The Big Time

By: Fritz Leiber

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Have you ever worried about your memory, because it doesn't seem to recall exactly the same past from one day to the next? Have you ever thought that the whole universe might be a crazy, mixed-up dream? If you have, then you've had hints of the Change War.

It's been going on for a billion years, and it will last another billion or so. Up and down the timeline, the two sides, "Spiders" and "Snakes", battle endlessly to change the future and the past. Our lives and our memories are their battleground. And in the midst of the war is the Place, outside space and time, where Greta Forzane and the other Entertainers provide solace and R&R for tired time warriors.

Fritz Leiber was one of the most important sci-fi and fantasy writers of the 20th century. The Big Time, which won a Hugo Award for Best Novel, is his most famous SF novel.

©2000 The Estate of Fritz Leiber (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Interesteing Concept, Poor Execution

The overall theme of this book, how a war between two factions altering the past to gain supremacy affects the psyches of the people fighting that war, was interesting. However, it just didn't generate a very interesting story. For much of the book, it felt more like a mystery trying to figure out who did it than a science fiction story investigating the how or why of the action. Ultimately, the story's resolution of returning everything to the status quo was disappointing.

Reflexiva y Corta

The Big Time es una novela corta que transcurre entre varios personajes extravagantes en un único espacio, una mezcla de bar + spa + burbuja temporal. Fritz Leiber nos relata en primera persona lo que ocurre y lo que piensa Greta, la protagonista.

La novela trata conceptos complejos como viajes en el tiempo y sus efectos, no solo en la historia sino en la memoria de las personas, y los plasma en conversaciones ingeniosas en el contexo de una supuesta guerra entre Arañas y Serpientes.

El estilo de Leiber es muy rápido, tanto que no logré acercarme o empatizar con ningún personaje o facción, y quizás no era el objetivo del autor. No busquen una aventura: la novela es una tertulia filosófica entre los personajes, con un par de misterios que resuelve de forma eficaz sobre el final.

Es un libro interesante que abre varias interrogantes sobre las motivaciones humanas y los medios que somos capaces de usar para vencer a nuestros enemigos, con argumentos o con violencia, y cómo sobrellevamos situaciones complejas que no logramos entender por completo.

If "Night Hawks" were outside time and space...

It's good to visit a book I read as a kid still stand up.

There's a collection of lost souls, people cut out of the timeline to fight the Change War, for ancient, unknowable generals called the Spiders, scraping for advantage over billions of years of altering history. They are colourful characters - the bright quirky, cynical people who often set a background scene - no true heroes - both the entertainers and staff of a Recuperation Station, and some soldiers come in from the cold. And then someone comes in with an atomic bomb...

It feels a lot like a stage play - most of the characters get a chance to make a big speech, and there are a lot of minor and tensions and interpersonal feuds inside the big conflict.

I like Suzanne Toren's reading of it a great deal - she has a sassy alto that sounds like Greta's voice always did in my head (except for her version of Bruce. He sounds like a scruffy Australian and, no. Just no.)

All in all, it's a great listen if you want something bright and world-weary, with no true answers at the end. And sometimes that's what I want :-)

"There's a demon inside me that always wishes to live."

Good, But Lacking Something

Suzanne Toren's accent range was unexpectedly good. I enjoyed her reading of this. The story itself was passable, but seemed to lack something in the end. Leiber's writing was vivid and the yarn was enjoyable and a new concept for me. I think the story suffers somewhat from age, but it was a bit nice to get that nostalgic feeling of the sci-fi I read as a kid.

Golden age SF delight.

Fun classic SF story that might not be up to the fancy standards of some but is still a good story well told.

a nice story, a bit confused

the concept is interesting and the performance is good, but the story itself is not the best...

The only thing enjoyable was the presentation.

While impressed with the presentation I found the story overly drawn out and complex enough to leave much wanting. A very entertaining premise but, given the depth behind the characters and setting, it fell far short of achieving excellence. It definitely didn't deserve the Hugo award. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that part of the inspiration for the TV series Loki didn't come from this. Loki is... meh, okay at best but far better fleshed out.

Poor Hugo story

The story was confused and muddy. If there was a big idea here, I completely missed it.

The Big Time is a big deal!

Leiber mixes cosmogony, time travel, evolution, "chain-of-being", and unique personalities in a swirling, tasty concoction.

Fritz is a literary descendant of Shakespeare

Fritz is a literary descendant of Shakespeare in this work. From channeling the story through a performer to creating a dictionary of words to convey reality and feeling without necessarily having to convey a specific meaning. The story is appropriately short, which I'm grateful for as it's full of enough war time anxiety and moral compromise to make your skin crawl. It concludes with a literal alien explaining the moral of the story. I truly enjoyed this work of sci-fi and it is worthy of awards.