The Big Time

This is a fascinating book. First off, it's one of the first to include the concept of a Time War - and fans of more recent fictional renderings would do well to check it out; it's a pretty solid piece of science fiction.

Second, it's very much unlike most of what was being published at the time. Rather than focusing on the details of huge, clanking ideas to the detriment of character and the fossilization of plot, it uses the big ideas as a way to set up a very specific situation and let the characters loose in it to express themselves. It actually reminds me a lot of a stage play, and I'd love to see it staged.

There are some problems. The approach to gender is pretty 1958, though a Cretan warrior woman whose gender is never made A Thing helps. There's an eventual message that's a lot more cut-and-dry than the rest of the story, but then, that's just one character's viewpoint. Overall, a good addition to the body of thought about war and about time travel.