Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium Book

I am a great fan of Carl Sagan and it is with some sadness that I can recommend this, his last book, only partially. It is a collection of nineteen essays, organized into three mostly unrelated parts. Some items are well worth reading'particularly the last'but some not at all.

Part 1, "The Power and Beauty of Quantification," is merely a simple echo of his famous book Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980). The first chapter on large numbers, from which the "Billions and Billions" of this book's title is taken, is just too basic. Experienced popular science readers should skip this part entirely. Those interested in cosmology, the vastness of space, and the possibility of multiple universes should look instead to Sagan's own classic Cosmos or for the up-to-the minute (and deep) account, see Max Tegmark's Our Mathematical Universe (2014).

Part 2, "What Are Conservatives Conserving," is a series of dated essays covering the relatively new (at the time Sagan was engaged with them in the 1980s and early 1990s) environmental concerns of ozone depletion and global warming. Their outdatedness stems not from any later final solutions, but rather because research has progressed substantially in the last few decades. Another problem is that he links these essays politically to the Carter and Reagan eras, which realistically are too distant for most younger readers. Instead, for an insider's view on global warming politics read Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It (2006). For the science, which despite its over-the-top title is definitive, refer to James Hansen's work from 2009 Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About The Climate Catastrophe And Our Last Chance To Save Humanity. (Hansen is the NASA climate researcher credited for "discovering" global warming.)

Happily, in Part 3, "Where Hearts and Minds Collide," Sagan includes more timeless essays covering the politics of abortion, basic morality, a powerful address at the Gettysburg peace memorial rededication, and a useful look back at the accomplishments of the twentieth century. These display Sagan at his best, and are reminiscent of the sustained intellectual wonder that is his best book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995).

Sagan closes with one of the most affecting short essays I have ever read, "In the Valley of the Shadow," where he recounts his battles over the disease that killed him after he finished Billions and Billions but before it was published. He displays ferocious optimism in his own future, and also for humanity. If nothing else, read this eight-page essay at your local bookstore or online. It will move you as it has countless readers and reviewers.

With great respect, and with an irresistible fantasy, and indeed hope, that he is now in some way out there among the stars, merged with his beloved cosmos, I leave the last word to Carl:

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.
...
The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there is little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.