The Number of the Beast (novel)
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 First paperback edition cover |
|
| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Richard M. Powers |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Fawcett |
| Released | July 12, 1980 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-449-13070-3 |
| Followed by | The Cat Who Walks Through Walls |
The Number of the Beast is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1980. The first (paperback) edition featured a cover and interior illustrations by Richard M. Powers. Excerpts from the novel were serialised in Omni (October, November 1979).
The book is a series of diary entries by each of the four main characters, Captain Zebadiah John Carter, programmer Dejah Thoris Burroughs (Deety) and her math professor father Jacob Burroughs, and an off-campus socialite Hilda Corners. Zeb and Deety's names are overt homages to John Carter and Dejah Thoris, the main protagonists of the Barsoom or Martian novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The odd foursome dash off in Gay Deceiver, Zeb's sports car spaceship, outfitted with the professor's continua device, into various fictional universes. There is plenty of sex, rivalry, and even a trip to Oz. An attempt to visit Barsoom, curiously, takes the quartet to a different version of Mars, seemingly under the colonial rule of the British Empire. However, near the end of the novel, it is obliquely hinted by Lazarus Long that they had in fact been to Barsoom, the "colonial Mars" being an illusion imposed on them by the telepathically adept Barsoomians:
- "... E.R.B.'s universe is no harder to reach than any other and Mars is in its usual orbit. But that does not mean that you will find Jolly Green Giants and gorgeous red princesses dressed only in jewels. Unless invited, you are likely to find a Potemkin Village illusion tailored to your subconscious...."
In the novel, the biblical number of the beast turns out to be, not 666, but 
, or 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056, which is the number of parallel universes accessible to the protagonists.
The novel lies somewhere between parody and homage in its deliberate use of the style of the 1930s' pulp novels. Many of the plot lines and characters are derived directly from the pulps, as referenced by the first line of the novel:
"He's a Mad Scientist and I'm his Beautiful Daughter." —Deety
The Number of the Beast contains many in-jokes and references. For instance, the name of every villain is an anagram of a name or pen name of Robert or Virginia Heinlein.
In this book Heinlein introduced the concept called "pantheistic solipsism" or "world-as-myth" — the theory that universes are created by the act of imagining them, so that somewhere even fictional worlds (Oz is one of the examples Heinlein uses) are real.
Near the end, this book is connected to Time Enough for Love, and through it to several others of Heinlein's later works. Many characters from earlier Heinlein works make an appearance.
[edit] External link
- The Number of the Beast publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
