The Ugly Swans [Paperback]

Arkady Strugatsky (Author), Boris Strugatsky (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: Collier Books; 1st Collier books ed edition (1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020072406
• ISBN-13: 978-0020072409
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,750,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of their best, June 8, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The ugly swans (Hardcover)

This one as well as "Les" is a part of a double novel, so it would be better to read the whole book. What I believe is important to see in "Ugly Swans", as well, as in other Strugatskii books, is not the aliens and another version of future, but people that are all around us and our own world. After all, it's not forseeing the future that the authors were trying to do, but to describe what was going on around them. I also believe that Strugatskii books are universal and go far beyond exploration of any one event in history. Through Science Fiction they make us look into ourselves and open our eyes to some most urgent issues of today. Unfortunately these issues change slowly. The content itself is somewhat dark, but Strugatskii were optimists: in the end the beautiful dream comes true. I think I would really like to live in the kind of future that brothers Strugatskii described in many of thier books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best!, April 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The ugly swans (Hardcover)

I was looking for a copy for a friend, since I don't want to loan mine out. I'd never get it back! This is really a wonderful book. I first read it about twenty years ago, and have read it four or five times since. After each read there is more to digest. I can't believe it's out of print.

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Strugatsky brothers novel; don't miss!, April 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The ugly swans (Hardcover)

This strange, ironic, and oddly sweet Strugatsky bros. novel follows the same theme as "Childhood's End," while also providing the (non-Russian) reader with a good appreciation of the different requirements Soviet writers faced in the Brezhnev era. It's a cracker of a novel, with much partying and vodka-drinking, government corruption, and chilling glimpses of an alien race that, in the classic vein, are "stealing" our children for their own unknown (possibly malevolent?) purposes. Of course, there is the standard eye-wash about freeing society from the "cult of personality" (a veiled reference not only to Kruschev but also, I believe, to Stalin's cultural grip), but the slogans don't get in the way of the story. Which story is stunning . Like the best Strugatsky bros.' work, this book reads like a story told to you by a Russian friend, who is somewhat jaded, intelligent enough to know how little he understands, and who personifies the Muscovite spirit of "smoke, drink and eat now, who knows what will happen tomorrow..."