The Pursuit of the Pankera
- by Robert A. Heinlein
- Novel
- Science Fiction
- Adults
- Debatable Time Travel
- English
- initial unpublished manuscript.
Six-Six-Six by Robert A. Heinlein, unpublished, 1977.
The 2020 posthumous publication of this 1977 manscript shows us Heinlein’s first forey into the multiperson solipsism of semi-mad scientist Jake Burroughs, his beautiful daughter Deety, her strong love interest Zeb Carter, Hilda Corners and their time/dimension-traveling ship Gay Deceiver. In all, the earlier manuscript has three adventures that were significantly changed in his eventual 1980 publication of the work, retitled as The Number of the Beast:
- In Pankera, the Mars Ten actually is Barsoom where the gang meets the Princess of Mars and others, while in Beast, Mars Ten is a relatively boring futuristic British Mars.
- Pankera has a long adventure in the Lensman universe, while Beast has only a few pages.
- Pankera’s ending is a 30-page, rushed description of how they plan to launch a major war against the Panki, while Beast’s 130-page ending takes the gang to the universe of Dora and Lazurus Long where they rescue Maureen from the past and are joined by a passel of Heinlein’s characters.
—Michael Main
Sharpie, you have just invented multiperson solipsism. I didn’t think that was mathematically possible.
Tags
(16)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1800 to 1899: Lewis Carroll appears to be 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 Lensman universe is likely here—and possibly others, too.
- Time Travel Methods
- Themes
- Artist Paradox: There may small artist’s paradox when Deety tells Lewis Carroll about a book he has yet to write.
- Real-World Tags
- Fictional Tags
- Alice’s Wonderland
- Barsoom
- CoDominium Universe: The red fog universe may be from The Mote in God’s Eye.
- Legion of Space Universe: The green fog universe may be from The Legion of Space.
- Lensman Universe
- Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Other Swiftlands
- 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
Variants
(3)
- initial unpublished manuscript.
Six-Six-Six by Robert A. Heinlein, unpublished, 1977. - The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes by Robert A. Heinlein (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, March 2020).
- audio reading.
The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes by Robert A. Heinlein (Blackstone Publishing, March 2021).
Derived Works
(1)
- The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein (1980).