Fritz Leiber 1 hr 10 min read

The troupers of the Big Time lack no art to sway a crowd, or to change all history. Backstage, a stagehand puzzles over whether tonight's play is 'Macbeth' or 'Elizabeth the Queen.'

Fritz Leiber's 1963 story, set in his Change War universe, is a dazzling time-travel tale of actors who alter the past. Rich, layered, superbly written. Read it for a masterful story where a theatrical troupe's performances are, quite literally, battles across time.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 10 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Norman Nodel