View source for The Number of the Beast (novel)

{{Short description|1980 novel by Robert A. Heinlein}}
{{Infobox book | 
| name = The Number of the Beast
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Notb80.jpg
| caption = First edition (UK)
| author = [[Robert A. Heinlein]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist = [[Tim White (artist)|Tim White]]
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| genre = Science fiction
| publisher = [[New English Library]] (UK)<br>[[Fawcett Publications|Fawcett]] (US)
| release_date = July 12, 1980
| media_type = Print
| pages =
| isbn = 0-450-04736-9
| oclc= 21020774
| preceded_by =
| followed_by = [[The Cat Who Walks Through Walls]]
}}
'''''The Number of the Beast''''' is a science fiction novel by American  writer [[Robert A. Heinlein]], published in 1980. Excerpts from the novel were serialized in the magazine ''[[Omni (magazine)|Omni]]'' (October–November 1979).

==Plot==
The book is a series of diary entries 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 to [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]] and [[Dejah Thoris]], the protagonists of the [[Barsoom]] novels by [[Edgar 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 car ''Gay Deceiver'' and by activating the ''Deceiver''{{'}}s flying capability, escapes undetected by the authorities or the criminals who put a bomb in the other vehicle.

Zeb flies to [[Elko, 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 the ''Gay Deceiver'', which is equipped with the professor's "continua" device and armed by the [[Australian Defence Force]]. The continua device was built by Professor Burroughs while he was formulating his theories on ''n''-dimensional [[non-Euclidean geometry]]. The geometry of the novel's universe contains six dimensions{{snd}} the three spatial dimensions, known to the real world, and three time dimensions: ''t'', the real world's temporal dimension, ''τ'' ([[Tau|Greek tau]]), and ''т'' ([[Te (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic te]]). The continua device can travel on all six axes. The continua device allows travel into various [[fictional universe]]s, such as the [[Land of Oz]], as well as through time. An attempt to visit Barsoom takes them to an apparently different version of [[Mars]], seemingly under the colonial rule of the [[British Empire|British]] and [[Russian Empire|Russian]] Empires, but near the end of the novel, Heinlein's recurring character [[Lazarus Long]] hints that they had traveled to Barsoom and that its "colonial" status was an illusion imposed on them by the [[telepathy|telepathically]] adept Barsoomians:
{{blockquote|... 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|Potemkin Village]] illusion tailored to your subconscious...}}

===Title===
In the novel, the [[Number of the beast|biblical number of the beast]] turns out to be not [[666 (number)|666]] but <math>(6^6)^6</math> = 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056,<ref>Note: not <math>6^{6^6}</math>, which is a far bigger number, roughly 2.66 × 10^36305.</ref> the initial number of [[parallel universe (fiction)|parallel 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.

==Literary significance and reception==
Jack Kirwan wrote in ''[[National Review]]'' that the novel is "about two men and two women in a time machine safari through this and other universes. But describing ''The Number of the Beast'' thus is like saying ''[[Moby Dick]]'' is about a one-legged guy trying to catch a fish." He went on to state that Heinlein celebrates the "competent person".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kirwan |first=Jack |date=1980-12-12 |title=Books In Brief |journal=National Review |volume=32 |issue=25 |pages=1522–1523 |issn=0028-0038}}</ref>

Sue K. Hurwitz wrote in her review for the ''[[School 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."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hurwitz |first=Sue K. |date=November 1980 |title=The Number of the Beast (Book Review) |journal=School Library Journal |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=93 |issn=0362-8930}}</ref>

Heinlein buff [[Gharlane of Eddore (pen name)|David Potter]] explained on [[alt.* hierarchy|alt]].fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on the [[Heinlein Society]], that the entire book is actually "one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of examples of ''how 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 that ''did'' 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 it ''right'' in the background."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heinleinsociety.org/rah/numberbeast.html|title=Heinlein Society|website=heinleinsociety.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605193817/http://heinleinsociety.org/rah/numberbeast.html|archive-date=2011-06-05|access-date=2022-06-01}}</ref>

[[Greg Costikyan]] reviewed ''The Number of the Beast'' in ''[[Ares (magazine)|Ares Magazine]]'' #5 and commented: "No one writes like Heinlein, and what is a disappointment from him would be a smashing success from anyone else."<ref name="Ares">{{cite journal | last=Costikyan | first=Greg | author-link=Greg Costikyan | title=Books | journal=[[Ares (magazine)|Ares Magazine]] | publisher=[[Simulations Publications, Inc.]] | date=November 1980 | issue=5 | page=10}}</ref>

[[James Nicoll]] has credited it as having taught him that he does not have to finish reading every book he begins.<ref name=James>{{cite web |url=https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/the-man-who-didnt-learn-better |title=The Man Who Didn't Learn Better |last=Nicoll |first=James |author-link=James Nicoll |website=James Nicoll Reviews |date=May 1, 2015 |access-date=2021-03-22}}</ref>

==''The Pursuit of the Pankera''==
{{off topic|date=July 2024}}
In 2020, a previously unpublished manuscript by Heinlein was released as '''''The Pursuit of the Pankera'''''. Using the same premise and characters as ''The Number of the Beast'', the first third of the two novels are the same.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=The Booklist | volume=116 | issue=13 | date=March 1, 2020| page=34 | last=Keogh | first=John | title=The Pursuit of the Pankera | id={{ProQuest|2369759093}}}}</ref> In the remainder of ''The Pursuit of the Pankera'', the characters visit fictional universes, primarily [[Barsoom]],  [[Land of Oz|Oz]], and the world of [[E. E. Doc Smith]]{{'}}s ''[[Lensman]]'' series.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=Whitehorse Star | last=Davidson | first=Dan | date=July 17, 2020 | page=A.28 | title=An alternate take on an alternative realities book | id={{ProQuest|2424714878}}}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{isfdb title|id=1451|title=The Number of the Beast}}
* {{OL work|id=59705W|cname=''The Number of the Beast''}}

{{Heinlein (Novel)}}
{{Barsoom}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Number Of The Beast, The}}
[[Category:Books based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]
[[Category:1980 American novels]]
[[Category:1980 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:American science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Barsoom]]
[[Category:Metafictional novels]]
[[Category:Fiction about flying cars]]
[[Category:Novels by Robert A. Heinlein]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Omni (magazine)]]
[[Category:New English Library books]]