The Big Time

Ultimately, a disappointment. Somewhere in here was a cool idea but the execution just fell flat for me - even allowing for the era in which it was written. Keeping that era in mind usually gives me the ability to forgive the weirdly condescending attitude toward women and the strangely arrogant nature of several character depictions. But this book was just too disjointed in delivery. Most of the glib pseudo-hippie jingo-lingo felt just plain forced and the time-travel alternate reality stuff seemed a coat of semi-shiny paint on an otherwise rickety closed-room mystery tale. The fact that most of the first-person narrative was delivered as private thoughts instead of conversation/interaction with other characters also didn't help. In short, the whole thing was more of a mess than I had expected from a hugo-winning novel. Unfortunately, the best thing I can say for this book is that it is short.