The Number of the Beast

by Robert A. Heinlein

Release: 1980
Format: Novel
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Semi-mad scientist Jake Burroughs, his beautiful daughter Deety, her strong love interest Zeb Carter, Hilda Corners (“Aunt Hilda” if you prefer) and their time/dimension-traveling ship Gay Deceiver yak and smooch their way though many time periods in many universes (including that of Lazurus Long), soon realizing the true nature of the world as pantheistic multiperson solipsism.

In Heinlein’s first version of this novel, written in 1977, the middle third of the story takes place on Barsoom, but in the 1980 published version, Barsoom was replaced by a futuristic British Mars

— Michael Main

Sharpie, you have just invented multiperson solipsism. I didn’t think that was mathematically possible.

DEBUT

The Number of the Beast (Fawcett Columbine, 1980).

VARIANTS

4 English variants

TRANSLATIONS

Czech translation:
[ex=bare]Číslo bestie | Beast number[/ex] (Classic, 1996).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Martin Tkaczyk
Dutch translation:
[ex=bare]Het getal van het beest | The number of the beast[/ex] (Elmar, 1981).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Bob van Laerhoven
German translation:
[ex=bare]Die Zahl des Tiers | The number of the animal[/ex] (Heyne, May 1981).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Thomas Schlück
Hebrew translation:
[ex=bare]666: מספר החיה | Beast number | 666: Mesper Hheyh[/ex] (כתר :: Ketr, 1983).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Emanuel Lotem
Italian translation:
[ex=bare]Il numero della bestia | The number of the beast[/ex] (Gradi Scrittori di Fantascienza, November 1981).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Giacomo Gramegna
Portuguese translation:
[ex=bare]O Número do Monstro | The monster number[/ex], 3 vols. (Livros do Brasil, 1980).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Eurico da Fonseca
Russian translation:
[ex=bare]Число Зверя | Beast number | Chislo zverya[/ex] (Эксмо :: Eskmo, 2002).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein as by Роберт Э. Хайнлайн
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Алексей Иорданский
Евгений Маевский
Spanish translation:
[ex=bare]El número de la bestia | The number of the beast[/ex] (Martínez Roca, 1982).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert A. Heinlein
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Domingo Santos

8 translations

PRIOR WORKS: major rewrite of The Pursuit of the Pankera, (1977)

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1800 to 1899: Lewis Carroll is likely here.
Circa AD 1970 to 1999: Most time periods appear to be analogs of our late 20th century, and the gang also visits 1982 Arizona in Lazurus Long’s universe.
Near Future, AD 2300 and Beyond: The time of Lazurus Long was a few millennia after the 20th century. The Lensman universe and others are likely here, too.

Time Travel Methods

Time Ships

Themes

Artist Paradox: There may small artist’s paradox when Deety tells Lewis Carroll about a book he has yet to write.
Cheating History: Rescuing Maureen from the past in a way that does not change history’s recording of her death in Albuquerque.

Real-World Tags

Lewis Carroll

Fictional Tags

Alice’s Wonderland
CoDominium Universe: The red fog universe may be from The Mote in God’s Eye.
Heinlein’s Future History
Lazarus Long
Legion of Space Universe: The green fog universe may be from The Legion of Space.
Lensman Universe
Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Other Swiftlands
Maureen Johnson Smith Long
Metafictional Reality
Nightfall Universe: The blinding light universe may be from “Nightfall.”
Oz
Parallel Universes or Dimensions: along three spacial axes and three other axes that each have their own advancement of time

Groupings

Cited in Worlds Enough and Time, edited by Gary Westfahl ()
Omni (periodical): pre-publication excerpt in the October and November 1979 Omni
Cited in Time Machines by Paul J. Nahin ()

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From somewhere in Lazurus Long’s universe after he returns from his trip to World War I at an unknown time ⋙ to a street corner in the Arizona of Lazurus Long’s old-home-Terra, July 1982. Multiple round trips. Note: This may not be the only time travel through the three time axes in the book, but the trip to snatch Maureen and insert her fake corpse is the only trip that is easy to pin down as certain time travel.

INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)

Tags—A gaggle of characters from Heinlein’s other stories and other fictional universes show up, but we’ve tagged only the time traveler <a href='tag-3515'>Lazurus Long</a>. If we notice any other characters who time traveled in their own right, we’ll tag them later. We did tag those definite fictional settings that we could identify such as <a href='tag-3986'>Oz</a> and <a href='tag-3987'>Lensman Universe</a>. Also, plenty of real-world authors are mentioned as attending the climactic convention, but we spotted only <a href='tag-3989'>Lewis Carroll</a> on stage or having a significant effect on the story at hand, so we didn’t tag the rest. Perhaps we should also tag additional characters such as: Glinda the Good, Captain Bill, Woggle-Bug, Mr. Scarecrow, Jack Pumpkinhead, Alice’s rabbit,