The chapter entitled "Venus and Dr. Velikovsky" is a masterpiece of pseudo-science debunking. Sagan rightly deplores efforts by mainstream scientists to suppress Velikovsky, both because they were dishonest, and because (as noted by another reviewer) they made Velikovsky a martyr when he might otherwise just have been forgotten. Sagan's dissection of Velikovsky's thesis is painfully specific, precise, methodical, exhaustively researched, utterly polite, and totally relentless. This is the way to take on pseudo-science: with not a trace of snobbery or arrogance, but with simple, devastating logic.