Unfortunately, the reader will reach the novel's more enjoyable last third only if drawn by strong curiosity and buffered by tolerance for many first-novelist vices. Characterization proceeds by the dossier method ofter used by C.P. Snow, with similar results - told much but shown little, we get career profiles, some odd habits, earnest details. The narrative comes to a stop while an expository lump cajols us into finding this person intersting. The authorial voice has clearly done its homework, piling on detail. Meanwhile, much interesting scientific information reaches us through thick slabs of talk.
Characters speak in stiff-necked academic lingo, with little nuance of personal style.
Occasionally the narrative catches fire, then sputters out under another lecture. Many small, savvy incidents capture the way scientists think. Indeed, the novel ends on a note of ''experimental theology,'' which will be a new notion to many. Hamfisted in places, clever in others, ''Contact'' fulfills no high literary promise, but it does deal with issues seldom discussed, and worth pondering. There were other intelligent beings in the universe.