| This alternative version of the much derided Heinlein novel The Number of the Beast was published in 2020 based on notes by the author who died back in 1988. Apparently, "Pursuit of Pankera" was actually written earlier, a sort of first draft. Appropriately for a pair of novels about alternate universes, the two plots start off the same and then diverge dramatically. Both novels also use mathematics nonsensically to somehow explain the parallel universes and their connection to the number 666. When asked about it, my brother Rabbi Robert Kasman said "Yes. Very tedious math in the new part too." Although many reviewers have said that the new book is closer to Heinlein's best writing than the despised Number of the Beast, it apparently isn't close enough. So far, it only seems to have been published in electronic format. |
