 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tim White |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | New English Library (UK) Fawcett (US) |
Publication date | July 12, 1980 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 0-450-04736-9 |
| OCLC | 21020774 |
| Followed by | The Cat Who Walks Through Walls |
The Number of the Beast is a science fiction novel by American writerRobert A. Heinlein, published in 1980. Excerpts from the novel were serialized in the magazineOmni (October–November 1979).
The book is a series of multiple perspective narratives primarily by each of the four main characters: Zebadiah "Zeb" John Carter, programmer Dejah Thoris "Deety" Burroughs Carter, her mathematics professor father Jacob Burroughs, and off-campus socialite Hilda Corners. The names "Dejah Thoris", "Burroughs", and "Carter" are overt references toJohn Carter andDejah Thoris, the protagonists of theBarsoom novels byEdgar Rice Burroughs.
In the opening, Deety is dancing with Zeb at a party at Hilda's mansion. Deety is trying to get Zeb to meet her father to discuss what she thinks is an article Zeb wrote about n-dimensional space, even going so far as to offer herself. Zeb figures out and explains to Deety that he is not the one who wrote the article but a relative with a similar name.
After dancing a very intimate tango, Zeb jokingly suggests the dance was so strong they should get married, and Deety agrees. Zeb is taken aback but then accepts. As they are leaving, Deety and Zeb rescue Jacob from a heated argument he is having with another faculty member before a fight breaks out. As they are approaching their vehicles, Hilda comes out, deciding to tag along. Zeb, having a premonition, grabs the three of them and ducks behind another vehicle before Jacob and Deety's vehicle explodes. Zeb gets everyone into his modified air carGay Deceiver and by activating theDeceiver's flying capability, escapes undetected by the authorities or the criminals who put a bomb in the other vehicle.
Zeb flies toElko, Nevada, the state being the only one to allow people to get married 24 hours a day with no waiting period or blood test. The incidents have so traumatized Jacob that he has agreed to marry Hilda and so they have a double ceremony. The couples then go to Jacob's hidden cabin in the woods, where they have their honeymoons.
Thus begins the series of adventures that the four embark upon as they travel in theGay Deceiver, which is equipped with the professor's "continua" device and armed by theAustralian Defence Force. The continua device was built by Professor Burroughs while he was formulating his theories onn-dimensionalnon-Euclidean geometry. The geometry of the novel's universe contains six dimensions – the three spatial dimensions, known to the real world, and three time dimensions:t, the real world's temporal dimension,τ (Greek tau), andт (Cyrillic te). The continua device can travel on all six axes. The continua device allows travel into variousfictional universes, such as theLand of Oz, as well as through time.
An attempt by the four adventurers to visit Barsoom takes them to an apparently different version ofMars: theGreat Game (replete withornithopters) was being played out between theRussian Empire and theVictorian eraBritish Empire in an early example of theSteampunk genre.
Near the end of the novel, however, Heinlein's recurring characterLazarus Long hints that the four had travelled to Barsoom and that Russo-British imperial contest which they witnessed was an illusion imposed on them by thetelepathically 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 aPotemkin Village illusion tailored to your subconscious...
In the novel, thebiblical number of the beast turns out to be not666 but = 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056,[1] the initial number ofparallel universes accessible through the continua device. It is later theorized by the character Jacob that the number may be merely the instantly accessible universes from a given location and that there is a larger structure that implies an infinite number of universes.
Jack Kirwan wrote inNational Review that the novel is "about two men and two women in a time machine safari through this and other universes. But describingThe Number of the Beast thus is like sayingMoby Dick is about a one-legged guy trying to catch a fish." He went on to state that Heinlein celebrates the "competent person".[2]
Sue K. Hurwitz wrote in her review for theSchool Library Journal that it is "a catalog of Heinlein's sins as an author; it is sophomoric, sexist, militantly right wing, and excessively verbose" and commentary that the book's ending was "a devastating parody of SF conventions—will have genre addicts rolling on the floor. It's garbage, but right from the top of the heap."[3]
Heinlein buffDavid Potter explained onalt.fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on theHeinlein Society, that the entire book is actually "one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of examples ofhow not to do it right there in the foreground, and constant explanations of how to do it right, with literary references to people and books thatdid do it right, in the background." He noted that "every single time there's a boring lecture or tedious character interaction going on in the foreground, there's an example of how to do itright in the background."[4]
Greg Costikyan reviewedThe Number of the Beast inAres Magazine #5 and commented: "No one writes like Heinlein, and what is a disappointment from him would be a smashing success from anyone else."[5]
James Nicoll has credited it as having taught him that he does not have to finish reading every book he begins.[6]
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In 2020, a previously unpublished manuscript by Heinlein was released asThe Pursuit of the Pankera. Using the same premise and characters asThe Number of the Beast, the first third of the two novels are the same.[7] In the remainder ofThe Pursuit of the Pankera, the characters visit fictional universes, primarilyBarsoom,Oz, and the world ofE. E. Doc Smith'sLensman series.[8]