The Big Time Audiobook By Fritz Leiber cover art

The Big Time

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

The Big Time

By: Fritz Leiber
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $11.01

Buy for $11.01

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.

Accolades & Awards

Hugo Award
1958
Hugo Award Science Fiction Time Travel War Fiction
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
All stars
Most relevant
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.

The only thing enjoyable was the presentation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story was confused and muddy. If there was a big idea here, I completely missed it.

Poor Hugo story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Interesteing Concept, Poor Execution

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.

Reflexiva y Corta

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Leiber mixes cosmogony, time travel, evolution, "chain-of-being", and unique personalities in a swirling, tasty concoction.

The Big Time is a big deal!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews