Once Upon a Universe: Not-so-Grimm tales of cosmology

by Robert Gilmore

First Snow White encounters one of the Little People, then one of the Even Smaller People, and finally one of the Truly Infinitesimal People. And no matter how diligently she searches, the only dwarves she can find are collapsed stars! Clearly, she's not at home in her well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but instead in a strange new landscape that features quantum behavior, the wavelike properties of particles, and the Uncertainty Principle. She (and we) must have entered, in short, one of the worlds created by Robert Gilmore, physicist and fabulist.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction

237 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, though the science at the beginning was a bit hard for me to keep in mind throughout my reading it. (That's on me, not his writing.) But it all came together really well in the final story and I would say that this is probably my second favorite Gilmore novel, after The Wizard of Quarks.

[Hydrogen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's kinda boring. Yeah, it's nice but not as good as thw wizard of quarks

[Nilesh Salvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great way to put deep concepts in physics through children's tale analogies. A book I'd like my children to be reading, if and when they come into being.

[Kumar Ayush · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is repetitive if you have read any of the other Robert Gilmore books. There are two more left for me to read, which I will choose not to at this point.

It is probably good for people who are not Physics undergrads or teenagers aged 13-18.