“Cosmos is magnificent, challenging. ... One of the book’s strengths is the way it traces today’s knowledge and today’s scientific method to their historical roots. It is enthusiasm, plus Dr. Sagan’s poetic insight and literary skill, that makes this an eminently readable book.”

The Christian Science Monitor

“Carl Sagan is one of the most brilliant scientists of our times. ... He has done an excellent writing job as he delves into the past, present, and future of science, dealing with the mind-staggering enormity of the cosmos in which we exist.”

Associated Press

“Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan has gathered the whole glittering universe into one magnificent book. ... He blends science and philosophy in a text of such lyric energy. ... Sagan dazzles the mind with the miracle of our survival, framed by the stately galaxies of space.”

Cosmopolitan

“The past year ... saw that extraordinary television series, Cosmos , on the Public Broadcasting Service; these programs initiated tens of millions of viewers not only into the wonders of space but also into awareness of the deepest scientific questions concerning the nature and origin of the world, of life, of humankind. Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos is not the script of the television series but rather a full-fledged account, mostly in chronological order, of the great human efforts at scientific accomplishment. Cosmos gives the reader the opportunity to explore in depth. ... will make the writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells seem prosaic.”

The Christian Century

“In just a few years, Sagan ... has become Mr. Science, a widely respected popularizer able to link the stuff and history of life with the vastness of space and eternity. And he does it with a grace and élan that persuades you, for the moment at least, that nothing is more exciting or more important,”

Chicago Tribune

“Sagan is an astronomer with one eye on the stars, another on history, and a third—his mind’s—on the human condition. ... We admire him greatly for his ambition and erudition, occasionally for the grace of his prose, and often for amazing us about our universe and ourselves.”

Newsday

“A fine work of popular science, with an unusual dose of imagination and vision.”

The San Diego Union

“Sagan knows precisely how to excite the imagination of the lay reader and hold his interest from first page to last. ... Here is this mind-stretching book to take us on the most fascinating of all voyages, knowledgeable, beautifully written, and strikingly illustrated. Every intelligent reader should read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Sagan’s cosmic story.”

John Barkham Reviews

“Magnificent ... Sagan’s inquiry into man within nature is free from superstition and pessimism. ... A grand vision.”

The American Rationalist