The Big Engine

by Fritz Leiber

Have you found out about the Big Engine? It’s all around us, you know—can’t you hear it even now?

Genres: Audiobook, Science Fiction, Short Stories

10 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2016

About the author

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was one of the more interesting of the young writers who came into HP Lovecraft's orbit, and some of his best early short fiction is horror rather than sf or fantasy. He found his mature voice early in the first of the sword-and-sorcery adventures featuring the large sensitive barbarian Fafhrd and the small street-smart-ish Gray Mouser; he returned to this series at various points in his career, using it sometimes for farce and sometimes for gloomy mood pieces--The Swords of Lankhmar is perhaps the best single volume of their adventures. Leiber's science fiction includes the planet-smashing The Wanderer in which a large cast mostly survive flood, fire, and the sexual attentions of feline aliens, and the satirical A Spectre is Haunting Texas in which a gangling, exo-skeleton-clad actor from the Moon leads a revolution and finds his true love. Leiber's late short fiction, and the fine horror novel Our Lady of Darkness, combine autobiographical issues like his struggle with depression and alcoholism with meditations on the emotional content of the fantastic genres. Leiber's capacity for endless self-reinvention and productive self-examination kept him, until his death, one of the most modern of his sf generation.

Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー

Reviews

[Irifev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aha...

[Janelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very dull but thankfully very short monologue about what's wrong with the world.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly I kept falling asleep, must have listened to it 3 times and can’t remember a thing about it. Sorry fritz. LibriVox audio read by Phil chenevert

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read The Big Engine and have no idea what it's about, except someone writing from a paranoid point-of-view. This story is not like anything else I've read of Leiber, and I wondered what prompted him to read it. I'll bet it was commissioned and already paid for, therefore had to be used. Leiber was a recognized name when this came out so any magazine or anthology containing his work was more marketable than not.
Pity.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Big Engine, by Fritz Leiber
If you feel depressed, this will add to it. (1 star)
.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook.

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining.