 comment in the sample): "The film was good but totally misses the punchline at the end of the novel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48189144))
- Film removed the artist signature (1 comment in the sample): "They completely removed the "artist signature" from the movie." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46644570))

## Other science fiction novels people recommend

- [Blindsight by Peter Watts](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blindsight/): 78 recommend, 18 mixed, 23 criticize
- [Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/children-of-time/): 64 recommend, 1 mixed, 4 criticize
- [Accelerando by Charles Stross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/accelerando/): 63 recommend, 7 mixed, 8 criticize
- [There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/there-is-no-antimemetics-division/): 57 recommend, 34 mixed, 28 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Contact by Carl Sagan", https://hackerapproved.com/p/contact/ (6 recommend, 2 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.