Description:

The Number of the Beast is a mind-bending experiment, a parallel book about parallel universes. Most readers did not realize in 1980 (when it was originally published) that the novel had a sister book, written in 1977, that was never published. That book is finally being published under the title The Pursuit of the Pankera. Both novels deal with parallel universes, share the same main characters and have the same first one-third of the book. However, from that point on (after they make a jump to a parallel universe) the novels diverge completely. And here is where the second part of the experiment comes in. While The Pursuit of the Pankera continues the adventure in a very customary Heinlein manner, reminiscent of his earlier works, The Number of the Beast becomes something very different. On surface, the book is about two men and two women who are attacked by aliens and then embark on roller coaster ride of an adventure through a myriad of universes. In The Number of the Beast, the main characters discover a way to travel to fictional worlds, and in the course of their explorations, visit the world of Lazarus Long [the Lazarus Long set of books involve time travel, parallel dimensions, free love, individualism, and a concept that Heinlein named World as Myth-the theory that universes are created by the act of imagining them, such that even fictional worlds are real.]