Rating: 3 out of 5
This was a weird one: a book dedicated to explaining why we sent a certain selection of our combined arts into space instead of other options. While I wholeheartedly stand beside the reason for which the people described within went through these actions, I found that aside some anecdotal stories (such as that of the Georgian evaluating traditional music as well as the numerous accounts of Beethoven) the book itself did not compel me to learn more.
Now, of course, a part of this is that reading about music or photography will always be less intriguing than actually partaking of these arts and some of the pieces that were included on the Voyagers were described very well indeed. I am also very keen on listening to the music included on the ships, but this book as a story did not inspire me as I hoped it would.
A more distant reflection might be that if this book were written today, it would be of an entirely different narrative structure — and I think it would also be woven into more of a continuous story (and it would probably be less repetitive).
