The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

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Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Fritz Leiber's The Big Time.

The Short of It

Plot: Even soldiers in the time war need safe havens
Page Count: 130
Award: 1958 Hugo
Worth a read: No
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: Plenty
Review: A rather bland story involving time travel. Uninteresting characters and dull plot are used to flesh out a none-too-thrilling world. Saving grace is that it's super short.

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The Medium of It
Spoiler Free!

The basic premise of this book is pretty good. There is a war raging throughout time between two great factions, the Spiders and the Snakes. The war is fought all across time, with each faction trying to gain strategic victories that will ultimately shift the tide in their own favor.

Not bad as a concept. 

We stay within the confines of The Place, an area outside of time, where soldiers come to rest and recover between battles. This too is an interesting approach; we are not in the battles, though we do hear of them. Instead we see how these people cope with trauma and violence, PTSD, and the struggle of existing beyond time. It should add some depth to these characters.

Unfortunately, the actual pacing and plotting of this story are lackluster. It seems that Leiber had a neat concept for a world, and then scrounged around for enough spare parts to put together a plot that could showcase it. 

The plot, what little of it there is, centers around a conflict within this resting place.  Should they simply stay put, out of time, and not go back? Characters tend to monologue at one another, and when they are not doing so, our narrator offers perfect insight on their precise feelings. There are suggestions of alien races from the distant past and distant future, but we barely see them, and those who we do see are uninteresting; they basically act just like people, but, you know, with tentacles.

The narrator is a woman, which is noteworthy itself, but now that I've noted it, there's not a lot more to say about it.

We have a moderately sizable cast of characters, but they fall into two camps: those who have no discernible personality and those who have one character trait. There is a total lack of nuance.

I would not recommend reading this, but it is not truly bad. It is more uninteresting. And if you've read other stories of conflicts involving time travel, you've probably read better.

If you do want to read it, please use the link below. It costs you nothing, and helps me pay for books!

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead!

There are plenty of different parts here that work; it is the story itself that does not. The primary plot driver is a bomb threat, but it fails to create any real tension. As a lock-in episode this falls pretty flat.

Leiber has an irritating habit of having characters explicitly spell out their motives before doing things. This is particularly clear when everyone is arguing whether or not to stay isolated in time; it is certainly easier than actually showing people to have emotions or motivations. 

By far the most interesting aspects of this story - people stuck in loops where they keep reliving the same years, and dying - is elaborated upon the least.

I don't have much more to say about this one. Pick a different time travel story and call it a day!

Well, that is what it is.

Find a good place to take a break, Stranger.
And don't forget to read a book!

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