THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST by Robert A. Heinlein

[John Thiel]

I've just commenced reading this one, and from the outset I'd call it a book others should read if they missed it. Published in 1980, it has a very current interest value. (1980 had some real sf events--this book, BATTLESTAR 1980..) It seems to me this book has not received the acclaim and readership it deserved.

The opening sounds like people at the forums discussing themselves, their life and hard times, a mode which is creeping into a lot of magazine sf, but Heinlein's book precedes sf forums and may have had an influence on the forums as well as on the writing appearing in magazines these days.

Some of his later work seemed to have lost touch with the early work that made his writing so effective, in favor of experimenting with various approaches to reader appeal. This seems the same way at the outset, but as one reads the style and approach that has always made his work A-1 sf comes through--regardless of whether you like the characters or their situation or not, you want to see what they'll say and do next--and the writing comes simply and directly to the story line so that there is no doubt about what he is relating. Therefore the book is very readable, and the subject matter is of lasting interest.

[The Griot]

Sorry, I don't agree with you on this one. I liked his earlier works better. It's been a while since I read it but I remember being annoyed by the characters. Someone just happened to be an expert on every situation they ran into. I'm a hard scifi fan but I just couldn't get past the characters. Maybe I'll give it another try since I never completed it.

[John Thiel]

I think Heinlein is notable for having annoying characters always squabbling about something and using the lowest language in doing so. One just has to not expect them to be very nice and take them as they are to get on with the story.

The second chapter speaks of the Apocalypse, though it seems upon opening it that this is not directly its plot. However, the characters all act like people would be acting at the end of the world. In the case of Heinlein's characters, this is being ultimately annoying about ultimate things. For instance, the second chapter is full of wise cracks, rapid fire, one after the other.

[The Griot]

I enjoyed Starship Trooper and Starman Jones. I just didn't like this one. As a matter of fact I didn't read another Heinlein book after that.

[John Thiel]

My belief is that a lot of people stopped reading Heinlein with STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. He was just diverging too much from what he had been doing.

I think, though, that that's not so with this one. Here he keeps his standard for fast action, ultra-violence, suspense and a rapid writing pace. In fact it's almost too rapid, but I suppose that has a lot to do with his subject matter. It starts in the middle of some ultimate action and lets the reader take in where the characters are from flying details. And, too, Heinlein has always thought there was some pretty bad stuiff in the world. That's found here in plenty from the very outset, with almost an encyclopedia listing of dangers and bad things in life going past the reader at supersonic speed.

[The Griot]

Maybe I'll try it again after I finish The Wind Up Girl.

[John Thiel]

Anyone else have anything to say about this book? I notice there are 76 views.

[Greybeard]

Bear in mind that I haven't read The Number of the Beast since the early '80s, so this is based on dim recollections from my late teens.

I had a blast with the book, especially the rapid-fire conversations among four disparate and mule-headed people. That may be in part because it was the first new Heinlein in some years, and I thought I'd exhausted his output by then (I started with Between Planets at fourteen, and read all of his adult novels in about two years). It may have been the first newly released novel I'd ever read. Certainly it was the first trade paperback I remember except for school.

The story is much weaker than, for exampe, Friday, which was only a year or two later, but each scene was entertaining on its own, enough that I did enjoy it while reading it.

OTOH, it's one of the very few RAH novels that I've never reread.

[ScrewMoonshine]

My belief is that a lot of people stopped reading Heinlein with STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. He was just diverging too much from what he had been doing.

Yeah, I in fact both started and stopped reading Heinlein with Stranger in a Strange Land. As mentioned, the characters were annoying and flat, and I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. Maybe someday I'll try out one of his other works, but for now I don't have much motivation to pursue the works of an author who left me with such an unfavorable first impression.

Robert Orme

[John Thiel]

Heinlein used to be called "The Dean of Science Fiction Writers" and then a "Grand Master". It doesn't mean everyone will like him, but he has had critical acclaim. Anyway, I would suggest The Number of the Beast as a re-start in approaching Heinlein if you want characters that would not be describable as "flat".

[John Thiel]

Well, I'm to page 60 of THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST, and if anyone checks it out, they'll probably see why I'm slow in reading it. It's like being hit with a data overload. The characters write the book, and they do it in stream of consciousness conversations with the reader resembling James Joyce's work. In fact, a couple of them sound like Molly Bloom's soliloquy in ULYSSES. You pick up an idea of the plot as the information goes past. I wonder why Heinlein thought to write the book in that style? Probably to make it sound as apocalyptic as its title.