Big Time: Amazon.ca: Fritz Leiber: Books

Product Description

From Amazon.com

Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) is best known as a fantasy writer, but his achievements and influence are also considerable in the horror and science fiction fields. One of his major SF works is the Change War series, about rival time-traveling armies locked in a bitter, age-old war for control of existence; the battles frequently alter the course of human history. The most important work of Leiber's Change War series is the Hugo Award-winning novel The Big Time, in which doctors, entertainers, and wounded soldiers find themselves treacherously trapped with an activated atomic bomb inside the Place, a room existing outside of space-time. It's not one of Leiber's strongest novels: the cutesy-girlish narrative voice is unconvincing, while the demands of describing time travel and time paradoxes inevitably strain the prose. But The Big Time is a tense, claustrophobic SF mystery, and possibly the ultimate locked-room whodunit.

In addition to the Hugo, Nebula, Derleth, Lovecraft, and World Fantasy Awards, Fritz Leiber received the Grand Master of Fantasy (Gandalf) Award, the Life Achievement Lovecraft Award, and the Grand Master Nebula Award. --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazon.com Author Profile

Read about the author.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

First Sentence
My name is Greta Forzane. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Snakes and Spiders, Jan 19 2003

By	Ventura Angelo (Brescia, Lombardia Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Big Time (Paperback)

Well, you've simply to read the book to believe it. Two clans play whit Earth history...the snakes and the spiders. The scene of the novel is set in a resting station of one of the two clans. The result is very uncanny...and unsettling. A masterpiece of Fritz Leiber, albeit it's not kaleioscpic as The Silver Eggheads

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

5.0 out of 5 stars full of surprises, Jan 9 2001

By	Frederick Norwood "Rick Norwood" (Mountain Home, TN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Big Time, The (Hardcover)

I read recently in an interview with Robert Zemeckis that the modern moviegoer does not like surprises. That is why the preivews today cover all of the major plot points, show all of the best special effects, and tell all of the best jokes.

This book is full of unexpected plot twists, so if you are one of those who do not like surprises, skip it. But if you want to read one of the best sf novels ever written, buy it.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

3.0 out of 5 stars Strange, yet appealing, Jan 5 2001

By	Thradar (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Time, The (Hardcover)

As I march my way through all the Hugo & Nebula winners I came upon this book. The only other Lieber works I've read have been the very likable Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series...a fantasy staple. The Big Time is definately an original piece of time travel fiction, yet there is actually no time travel involved in the book. The prose is light on narrative and very heavy on dialogue. I had little to work with in visualizing the surroundings (basically a large room) in which the characters interacted the entire time. Despite this, I did enjoy it for the most part; although once again I am left a little baffled by the ending (a la Babel-17 by Delany). As someone else pointed out (who I agree with) this book reads like a stage play, and could easily be turned into a strange, yet tense, psuedo-time travel suspense. It's a quick read. If you want to hit all the "classics" and can find a copy, go for it. If you're a casual sci-fi reader, I recommend you skip it.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 11 customer reviews...

Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Ordinary Time Travel Claptrap
A book that deals with time travel in a way beyond anything I've seen before or since. Leiber sees time travel ability as a step in the development of the species, and puts that... Read more

Published on Aug 11 2000 by Peter A. Greene

1.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't finish it
I have one big criteria for my fiction: I have to care about the characters, at least one of them. I didn't and so I couldn't finish the book even though I'm a big fan of the... Read more

Published on May 17 2000 by TammyJo Eckhart

2.0 out of 5 stars "Big" Doesn't Mean A "Good" Time
The Big Time suggested such a wonderful, creative idea that it was hard to resist. However, in practice the book was tedious, the characters were not well developed and some of... Read more

Published on May 1 2000 by Chris MB

5.0 out of 5 stars time- space continium
It looks like every respectful science fiction writer at one point or another wrote a book on time travel. This one is by far the most original one I have read. Read more

Published on Mar 6 2000 by Human