The Big Time
The Big Time (1958) is a short science fiction novel by American writer Fritz Leiber. Awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novelette during 1958, The Big Time was published originally in two parts in Galaxy Magazine's March and April 1958 issues, illustrated by Virgil Finlay. It was subsequently reprinted in book form several times.
The Big Time is a story involving only a few characters, but with a vast, cosmic back story. The storyline features members of one of two factions, both capable of time travel, engaged in a long-term conflict called "The Change War". Their method of battle involves changing the outcomes of events throughout history (temporal war). The two opposing groups are nicknamed the Spiders and the Snakes after their respective sponsors. The true forms or identities of the Spiders and the Snakes, how those nicknames were chosen, or whether they are in any way descriptive are all unknown.
Algis Budrys praised The Big Time as evidence that Leiber was the only science fiction writer of his generation "who as a matter of course and conviction saw through the mores and circumstances which are now proving nonviable not only in commercial literature but in what we can call life as well", and a precursor to Roger Zelazny and Samuel R. Delany. In February 1968 he named the book the "Best Thing All Year". In 2012, it was selected for inclusion in the Library of America's two-volume compilation American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s.
Excerpted from The Big Time on Wikipedia.
The Big Time
| Author | Fritz Leiber |
| Country | United States |
| Genre | Science fiction, War, Time travel |
| Copyright | Based on transcriptions from Project Gutenberg. |
| Book cover | - |
| Ebooks | Project Gutenberg |
| Scans | - |
| Audio | Librivox | Internet Archive Reader: Karen Savage 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 |
| Read online | The Big Time |