Quote:
Originally Posted by alexxxm
... or, what about (after removing a lot of dust from it) "The Big Time" by Fritz Leiber?
A great (Hugo 1958) novel placed in a night club out of time, for tired time travelers
alessandro
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Well, for more than tired time travellers.
The Big Time is set against the background of the Change War, as the Snakes and the Spiders, two far future civilizations, attempt to change the past to make things come out as they prefer. The nightclub is a rest stop for agents of the Spiders between missions. We never really see Snakes or Spiders, and see things only from the view of the Spider's agents, who aren't always entirely certain what they are doing or why. I think that's intentional: how many grunts on the line ever have a clear appreciation of the causes or stakes of the war they are fighting, or the part they are playing in it? That comes after, if at all, assuming they survive.
For another take on the topic, see J. R. Dunn's _Days of Cain_. Monitor Gaspar is a present time agent of the Moiety, a
very far future civilization. Gaspar's job is to monitor the time line and prevent attempts to change history. His job is complicated when he is assigned to stop a rogue female Moiety agent. The agent has decided that since the capability to change history exists, the Moiety should endeavor to do so, to retroactively prevent various great atrocities.
She has decided the tipping point is the Holocaust, and plans, with the help of recruited followers and forbidden future weapons, to deal a decisive crippling blow to Nazi Germany well before the end would normally happen. Gaspar's mission is complicated by his developing feelings for her, and after seeing first hand the horrors done by the Nazis, a suspicion that she is right in her thesis that the Moiety is immoral for
not intervening.
At the end, we discover more about the Moiety, and
why they wish to see history unchanged, atrocities and all. The reasons are far greater than a simple "don't change what led to
us", but don't please Gaspar, and may not please you.
______
Dennis