Contact

When Project Argus, an array of radio telescopes in New Mexico that listens for signs of alien intelligence, picks up a signal from Vega made of prime numbers, its director Ellie Arroway finds herself at the center of first contact. Her work on the search had already put her in conflict with many fellow scientists, among them her doctoral adviser David Drumlin, who wanted it defunded. Carl Sagan's only full work of fiction began as a screenplay he wrote with Ann Druyan, and it was adapted as a 1997 film starring Jodie Foster.

Andrej Karpathy said he enjoyed the novel far more than the film adaptation, while still calling the film great. PROfounders Capital partner Sean Seton-Rogers picked it up simply because he loves science fiction.