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''The Big Time'' (1958) is a short
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
novel by American writer
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Rober ...
. Awarded the
Hugo Award for Best Novelette
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...
during 1958, ''The Big Time'' was published originally in two parts in ''
Galaxy Magazines March and April 1958 issues, illustrated by
Virgil Finlay
Virgil Finlay (July 23, 1914 – January 18, 1971) was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator. He has been called "part of the pulp magazine history ... one of the foremost contributors of original and imagi ...
. 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.
Plot
The storyline features members of one of two factions, both capable of
time travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...
, 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.
The narrator of the novel is Greta, a young human female employed at a Recuperation Station where soldiers recover from battles. Greta is an Entertainer: part prostitute, part nurse, part
psychotherapist. However, other characters narrate parts of the story in lengthy monologues about their experiences and opinions as they visit the spider-staffed facility.
New soldiers, entertainers, and medical staff are recruited by existing Change War participants from various places and times; characters include:
Cretan
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, an ...
Amazons,
Roman legion
The Roman legion ( la, legiō, ) was the largest military unit of the Roman army, composed of 5,200 infantry and 300 equites (cavalry) in the period of the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and of 5,600 infantry and 200 auxilia in the period o ...
naires, eight-tentacled Lunans (natives of a civilization that thrived on Earth's
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
a billion years ago),
Hussars
A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely a ...
,
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
Landsers,
Venusian satyrs
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exag ...
(recruited from Venus a billion years in the future), American
GIs, and
Space Commandos. Soldiers from the armies of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
,
Genghis Khan,
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
, and
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
may find themselves fighting side-by-side or on opposing sides. Likewise, medical staff and entertainers are inducted into the temporal war to provide medical treatment, rest, and relaxation for injured and weary combatants.
Within the context of the story, the Universe as we know it runs on the Little Time. The Change War combatants and their facilities (places such as
Field Hospitals
A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile A ...
, Express Rooms, Recuperation Stations, and Entertainment Spots), located within artificially-created bubbles of
spacetime
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differ ...
outside of the Universe, run on the Big Time. The Big Time is described metaphorically by the narrator as a train traveling through the Little Time's countryside. Combat operations occur when soldiers venture into a time and place in the Little Time on orders from their superiors.
Adding to the atmosphere of cynicism about the war's aims and causes is the revelation that one of its effects was to change history and cause an
Axis victory in World War II
A hypothetical military victory of the Axis powers over the Allies of World War II (1939–1945) is a common topic in speculative literature. Works of alternative history (fiction) and of counterfactual history (non-fiction), including stories, ...
. However devastating this development is to 20th century humanity, now doomed to live under the worldwide oppressive and genocidal rule of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, in the context of the overall Spider-Snake cosmic conflict, this change was incidental and of only marginal importance.
The first few chapters establish the backstory, setting, amazing futuristic technology and characters. The main plot of the novel involves the discovery of a
time bomb
A time bomb (or a timebomb, time-bomb) is a bomb whose detonation is triggered by a timer. The use (or attempted use) of time bombs has been for various purposes including insurance fraud, terrorism, assassination, sabotage and warfare. They are ...
in the Recuperation Station, and the attempts to defuse the bomb and identify the saboteur, essentially a
locked room mystery
The "locked-room" or "impossible crime" mystery is a type of crime seen in crime and detective fiction. The crime in question, typically murder ("locked-room murder"), is committed in circumstances under which it appeared impossible for the perpet ...
within a science fiction context.
Reception
Algis Budrys
Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome (in collaboration with Jerome Bixby), Jo ...
praised ''The Big Time'' (which he categorized as a play, not a novel) 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
Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for ''The Chronicles of Amber''. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nomin ...
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
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...
's two-volume compilation ''American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s''.
Influences
Leiber's short story "Try and Change the Past", also from 1958, is set in the same universe. It features a New York man just recruited by the Snakes going AWOL and trying to change his own past, in which he was murdered by his wife, finding out that the universe resists all his efforts and is "conserving reality", and finally not having any choice but to go back to fight in the Time War.
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
develops the same basic theme of a time war between two powerful factions, who confront each other throughout time and use people of past periods as their soldiers, in the novel ''
The Corridors of Time'' (1965).
"The Big Time" was the primary influence for Misha Kolesoski's album ''Dreams of Spiders and Snakes'' (2016).
References
External links
*
* (Digital transcription of serialized version)
*
* Page scans of ''The Big Time'' as serialized in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' in 1958
parts onean
two at the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Time, The
1958 American novels
1958 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Hugo Award for Best Novel-winning works
Alternate Nazi Germany novels
Novels about time travel
Novels by Fritz Leiber
Novels first published in serial form
Works originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction
Ace Books books
Temporal war fiction
Novels republished in the Library of America