I've given it a fair shake, but this book has nothing appealing to me. Dreadful dialogue, no redeeming characters, and no real plot even at 30% in. Just total dogshit.

An decent mystery, a well written main character, and a neat setting. I can definitely see why this won a Hugo.

I have a feeling that I might be judging these early Hugo Award winning books a little harshly with my modern eyes and my modern take on Science Fiction. Yet I can see where this book was going. There are some really great ideas but the overall finished product is a slight shoulder shrug. I'm glad that I read it for a historical scense of Science Fiction but I will gladly leave this book in the 50s.

This was weird, but okay. It reminded me a bit of that Twilight Zone episode where they’re all stuck in the toy box or whatever. Not much of a plot, but there was some philosophizing sprinkled in. I liked Greta’s character and internal monologue, but the whole thing felt kinda rushed or somehow lacking. Kinda surprising this one a Hugo, but I was sufficiently entertained and did finish it, so I guess it wasn’t too bad.

I spent most of this book having to snap my head and ask "What am I reading?"

1958 Hugo Award winner - Best Novel or Novelette

First published in two parts, Galaxy Science Fiction, March-April 1958. The Hugo rules were still being formulated, so not only is the category a bit weird but the award is for a book published in the same year as the award. The Hugo administrators that year didn't list other potential candidates, they just gave it to this book, apparently without voting from Worldcon members.

This is a very short book, little more than a novella. The background is a "Change War" wherein soldiers nicknamed the Spiders and the Snakes fight to change history over millenniums. The setting for the book is a Recuperation Station where soldiers recover from battles. The main character is a young woman named Greta who provides aid and comfort to the soldiers, but there are a number of other significant characters from various points in history as well as an eight-tentacled Lunan. Although Leiber tries to differentiate all of these characters, I found them pretty much interchangeable and not terribly interesting.

There are a few oblique references to the battles being waged, but the main plot involves the discovery of a time bomb in the station. Was it placed there by a saboteur? What will happen if it goes off? There is a lot of talk and not a lot of action, and then a couple of the characters just agree to trust each other and defuse the bomb.

I will admit that my attention span on the book may have been affected by the distractions of the COVID pandemic and U.S. Presidential election.

Talking talking talking. Meh.

I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I expected to.