From the Bookshelf of The Great Hugo Read…

The Big Time

Fritz Leiber

Start date: September 1, 2013

Finish date: September 30, 2013

Discussion: The Big Time

Discussion leader: D.L. Thurston

Why we're reading this: 1958 Winner. 1957 was the last year the Hugo Awards were not handed out as part of Worldcon. 1958 marked …more
[close] 1958 Winner. 1957 was the last year the Hugo Awards were not handed out as part of Worldcon. 1958 marked the last year that the awards were a single ballot affair, rather than balloting for nominees and then a winner.

The Novel and Novelette categories, awarded in 1955 and 1956, were merged into a single category for the 1958 awards and were won by The Big Time. Other winners that year:

* Short Story: "Or All the Seas with Oysters" by Avram Davidson
* Professional Magazine: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher and Robert P. Mills
* Movie: The Incredible Shrinking Man directed by Jack Arnold; screenplay by Richard Matheson
* Artist: Frank Kelly Freas
* Actifan: Walt Willis

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The Big Time

The Big Time options
By D.L. · 1 post · 5 views

last updated Sep 04, 2013 09:06AM

What Members Thought

Mar 22, 2016 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, 2016-shelf, reality-bending

1958 Hugo winner, and what an interesting surprise!

This is the Cure for the Common (modern) SF. Tired of the old rehashing of drawn-out plots and over-deep character explorations full of pathos, pathos, and more pathos? Then pick this one up. See the universes without being a Space Opera, enjoy the perks of touching all time without a time lord in sight. Drink your favorite alcohol and listen to your neighbor wax poetic. And oh yeah, don't get caught in the war across all Time. (The title of th 1958 Hugo winner, and what an interesting surprise!

This is the Cure for the Common (modern) SF. Tired of the old rehashing of drawn-out plots and over-deep character explorations full of pathos, pathos, and more pathos? Then pick this one up. See the universes without being a Space Opera, enjoy the perks of touching all time without a time lord in sight. Drink your favorite alcohol and listen to your neighbor wax poetic. And oh yeah, don't get caught in the war across all Time. (The title of the book is kinda crappy. It's actually referring to the field of battle.)

So, this novel is about as far as you can get from modern SF.
It's laden heavily with a ton of interesting ideas and alternate reality sets and times thrown at you without explanation or depth, having a very quick progression of plot and and a stage as big as all time and all the spaces of an infinity of universes.

If that doesn't blow your mind, then good.

We're hanging out with the entertainment crew that services the space-time warriors that snipe big changes through history, a neutral zone that caters to the Snakes (one time-traveling faction) and the Spiders (another time traveling faction.) It's chaos, to say the least. Is it war, or is it really something else? No spoilers.

There's plenty to think about, of course. Wanna invert a huge pulsating brain or name drop the Comandant of Toronto or murder baby Einstein? It's fun as hell.

I got the impression that Heinlein's "All You Zombies" was a better Time Travel story, with more and deeper exploration of plot and character, but I'm also pretty sure that the two authors were playing with each other. Heinlein's story came out one year after this one won its Hugo. Fun fact: the 2014 movie Predestination was based on "All You Zombies".

BUT, Leiber's novel was NOT about going deep, but going really, really wide in an attempt to tackle a really big idea. What idea? Oh no. This is an easy and quick book, people. Enjoy it for yourself. :)

We zip here and there and everywhere, like a knee-jerk reaction to all the Golden-Age SF that had just come before. But Leiber takes all the old square-jawed heroes with all their can-do attitudes and amped them up to mind-blowing proportions, giving them an unlimited landscape, and then, for our "heroes" we're thrown into the minds of "normals" caught in the middle of it all.

Why is this the opposite of modern SF? Because it doesn't slow down to explore any single plotline or character in detail. So much happens so quickly that it's a delight and a blur and I feel like I need to sit down and deconstruct the living hell out of every paragraph and chortle at the wordplay and the thousands of alternate reality implications. There's SO MANY. :) It's like falling into Wonka's candy store.

Zip, zip, zip, zip. It kept a smile on my face and a snicker in my laugh for practically the entire novel. Even the late reveals reverse the fact that endless (literally) war is not quite as dark as we first thought. That immediately turns this novel into a comedy by the old traditions, and I feel like I've been needing something very light-hearted for a while, so this definitely fits the bill.

If you're getting the deep desire to have an idea-packed and an amazingly quick read, I'd absolutely recommend this novel. Fritz Leiber has such a light and clever voice! :) ...more

60 likes · Like · see review

Jun 10, 2012 Kat rated it it was ok

Shelves: did-not-finish

Working my way through the Hugo award winners.

Meh. This is a REALLY short book, and I just can't make myself care about getting farther than about half way through. I really don't like this author's writing of people. They seem flat, and somewhat... offensive is too strong a word... but I can't get into or like any of them.

His other book I read, The Wanderer, had the same problem with the people in it. But I was interested enough in what was going on with the concepts in the book that I slogged ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2010 Jeff Stockett rated it it was ok

Shelves: hugo-award-winning-novels

There is a war between beings of infinite power that rages through time and space. With the ability to travel through time, the battlefields can be anywhere from far flung planets thousands of years in the future, to ancient Greece.

The soldiers who fight these battles need a place to rest and recuperate. They need a place beyond time where they can be safe while they have their medical needs addressed. It's also a place where entertainers can bring them amusement, through song, dance, and good e ...more

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Aug 01, 2017 Dan rated it liked it

Sep 06, 2013 D.L. Thurston added it

Shelves: alt-history, favorite-ace-double-halves

Dec 13, 2012 D.L. Thurston added it · review of another edition

Shelves: hugo-winning-novels

Jun 27, 2013 Jerry marked it as to-read

Shelves: hugo-awards

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