Reader discussion: The Big Time

Public reader discussion about The Big Time in the WeRead Catalog by Fritz Leiber.

In the gap between the publishing of Two Towers and Return of the King, did anyone ever invent their own conclusion to the trilogy?

By hollowFrog199107

I was reading another blog earlier and it mentioned a D&D module called *Temple of Elemental Evil*. Apparently it was the follow-up to *The Village of Hommlet*, and *Temple* even has *Hommlet* folded into it. Some people in the comments were saying that since they’ve had *Hommlet* for ages but not *Temple*, they basically just built their own version of *Temple*. It also got me thinking about Tolkien timing, though. If I’ve got it right, it was something like ten years after *Two Towers* before *Return of the King* actually came out—so there was that long stretch with the trilogy not “finished” yet. And in the 50s, when stuff like that felt way more creative somehow… did any fans ever write and hand out their own “third book” during the wait? Has anyone run into examples of that happening? Even if it obviously wouldn’t have been approved by the Tolkien Estate, I’m still wondering if anything survived. I’d honestly love to see what people thought the last book would be like.

Books where time travel is a part of daily life?

By field_simple

The title pretty much says it, but I’ve been curious—are there any books where time travel is just something people deal with day to day in society? Like not a rare event, but actually normal. I’m not sure how the author would handle it, but it sounds like it could create a lot of weird implications. Thanks!

Something like the Murderbot Diaries?

By quantumFish2003

I just found the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and I’m kind of obsessed now. I’m really enjoying her dry humor and the way the future stuff feels oddly believable. Does anyone have recommendations for another series (or a standalone) with a similar vibe? I also loved Project Hail Mary, The Martian, and Children of Time. Any suggestions would be awesome—thanks!

Recommend a good time travel story for me!

By MidnightEclipse7

I’m kind of a sucker for time travel stuff. I usually enjoy the ones where the main characters get accidentally yanked into the past and then have to rely on whatever they remember from the future to make it through. Some I’ve read and liked: *Island in the Sea of Time*, *1632*, and *Destiny’s Crucible* (sort of lol).

Should I continue reading the Riverworld series after To your Scattered Bodies Go?

By Round

Just wrapped up the first Riverworld book, and I’ve been going through all the Hugo winners. Honestly, this one doesn’t feel like something I’d point anyone to, especially not compared to The Wanderer, which I still think is the worst Hugo winner so far. Scattered Bodies has some pretty strange priorities and weird obsession-y stuff (like the writer really hammering on everyone being circumsized), but I can usually put up with a lot of nonsense if the plot is clearly headed somewhere. The problem is the last bit—there’s a cliffhanger and you never actually get the point of what happened in the book. Now I’m stuck wondering if I should bother with the other four. Do they improve, and do they finally explain the whole mystery, or should I just look it up on Wikipedia and move on to the other Hugo winners?

Time Travel with a Fixed Timeline?

By hidden_duck

Hey everyone, Can anyone suggest some good time travel stories? I’m looking for two kinds: ones with a fixed timeline where you can’t change anything, and ones where changing things is possible but kind of a nightmare because the timeline fights back and tries to keep everything on schedule. I’ve got an idea for a story, but I’m worried it might get dull if we already know the past is locked in and nothing matters. I’d love to see how other writers keep it interesting in those setups. I’m also hoping for inspiration on the mechanics of it—like the whole “leave stuff for yourself ahead of time” angle (that Bill and Ted vibe). Mostly books, but if there are any great movies too, I’d take those as well. Thanks!

"Ill Met in Lankhmar," by Fritz Leiber

By poemGolden7526

I’m kind of an old curmudgeon who spent the late 70s/80s reading a lot of classic fantasy, but somehow I never got around to Fritz Leiber until recently. I know people like Gary Gygax (and maybe others at TSR) took cues from Leiber, yet I just didn’t read his stuff back then. So I’m reading SWORDS AND DEVILTRY and I keep seeing reviews where folks act like Leiber “can’t write.” And I’m like… okay, sure, maybe tastes have changed. We’re used to super cinematic narration now. But Leiber’s got that third-person omniscient thing going on, with these long sentences that kind of keep tumbling along. It’s not exactly what’s in fashion. What surprised me more than anything is how much I’m enjoying it. I’m genuinely jealous of his sense of wit and how sharp he is about people. I love how Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser trade lines back and forth, and the kinda fussy, old-timey dialogue makes me laugh way more than I expected. It’s got this droll little charm to it. A couple moments I liked: - When they’re talking about nicknaming their weapons and it goes back and forth—so petty and so funny. - The whole “jugs” bit where Fafhrd explains what he’s been hiding and the Mouser basically compliments him for it. - Vlana’s dead-on sympathetic comment about how men just have to wander off sometimes, even if it’s dumb. Anyway, I’ve got questions: - What do people here think of Leiber, or specifically Fafhrd and the Mouser? - Are there other fantasy authors whose style just makes you stop and go “wow”? - And are there any writers who aren’t the easiest to get through, but you still think the work is worth the effort?

I read all Hugo Award winners from 1953 - here are my best, worst and themes

By CafeSleepy90

For the last few years I’ve been working my way through every Hugo Award winner (skipping the retro stuff, so roughly starting in 1953). I figured I’d throw in a few of my standouts—both good and bad—since people always end up doing rankings or doing a review of each book anyway. **My favourites (mostly in line with what everyone says):** - **2005 Johnathan Strange and Mr Norell** – huge, but honestly it’s just so well done. Great characters too, and yeah, it really gets recommended for a reason. - **1985 Neuromancer** – I know people say this a lot, but it genuinely feels like it helped shape cyberpunk. Also it’s wild that it was written when “the internet” was basically still in the future, and it still nails the vibe of hacking and all that. - **1966 Dune** – pretty much required reading. I even read the series after, and while *God Emperor of Dune* is completely unhinged, I still liked it more than I expected. - **1978 Gateway** – fun characters and not your usual space exploration story. Some nice twists in there. - **1990 Hyperion** – so many people recommend this and I get why. The whole thing is like short stories stitched together, and I ended up finishing the rest of the series too (which I’d also recommend). **Surprisingly good:** - **1953 The Demolished Man** – short and really strong. I hadn’t really seen anyone talk about it before, so going in blind helped. - **1961 A Canticle for Leibowitz** – I’m not religious at all, but I still enjoyed how dry/casual it is about religion and how it might evolve over time. - **1989 Cyteen** – I liked the world and characters a lot, and the plot was good too. I didn’t love *The Downbelow Station* as much, but it was still fine. **Best concepts:** - **1976 The Forever War** – I liked the more realistic “what would war in space be like” angle, not just the usual jump drive handwaving. - **2000 The Deepness in the Sky / A Fire in the Deep** – the universe stuff is completely bonkers, but somehow once you realise the author’s background it clicks more. **Themes I noticed (maybe it’s just me):** It feels like the winners line up with whatever was going on in the world around then. Like: - early on it’s more about imagining new tech, and then later it becomes more “okay, what would life look like with this tech?” - some of the conflicts mirrored real-world stuff like the Cold War/Vietnam era - cloning shows up more once it becomes a bigger real debate - and more recently there’s more about environmental collapse/climate change Obviously there are exceptions, but that pattern really stood out over the 70+ years. Also, I’ve noticed a pretty clear change after **2010** where the main characters become a lot more often women. Before then, women barely show up unless it’s as a quick love interest. **One random shout-out:** **Stand on Zanzibar** by John Brunner—loved the “two rich-ish people still can’t afford rent alone” idea because the city’s overcrowded. It’s such a weirdly specific version of messed-up reality, and it worked for me. **Best decade for me:** probably the **1980s**. I didn’t list them all above, but **Fountains of Paradise, The Snow Queen, Foundations Edge, Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead,** and **The Uplift War** are all really solid from that era. **Least favourites:** - **1958 The Big Time** – I saw somewhere it might have started as a play, which maybe explains the vibe, but I still didn’t enjoy it. - **Anything by Connie Willis** (and she won 3, somehow?) – I found her time travel stuff too detailed and I don’t really like her writing style in general. So yeah… not for me. - **Mars Trilogy** – I’m aware it’s “hard sci-fi,” but the detail was just too much for me. I don’t need to know about 50 kinds of lichen on a Mars that’s been terraformed. - **1963 The Man in the High Castle** – felt overrated to me. **What I’m planning to read next:** - more **Murderbot Diaries** (easy, fun, good holiday reads) - **Count Zero** as a follow-up to **Neuromancer** (which I loved) - **The Culture** books - **Old Man’s War** - more **Riverworld** to see where it goes (liked the first one) - maybe the **Nebula** winners after that…

Looking for a book about a time police

By fox_sky51

I wasn’t super into the way the TVA was handled in the Loki show. It didn’t really feel like the time-policing thing I had in my head. Do you know any good sci-fi where there’s some group formed to police space-time and deal with time travelers before they mess up reality for good? And the whole motivation is kind of personal too—like someone doing it to save their wife or because they want to prevent something huge like baby Hitler. Ideally, I’d like a story where the main character is a time traveler running from the time police, but I’d also take something that follows an enforcer instead.

What are your favourite sci-fi books that are in the public domain?

By coupletAmber

I’m mostly staying with 20th century sci-fi, and I’m not really putting them in any order: The Tunnel Under the World (Frederik Pohl) Pariah Planet (Murray Leinster) Black Amazon of Mars (Leigh Brackett) Crashing Suns (Edmond Hamilton) Storm Over Warlock (Andre Norton) The Status Civilization (Robert Sheckley) Black Man's Burden (Mack Reynolds) The Jewels of Aptor (Samuel R. Delany) Second Variety (Philip K. Dick) The Big Time (Fritz Leiber) …and yeah, there are a bunch more I can’t even list.

Any other authors who write in a similar way to Fritz Leiber?

By Gray_Tower

This feels really close to the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser vibe. I’m pretty sure it’s sword-and-sorcery, or at least right next to it, and I’m looking for that same kind of grim, dark humor too. Any good recommendations?

A novel where they mess up the space time continuum and don't fix it.

By looseHeron2969

Looks like /r/Books is the place to check out. This sub is basically for finding new books from other people’s suggestions. A few helpful things I saw: - weekly appreciation threads - book recs for beginners, veterans, and experts - what to read after Harry Potter - books like Game of Thrones - picks based on two books you liked - best books of 2019 - “most incredible fiction ever written” - what every library is missing There are also related book subs like /r/Books, /r/LetsReadABook, /r/ReadingUniversity, /r/ReadingSuggestions, /r/52book, /r/readalong, /r/52in52, /r/RateBooks, /r/shortstoryaday, and /r/10PagesaDay. For posting, spoilers need to be tagged like ! Spoilers ! <, and that turns into something like Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father. Things that aren’t allowed are posts that aren’t actually asking for book suggestions, stuff not really connected to books, DAE/TIL/ELI5/PSA/(SERIOUS)/CMV titles, petitions or surveys or crowdfunders, mobile links or link shorteners or Facebook links, spam/blogspam, affiliate links, piracy stuff, reposts, and self-promo for your own writing. Comments also can’t be low-effort, just an image, memes/jokes/circlejerk/spam, trolling or insults, link shorteners/Facebook links, social media/blog links, affiliate links, unmarked NSFW, piracy, or blatant self promo. They say they can moderate however they want, and if something gets caught by the spam filter or you have questions, you can message the mods.

Recommended collection of short fiction by Fritz Leiber?

By thunderswithen

Hey y’all, hi! So I just wrapped up Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser saga after about a year, and I’ve gotta say it’s been consistently awesome for the most part. The only thing that really bugged me was the last couple stories, where it felt like he was getting senile and also… kind of pervy at the same time. Anyway, now I’m hunting for some juicy collections of his standalone short fiction. But I’m running into a mess with what’s out there—looks like Open Road Media has a lot of it digitally, and their Fafhrd & Mouser book was pricey and put together really badly. Then Wildside Press stuff is cheaper, but it kind of looks a little too “cut-rate” to me. And on top of that, it feels like both publishers are just throwing together random short stories as they go, instead of reprinting the collections Leiber actually put together himself. So I’m wondering: what’s a good Leiber ebook collection that’s decent quality, not super expensive, and actually organized with a real theme? If there isn’t one, what paper collections would you recommend—either currently available or older/vintage? Thanks!

Recommend me some SciFi books that aren't space Opera, First contact, Cyberpunk Books

By weather-eagle5

I’ve read a fair amount across the three sub-genres I mentioned earlier, but I’m still craving some super vivid, imaginative sci-fi. Honestly I’m down for pretty much anything—so hit me with the rogue robots, lost space ships, AI with its own personality, weird worlds, time travel, all that kind of stuff. And yeah, I’d especially love something bold like the *Ancillary Justice* books. I’ve already checked out a lot of the classics too (Philip K. Dick, Michael C. Clarke, Dan Simmons, etc.), so I’m curious what else is out there. Edit: Thanks for the recs! Everything you guys suggested sounds great, so I probably won’t need more books for a while.

Looking for recommendations on books with time travel as main plot ..

By goldTiger

You can pick basically anything you want. As long as you liked it.

Which authors have short story collections comparable to those of Ted Chiang?

By prose-pages

I liked it for the strong stories, the variety in themes, and overall decent writing.

suggest a book to someone who has lost all hope in the world, please

By Soft_Fish

I guess that means… it’s talking about me?

Fantasy book classic writers - who is your favorite and what book would you read first by them? Any new writers that are breaking new ground?

By folio-needle

I’ve been into fantasy since the 70s. I feel like the first stuff I read that really got me was The Sword of Shannara and I think Lord of the Rings too—I was instantly hooked. I’ve picked up some other “classic” authors and books along the way, but not as much as I’d like. I’d love to know what everyone’s top favorites are, and what specific book feels like the one that perfectly matches that author. I’m also curious about more recent writers who are actually doing something different, and any good suggestions for getting back into reading more.

Time travel warfare recommendations

By followsForest60

Does anyone have any book recs where there’s some kind of war—doesn’t matter if it’s hot or cold—going on between factions that can time travel? I’m kinda looking for the same vibe as the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise, where the groups are based in different time periods.