Big Time

A Novel

De: Ben H. Winters

Narrado por: Eva Kaminsky

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Quiet Boy comes a speculative, corporate espionage thriller that takes the adage "Time is money," and makes it literally, frighteningly so.

What if time could be taken from us—the minutes, the hours, the years of our lives, extracted like organs taken for transplant? What would it mean for the world? And what would it do to the person from whom it’s taken?

Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure. Against orders and against common sense, Grace sets out to bring the girl to safety, and finds herself risking her job, her future, and her life on whether she can find the missing girl before an obsessive and violent mercenary who’s also looking. Big Time is a fast-paced thriller and a metaphysical mystery about the very nature of our lives.

©2024 Ben H. Winters (P)2024 Mulholland Books

interesting premise, good narration

intriguing premise
narration was good
writing style was… unpolished (characters seemed "stiff" - they seemed to be there just to move the story along without actually being present in it)

Really enjoyed this surprise find that was off my radar

Really enjoyed this surprise find that was off my radar.

While some facets were predictable they were in an endearing way, felt like a mix and homage to episodic mysteries the likes of X-Files and Fringe.

Enjoyed the immediate immersion into action, the characters, pacing, and even resolution.

Waaaaay too many F bombs!

I wanted to like this book…I did. The first half was pretty good; however, the gratuitous, thickly flying F words were just overwhelming! And, WHY would you connect them to Jesus Christ? Come on! I had to stop at Chapter 24. I saved my credit for six weeks for this??! Maybe I can help you save yours!

Enjoyable

A thriller with an unlikely hero in a mom of a teen & who also works as a bureaucrat. The characters feel very true despite being kind of cliche. I still really liked them.

Least favorite Winters work - awful narration

I miss the UnderGround Airlines, Golden State, Last Policeman Ben H. Winters so this pales in comparison.
The narration is just over the top. - caricatures . Cartoonish / sitcom like narration that made the character tropes unbearable . The narrator is fine but the approach was a terrible choice . Needed an actual literary producer .

Marvelous narration, story just ok

I love Winters' work, so I am feeling a bit conflicted about saying this but this wasn't one of my faves, it's pretty middle of the pack for me.

A brave new world

Ben Winters delivers again with edge of your seat world building and deep character development.

Liked this one a lot

I've read and/or listened to a lot of Winters' books and they are always compelling. #Speculativefiction: it's our world, but ONE thing is different. In this case, it's a scientist who thinks they can pull pieces of time from one person and inject them into another person (who presumably is dying). It all starts with Grace, an FDA employee of 14 years, a middle-aged, divorced woman with a teenager and an elderly mom she takes care of, who is assigned a project involving a catheter port in a young Jane Doe. The case is dropped, but she keeps going with it, unable to get the woman out of her mind.

Mystery, a victim on the run, identity questions...the book is great, but I give it 4 stars because it took the entire first half of the book to really get into the story. Too much background to start, especially around Grace. It's worth the read; It's just not as great as his "Last Policeman" trilogy which I loved!