I became a Fritz Leiber fan when I read his classic SF novel, The Big Time (1958). It was awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novelette. The Big Time was published originally in two parts in Galaxy Magazine‘s March and April 1958 issues, illustrated by Virgil Finlay. Then ACE Books published The Big Time and The Mind Spider and Other Stories as ACE Double D-491.
Where The Big Time focuses on “The Change War” where two opposing factions use time travel to wage their conflict, some of Leiber’s short stories in The Mind Spider and Other Stories use elements of the Change War to propel their plots. Probably the most well known of these stories is “The Oldest Soldier” who shows how deadly the Change War can be. I enjoyed the mystery solving aspects of “The Number of the Beast” where a human policeman must solve a case involving alien telepaths. “Midnight in the Mirror World” is not a Change War story, but it has a haunting puzzle dealing with a mysterious Mirror World. I enjoy Fritz Leiber’s SF and fantasy novels, but he’s also adept at writing entertaining short stories. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- x • Foreword (The Mind Spider and Other Stories) • (1961) • essay by Fritz Leiber
- 1 • The Haunted Future • [Change War] • (1959) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
- 55 • Damnation Morning • [Change War] • (1959) • short story by Fritz Leiber
- 72 • The Oldest Soldier • [Change War] • (1960) • short story by Fritz Leiber
- 95 • Midnight in the Mirror World • (1964) • short story by Fritz Leiber
- 116 • The Number of the Beast • [Change War] • (1958) • short story by Fritz Leiber
- 129 • The Mind Spider • [Change War] • (1959) • short story by Fritz Leiber
I don’t know this one, but I have three other Leiber collections and have read one of them so far. I like his writing.
Jeff, Fritz Leiber is an underrated writer. He was adept at both short stories and novels. Leiber is best known for his popular Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series of swords and sorcery. I love his 1964 novel, THE WANDERER.
I’m a big fan of Leiber although I don’t care much for The Big Time. My favorite stories by Leiber are his Fafhrd and Gray Mouser ones.
Steve, some of the stories in “The Change War” series are grim. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, both funny and moving, show off Leiber’s talents.
And there’s no lack of grim in the F&GM stories, too, such as, most obviously, the memorialization of his wife in “Ill Met in Lankhmar”
Todd, you’re right about a certain grimness in Leiber’s work…even the more humorous work has a Dark Side.
As the official Hugos site has it, the 1959 WorldCon got kute with the categories, and the novella won a combined category: “Best Novel or Novelette: The Big time by Fritz Leiber [Galaxy, Mar, Apr 1958]”
Leiber is one of the core creators of modern horror, fantasy and sf…if you haven’t read his work, you don’t know the fields. Full stop, end of discussion. A bit like not knowing the work of Tolkien, John Collier and Hal Clement and claiming expertise in the fields. Or being ignorant of Wells and Poe and Lewis Carroll.
With that, some of his work is more key than other work, and THE MIND SPIDER AND OHER STORIES is mostly his upper-middle-range work…unlike THE BIG TIME, not quite in his top rank. His worst was never as embarrassing as Heinlein’s, nor Stephen King’s, but there is much that is less dazzling and game-changing than his best. B+ definitely seems fair.
Todd, as a kid I got wrapped up in “The Change War” stories. Other SF writers like Paul Anderson expanded on Leiber’s idea of endless conflict throughout the Timeline. It may not be his best work, but THE BIG TIME was a big hit for me as a 12-year-old!
THE BIG TIME is excellent work. Some of the CW stories in the collection are indeed B+ work. Even technically, that THE BIG TIME is a play in prose (in no blatant way) is a virtuoso move, along with the other challenges and innovations in the story. I would argue that his best sf novel of the ’60s is A SPECTER IS HAUNTING TEXAS, however…
Todd, I need to reread A SPECTER IS HAUNTING TEXAS.
Poul Anderson did like his Time Cops, indeed!
Todd, I transitioned from Leiber’s “The Change War” to Paul Anderson’s Time Cops and loved reading both series!
(As opposed To THE WANDERER, for Leiber ’60s sf novels.)
Todd, the 15-year-old me fell in love with THE WANDERER. I read it several times before the Sixties ended…and I need to reread it again.
George, I have only read one story by Leiber, “They Never Come Back”, and I enjoyed it very much. I have THE BIG TIME in the Library of America boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s. But haven’t read it yet.
Tracy, THE BIG TIME is short and reading it made me want to read Leiber’s other stories in his “The Change War” series.
Much worse places to start, Tracy. I’ll go as far as to suggest that THE BIG TIME and A SPECTER IS HAUNTING TEXAS are Leiber’s best sf novels, but his horror novels CONJURE WIFE, YOU’RE ALL ALONE (also published as THE SINFUL ONES, in the 1980 edition with some rewrites of the first edition book publisher’s fiddling around with Leiber’s text) and OUR LADY OF DARKNESS (in shorter form as THE PALE BROWN THING as serialized in F&SF) are better yet.
I’m also a big fan of Fritz Leiber, found a few of his novels in German in the 1960s and later of course bought all the English originals.
Wolf, one of my favorite Leiber collections is NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS. Brilliant!
The day I first encountered Leiber in the Sixties was that day that I realized there were grown-ups in the room — it was as memorable as the times I first discovered Avram Davidson or R. A. Lafferty.
Why is it that the current Hollywood writers’ strike brings back memories of THE SILVER EGGHEADS?
Chat GPT did that by itself…and, in fact, has rewritten that story multiple times of late! (though I’d suggest TSE is not the Leiber novel to start with, either…)
Jerry, although R. A. Lafferty’s stories are uneven, when he’s at the top of his game, he’s a unique and wonderful writer.
I’ve only read a smattering of Leiber, all of it horror: the novels “Conjure Wife” and “Our Lady of Darkness” along with the stories ‘The Girl With the Hungry Eyes’ and ‘Smoke Ghost.’ I thought all were solid snd the stories were especially strong. My impression is Leiber may well deserve the “father of modern horror” label people usually bestow on Matheson and King but that his genre hopping might have muffied the water too much.
I keep meaning to get around to more of the horror stuff but have always been gun-shy about the science fiction and fantasy. You’ve nudged me a little closer though.
Leiber, Robert Bloch, Daphne du Maurier, H. Russell Wakefield, Theodore Sturgeon, John Collier, William Sloane and others of their generation taught Matheson, and they and Matheson’s generation taught King. No one who ignores Leiber’s contribution to what horror has become knows what they are talking about.
Another writer I certainly should have read by now. Todd must have mentioned him a thousand times over the years of this blog. Shame on me.
Patti, so many books, so little time!