The uncertainty principle [Hardcover]

Dmitrii Bilenkin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Russian (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 163 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025107704
• ISBN-13: 978-0025107700
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,424,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, this book needs to be read...., June 13, 2001

By 

"foolsguinea" (America!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The uncertainty principle (Hardcover)

Dimitri Bilenkin's style is sort of like Isaac Asimov's. His sensibility is a little like Asimov crossed with Robert Sheckley. (What? Don't like Sheckley? Forget I said that; read it anyway.) This book contains the PERFECT SCIENCE FICTION STORY--not just escapism, or entertainment, but speculative fiction that serves as a caution to future generations. If I had the power, I'd tell the schools to make "Stranger's Eyes" required reading. Hey, it would do some good. And that's not the only one! Oh, oh, it's brilliant! Somebody reprint this book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every story in this collection merits re-reading, May 4, 2007

By 

Jason Mierek "uniqueness is ubiquitous" (Urbana, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncertainty Principle (Paperback)

I have to agree with fellow reviewer "foolsguinea" regarding this book. It definitely needs to be returned to print (with, perhaps, many of the other volumes in Macmillan's "Best of Soviet SF" series from the late 1970s). Based on the quality of the short stories contained in this volume, the late Dimitri Bilenkin had an SF voice that merits being heard by a much wider audience. As Theodore Sturgeon notes in his introduction, Bilenkin excels at tackling the question "if this goes on...", perhaps because he has (quoting Sturgeon), "a profound respect for the potentialities of science and its ability to open doors to achievement and to understanding both outer space and that far more vast inner space of the mind and heart, the fact---forgotten by so many science-worshippers---that respected and orthodox science gave us leeches and cups to draw blood from the desperately ill, malformed babies, filthy air, denuded hillsides, dead lakes, and industrial disasters" (p. xi). This recognition and respect for the limitations of science, as well as for the intersections of science with society and ideology, does not prevent his stories from being infused with a magical, lyrical quality evoking at once the wonder of a child and the wisdom of the aged. Every story in this collection merits re-reading, because with each reading subtler shades of meaning and humor are revealed, in the best tradition of Russian literature.