The Big Time (Fritz Leiber, 1958)The back story of “The Big Time” is fairly interesting but it is never fully realized. Here is the back story:
Imagine there is a great war going on between two sides, nicknamed “Spiders” and “Snakes”. We do not know anything about them, but all we know is that they are from the future and are involved in a great war. One of the crucial ways they fight is to time travel and constantly alter history so that it benefits their side in the future. They grab people from every point of time and make them their soldiers or assign them as entertainers for the soldiers.
As interesting as this sound, the problem is that the story is narrated by one of the entertainers (something like a call girl) in an outpost, which is located outside the cosmos. The soldiers come to that outpost, to relax, drink, and fuck. The full story is a day inside this outpost, and a conflict that arises. I did not find this main story to be that involving, and I wish they had explored the back story more. A big waste of potential.
3/5
