The Big Time

By: Fritz Leiber

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

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.

If "Night Hawks" were outside time and space...

It's good to visit a book I read as a kid still stand up.

There's a collection of lost souls, people cut out of the timeline to fight the Change War, for ancient, unknowable generals called the Spiders, scraping for advantage over billions of years of altering history. They are colourful characters - the bright quirky, cynical people who often set a background scene - no true heroes - both the entertainers and staff of a Recuperation Station, and some soldiers come in from the cold. And then someone comes in with an atomic bomb...

It feels a lot like a stage play - most of the characters get a chance to make a big speech, and there are a lot of minor and tensions and interpersonal feuds inside the big conflict.

I like Suzanne Toren's reading of it a great deal - she has a sassy alto that sounds like Greta's voice always did in my head (except for her version of Bruce. He sounds like a scruffy Australian and, no. Just no.)

All in all, it's a great listen if you want something bright and world-weary, with no true answers at the end. And sometimes that's what I want :-)

"There's a demon inside me that always wishes to live."

Good, But Lacking Something

Suzanne Toren's accent range was unexpectedly good. I enjoyed her reading of this. The story itself was passable, but seemed to lack something in the end. Leiber's writing was vivid and the yarn was enjoyable and a new concept for me. I think the story suffers somewhat from age, but it was a bit nice to get that nostalgic feeling of the sci-fi I read as a kid.

Golden age SF delight.

Fun classic SF story that might not be up to the fancy standards of some but is still a good story well told.

a nice story, a bit confused

the concept is interesting and the performance is good, but the story itself is not the best...

The only thing enjoyable was the presentation.

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.