Rating: 
Summary: full of surprises
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: full of surprises
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: time- space continium
Review: 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. The novel is short(about 135 pages) and it is written like a play. There is a war going on between the Spiders and Snakes and they use humans to fight it. So they take all these dead people from different time periods, ressurrect them and send them to war. Why it is fought, for what reasons, the answers are there. But to understand them, people look at themselves and the way the human society is developing. The book is very slow paced, however it is short, so the reader should not have any problems getting through it.
Rating:
Summary: time- space continium
Review: 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. The novel is short(about 135 pages) and it is written like a play. There is a war going on between the Spiders and Snakes and they use humans to fight it. So they take all these dead people from different time periods, ressurrect them and send them to war. Why it is fought, for what reasons, the answers are there. But to understand them, people look at themselves and the way the human society is developing. The book is very slow paced, however it is short, so the reader should not have any problems getting through it.
Rating:
Summary: A Stage in the Middle of the Void
Review: Spiders and Snakes and A-Bombs to bake! Fritz once again proves that he could handle almost any medium, any subject with this wild tale of a time war between these two S&S organizations (and the SS is deliberate). A war that stretches from 100 million years in our past to at least as far in the future - but all the action of this tale takes place in a very confined space known simply as The Place, isolated from the Change Winds that continually blow in from the Void. A Place where time-warriors go for some rest and recuperation from the stresses of fighting and a continually changing past and future, staffed by some rather odd individuals. There's Sid, nominally in charge, a 16th century Englishman, and Greta, who died both in 1929 and in 1955 in Hitler's Greater Chicago. Then there's Maud, everybody's idea of a grandmother, Doc, who normally staggers about in extreme inebriation, and Lilli, nurse and good-time girl from WWI. Now throw in Erich, recruited from Hitler's army, Bruce, an early 20th century Englishman, a octopoid Lunarian from 100 million years ago, a satyr from far in the future, thrown into the Place at the end of their mission, and a couple of Ghost Girls just to liven up the party. Add one A-bomb, courtesy of rescuing a failed attack mission, and a gadget that cuts off the Place from everything - not just normal time, but even Change time and the physical universe. This is the stage setting - and it does read very much like a play (Fritz was no stranger to the theater). And from these materials Leiber constructs a fascinating set characters sharply illuminated by stress, both from the Change War and internally, as the A-bomb is triggered to go off in half an hour. Each of the characters manages to present a different perspective on life, love, war and peace, and the purpose of intelligent entities, a discourse that gets wrapped up in something of a locked room mystery story, and is enfolded by very appropriate quotes from some of the great poets and philosophers of the world. The society of these Change War denizens is sharply evoked as almost a side-discourse to the main story, a society that is rich and complex, and invites comparison to Asimov's The End of Eternity's rather sterile and compartmentalized one. There is more meat packed into the slim bones of this work than many works four times its size manage to enfold. A riveting tale, with suspense, drama, mystery, and an overarching structure that will make you think twice (and then perhaps again): "Familiar with infinite universe sheaths and open-ended postulate systems?" -a Heinlein quote used for the last chapter. Then everything is possible, and everything has already happened. And you are caught in the middle. This book (which clocks in at just about 35,000 words - only a novella under today's standards) won the Hugo Award for best novel of 1958, and it deserved it. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating: 
Summary: "Big" Doesn't Mean A "Good" Time
Review: 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 the curiosities Leiber aroused were never fully addressed. As odd as it sounds, the feeling of the book is very much like the setting in Cabaret - a group of people waiting to see how a war is going work out. Even down to the German phrases that are muttered. Was Leiber a fan of musicals? The concept probably makes this worth the read but its a hard book to get through. The 130 pages seem double their length upon reflection.
Rating:
Summary: "Big" Doesn't Mean A "Good" Time
Review: 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 the curiosities Leiber aroused were never fully addressed. As odd as it sounds, the feeling of the book is very much like the setting in Cabaret - a group of people waiting to see how a war is going work out. Even down to the German phrases that are muttered. Was Leiber a fan of musicals? The concept probably makes this worth the read but its a hard book to get through. The 130 pages seem double their length upon reflection.
Rating: 
Summary: Very dated but contains some thought-provoking ideas
Review: The term, "The Big Time," is slang (in the reality of the eponymous book) for beings that live in 4 dimensions - the three geometrical and time. They can move freely forward and backwards in time. Two factions are vying for control of this universe, and they recruit and send soldiers through time and space to try to change the past to affect the future. Because this is a big war, change is constant, and people living in 4-dimensional reality find memories and realities slipping away and reforming.
If this sounds confusing, the novel isn't really about the Change War, it's about an R&R station supposedly safely out of the front lines. Like all good science fiction, Lieber weaves his universe around the main story, trying not to get bogged down in exposition. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite succeed (probably because the book is so short - only 130 pages!), certainly not as well as Zelazny or Brin, for example. Similarly, many of the ideas seem a little dated - the book is over 50 years old, after all. The other most notable problem is the weakness and general unlikability of the main character - a female entertainer whose job is to show "the boys" a good time when they come in from the front.
However, the book isn't really supposed to be about the story so much as the idea of living in 4-dimensions and the possibilities it invokes, like having a Nazi and a Roman legionaire in the same unit (these are the two best characters in the book). Likewise, the ending is esoteric, but well-crafted and very satisfying. It's a very quick read - but at 130 pages, it's not really worth the price tag for the casual sci fi reader. It did win the Hugo, though, so it's certainly worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: One of those great reads that really pays of at the end.
Review: This book took me completely by surprise. Fritz Leiber kept me consumed in this book by writing some very original dialogue for his characters. For example, Greta Forzane, the lead character and narrator of the story, has such a delightful way of speaking that she kept me riveted throughout the entire book. It is also one of those novels that leads the reader to the most logical conclusion; then gives an even better ending then you could hope for. Fritz Leiber's "The Big Time" will remain one of my all time favorite novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Snakes and Spiders
Review: 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
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