Customer Reviews (25)

Audio version: 3.5 stars
The Place is a recuperation station outside of space and time where Spider soldiers in The Change War go for rest and relaxation between operations. This war has been going on between The Spiders and The Snakes since the beginning of time and Soldiers have been drafted (resurrected) into "The Big Time" from many points in history. From outside of time, they can plunge in at crucial moments and manipulate events to serve their cause, or they can change things ex post facto, which is why sometimes memory and history don't quite match.

All of the story happens in The Place, which is sort of like a cosmic Cheers except that it's run by an Elizabethan bard instead of a washed-up baseball player. The soldiers and entertainers at The Place spend their time drinking, dancing, singing, and discussing world events (not surprisingly for a story written in 1958, concerns about Nazis, communism, and Marxism predominate). When a life-threatening crisis suddenly occurs in The Place, the cast begins arguing, fighting, and suspecting each other.

I love Fritz Leiber and I love his concept of soldiers outside of time influencing the outcome of world events. So I was expecting to love The Big Time, which won a Hugo Award. But I didn't love it. The narrator, Suzanne Toren, is incredible -- she very successfully handles male and female voices and the accents of Germany, Rome, ancient Crete, 16th c England, 19th c "Southern Steamboat" American, and 20th c Chicago. Unfortunately, the story is told from the perspective of Greta, a 1950s Chicago party girl. Ms Toren's rendition is superb but by golly, 1950s Chicago party girl ain't that pretty. (Brother, it gets lousy awful fast, man!)

But my main issue is that almost all of The Big Time is dialogue and Greta's internal soliloquy. I did enjoy wondering along with the characters about who The Spiders and The Snakes are, when "now" is, and how much more change their patched-up threadbare reality can take (the monologues on this topic were fascinating). But I was hoping to witness the Soldiers influencing real historical events. The few parts of the book where these events were described were anachronistically wonderful. (Did you know that they almost dropped a nuclear bomb on Crete in 1300 B.C.?)

The Big Time is a concept novella which reads more like a stage play (probably why it won a Hugo). Even though I loved the concept, I would have loved it more if I'd seen it in action. And even though the audio production was perfection, by golly, I don't want to listen to another concept novel narrated by a 1950s Chicago party girl!

Just could not finish it
Hat's off to those who could finish this and enjoy it.I forced myself through the first third of the book before accepting that me and this book were not destined for one another.

Good time
This novel is an interesting experiment.Most sci-fi writers, having invented a whole world, feel tempted to come up with a plot to match, where the whole world is at stake.Here Leiber comes up with a huge background -- an interstellar war which has spread throughout space and time because the warriors have starships, time machines, and no moral restraints about involving innocent bystanders.Yet the story itself is on the smallest possible scale: a suite of rooms, a few days, and the whole point of the plot is that nothing changes in the end.

The main drawback is that the main plot has to do with two British aristocrats from the World War I era; they are extremely hard to relate to from the perspective of 2010, particularly the girl's behavior in the end.Maybe Leiber was simply closer to the era, or maybe he's imitating some popular story or movie that 1950s readers would have recognized.Much better are the supporting characters: the ancient warrior princess who talks in Homeric poetry, or the alien trying to explain in English why his teleportation machine isn't working.("Hafta hav -- I dunno wat.Dun havit anyway")

I wish all 52 year old SF novels were as fresh as this one
Go back to 1957 and try to understand a SF writer.

You are obliged by publishers to have these ridiculous book covers, usually girls in mini skirts blowing humanoid aliens to smithereens, the exact opposite of that cool Amazon cover you 're looking at.

WW II is only 12 years in the past, and somewhere in the same country you live in, Ginsberg's Howl is going through an obscenity trial.

If this is your background, which it is, The Big Time should be considered a hell of a novel. OK, Asimov's End of Eternity with a similar (but not that similar) concept came out 2 years earlier. And yes, it does read like a play. So what? Fritz Leiber gives us, in less than 150 pages, a fine cocktail of claustrophobia, ethics, philosophy, mystery and weird characters that has stood the test of time extremely well. In fact, one wonders how a "Big Change" (term in the novel for changes in history after time travel operations) that would liberate Leiber from the 1957's world and make him write, say, 50 years later, would benefit this little book. As it is, 4 stars and a special place in the pantheon of time travel novels.

Zzzzzzzz.....
I could not finish this very short book. In fact, I only made it halfway. It read like a play, which is not bad for a play. However, all the action takes place off screen and then people come back and talk about it. Perhaps the problem was my expectation. If it were written in play format, I think I would have enjoyed it more, but novels (and novellas) can do anything and are not limited to a group of people standing around talking. This violates the rule every comp teacher drills into their students heads: show don't tell. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very Fine Sci-Fi Anthology from the late 1970's
This volume collects the coveted prize-winning novellas, novelettes, and short stories from 1976 to 1979.The Viet Nam debacle had left America questioning the role of violence in resolving human conflict, and some of the better selections reflect that concern in imaginative ways.

Among the notables: Zelazny's "Home Is the Hangman" is an immediately engrossing private eye thriller.Niven's Known Space tale, "The Borderland of Sol" is a solid hard-science entry, fascinating because it fits into his imaginative but well-thought-out future.Leiber's "Catch That Zeppelin" seems a little too predictable, and despite the presence of some real science, is ultimately just another dream story anyway."By Any Other Name," Spider Robinson's dark tale of genocide and vengeance, is appropriately powerful, while James Tiptree, Jr's "Houston, Houston, Do You Read" takes us to a future that takes a dim view of male sexuality.Asimov's "Bicentennial Man" shows the evolution of artificial intelligence, but is a far cry from the master's best work."Hunter's Moon" is another fine story of redemption from conflict that threatens to destroy both sides.

Obviously a superior choice for fans of science fiction, but for those who aren't; despite its fine pedigree, this particular collection doesn't offer much that's likely to change your mind.

Not Free SF Reader
An exceptional anthology, obtaining the platinum standard of a 4 average, including two 5s.The only weak spot is the Leiber.

Hugo Winners 4 : Home Is the Hangman - Roger Zelazny
Hugo Winners 4 : The Borderland of Sol - Larry Niven
Hugo Winners 4 : Catch That Zeppelin! - Fritz Leiber
Hugo Winners 4 : By Any Other Name - Spider Robinson
Hugo Winners 4 : Houston Houston Do You Read? - James Tiptree Jr.
Hugo Winners 4 : The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
Hugo Winners 4 : Tricentennial - Joe W. Haldeman
Hugo Winners 4 : Stardance [short story] - Spider Robinson andJeanne Robinson
Hugo Winners 4 : Eyes of Amber - Joan D. Vinge
Hugo Winners 4 : Jeffty Is Five - Harlan Ellison
Hugo Winners 4 : The Persistence of Vision - John Varley
Hugo Winners 4 : Hunter's Moon - Poul Anderson
Hugo Winners 4 : Cassandra - C. J. Cherryh


Telepresence party prank has terrible results, robot killer wrongly represented afterwards, but does his duty despite detective.

5 out of 5


Indestructible interstellar ship interference.

3.5 out of 5


Airship transport changes.

3 out of 5


Genius' common cold cure provokes civilisation smelling overload suicide slaughter.

4 out of 5


Solar flare spaceship time lost in space, plague earth now has paucity of separatist clone chick population.

4.5 out of 5


Robot evolution legal test case.

4 out of 5


SETI success spurs space dwellers to sneaky space mission.

4 out of 5


Showing a bit of galactic leg.

3.5 out of 5


I am the Music Man, and I talk to people who don't come from down your way.

4 out of 5


Parents eventual terminal lack of patience with kid with the brilliant new old stuff.

5 out of 5


Communication fuller but lots weirder with fewer senses.

4.5 out of 5


Xenology swarm study feedback a bit two-way.

3.5 out of 5


Ghost ruins.

3.5 out of 5




... Read more

Product Description
Softcovers, 4 issues, hardcover bound. ... Read more