The Number of the Beast

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Emily Durante, Malcolm Hillgartner, Sean Runnette, Richard Powers, Tom Weiner

Length: 21 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

The wickedest, most wonderful science-fiction story ever created in our - or any - time. Anything can begin at a party in California - and everything does in this bold masterwork by a grand master of science fiction.

When four supremely sensual and unspeakably cerebral humans - two male, two female - find themselves under attack from aliens who want their awesome quantum breakthrough, they take to the skies - and zoom into the cosmos on a rocket roller-coaster ride of adventure, danger, ecstasy, and peril.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was the dominant science-fiction writer of the modern era, a writer whose influence on the field was immense. He won science fiction's Hugo Award for best novel four times.

©1980 Robert A. Heinlein (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“One of the grand masters of science fiction.” (Wall Street Journal)

“The most influential science fiction writer of all time!” (Locus)

“[A story] 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.” (National Review)

Out of all of the Heinlein books I have read ...

Out of all the Heinlein books I have read, five or six thus far ... this one isn't my favorite.

I just did not care for it at all. Too much filler of the crew squabbling over verbiage and their power struggles with very little sustenance to the story, until you get two thirds through the book. Seriously, I quit listening to the book for about six months after the first seven hours or so. Picked back up where I left off and truly wondered why I did. I know the only reason I stuck with it was because of pure stubbornness!

The last third was interesting enough to keep me from not hate life while listening.

Heinlein is an intelligent man, no doubt, and it is evident is his theories and circular logic arguments that are made. I always feels a little more enlightened when I finish one of his books, well it wasn't until the last third of this book did I even feel this way.

I did however enjoy the different points of view told be the different characters in the book, and changes in voice actors when this happened.

A literal "who's who" of science fiction & science

This story took me all over the place (figuratively AND literally) and I loved it once I understood the ride. The constant references to (no spoilers!) kept me on my toes and made me appreciate my interests even more!

If you have been enjoying science fiction story telling you will appreciate this book.

If you are just starting out in science fiction stories you are in for a treat you will appreciate even more after you have read some of the canonically foundational stories.

You grok?

New one for me.

Great story R.A.Heinline! By the best story tell I know or have ever read. I have enjoyed him since high school 1955 first read Ricketship Galileo.

Good book, but some voices were irritating

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book itself rotates perspective between the four main characters. For the audio, they handled this by having four voice actors, one for each perspective. And so the actor reading as Jacob, for example, would voice the entire chapter written from his perspective, including doing his impression of Hilda's voice when she is speaking, etc. Then when it's a Hilda perspective chapter, you have that voice actor doing their impression of everyone's voices. The total effect was irritating for me, and might had been confusing as well had I not previously read the book in print. It would have been better if they had either:

1) had each of the actors do their own dialogue in all chapters, and have the actor whose perspective the chapter was do all of the non dialogue.

Or

2) just had one person narrate the entire book.

What three words best describe the narrators’s voice?

While the male voices were fine, the female voices often came across as overly ditzy or sexual, which detracted from the book as a whole.

Take an exciting ride in Gay Deceiver

This book was written for those of us who grew up checking cereal boxes, just in case, because smart girls need spacesuits too! About a year ago I begged Audible for this book. Let's face it, we aren't getting any younger, and no large print editions were available. Experiencing this book in audio is truly a wild ride in the Gay Deceiver as it should be done, voice and ears only! This is a MUST LISTEN for Heinlein fans.

About 80% of a good book.

To start with I've enjoyed everything from this author so far. I did not know that this book was part of a series. Saying that, the book is wonderful until the main characters meet the characters from the series other books. The book just looses focus, and goes off in unentertaining ways. The book never recovers.

You can't be split in two when you time travel.

Some narrations are better at gender changes. What is up with that last chapter? Did the author have so many pages to write to get paid?

Story ruining narration

What did you love best about The Number of the Beast?

The story is fantastic, but the only way I know that is because I read the book.

What didn’t you like about the narrators’s performance?

The narrators have managed to make it sound like a whiny romance / space opera. Deety, who is written as a brilliant computer programmer, comes across as a spoiled little girl. The other narrators are not as bad, but they still don't bring out the personalities of the characters.

Any additional comments?

I hope someone re-issues this book with a good traditional narrator. It doesn't deserve what has been done to it.

Heinlein's Death Rattle

Do not read this as your first Heinlein book. If you want to really enjoy this book you should at least have read Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. Even then "enjoying" may be a struggle. This book is less of a story and more of an exploration of Heinlein's different worlds crashing together. A foursome exploring alternate dimensions in their modified flying car degenerates into the conflict being thrown out the window in the third act and Heinlein lecturing on his social theories.

I found DT to be one of the worst female characters Heinlein has ever written. She's more interested in talking about her tits and wonderful new husband than any of the science involved. This isn't atypical for Heinlein but I found her to be the worst iteration of sexually liberated smart woman so far.

Voice performances are rather good, despite the writing. Skip this one unless you're a die hard Heinlein fan. Just getting started in Heinlein? Try Stranger in a Strange Land or Moon is a Harsh Mistress first.

A good read of a game changing book.

This book is a time machine. (and is about a time machine). When you realize that all the sexism and racism were expressions of what the writer thought was progressive feminism. The real state of American ideas and values becomes shocking.
so much of the dialogue was judged as too progressive, buy to me is pure bigotry.

when I read this in the mid 70's, I saw it as enlightened and ahead of it's time.

the story, with all that forgiven, is still a time machine of the understandings of science in that day... wow