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2.5 

The Big Time

By Fritz Leiber
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

At the time of the release of this ebook edition of The Big Time, it remains the only Hugo Award–winning work in the public domain. That makes it a very special treasure indeed!

The Big Time tells the tale of a group of servicemembers who work in facilities isolated from regular space-time. They’re involved in a war conducted by two shadowy groups that spans time itself, with all of humanity as pawns on an ever-changing historical battlefield. It explores a fascinating range of themes including time travel, the purpose of war, isolation, and love in the face of it all.

12 Reviews

2.5
“Clearly this book has influenced time travel fiction. I recognize many things reused in popular fiction today specifically “this is how to lose a time war”- This book follows a female whose job it is to comfort and care for the time workers and who gets stuck in a locked room of people where a time bomb”
“Ideas too big for a simple mystery tale HUGO AWARD (1958): “The Big Time” by Fritz Lieber This is an odd book—equal parts Big Ideas and a rather pedestrian whodunit (I’ll admit, mystery is one of my least favorite genres, so if it’s your cup-of-tea, you may like that aspect more than I did.) This was also my first time reading Leiber, and overall, I was impressed. The big ideas are big indeed, invoking time, a form of paratime, changing history, “resurrecting” the dead, and alien species from the far past and the far future, as well as mysterious overlords with evocative names whom the characters have never seen—our HAVE they? The ideas, honestly, are too big for the scope of the story. This is a setting that could easily fill an oversized novel or three, and be fascinating reading from beginning to end. As a reader, you have to make allowances for 50’s-era dialog and characterization—but one area where “The Big Time” eclipses its contemporaries is with its female characters. First, it has some. Second, they are all very different and (in different ways) essential to driving the plot—even the characters who AREN’T characters, quite. There is enough here that I found the mystery itself to be a bit of a distraction—enough that I’m still thinking about it weeks later, and I’m not entirely sure WHAT I think. Recommended if you want a short novel about expansive concepts, and characters that will stick with you when you’re done.”

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