The Number of the Beast

By: Robert A. Heinlein

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

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)

Super writing

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Don't have many friends and of them I am the only Sci Fi buff. They are more interested in fantasy like shape shifters and Vamps.

What other book might you compare The Number of the Beast to and why?

Stranger in a Strange Land comes to mind. Great character developement. Could have stretched the ending out a bit more. Heinlein brought together many of his heroes from other stories that could have gone on longer to develop relationships between characters.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Narrator didn't skip over words like I am prone to.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I didn't laugh or cry, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will again.

This book is all over the place. Intentionally.

This book suffers from too many narrators. Instead of getting a specific narrator to voice each main character, this audio recording gives me six different narrators switching off chapters doing all the voices. I would have enjoyed the book more if it was done with only one narrator.
Heinlein certainly packs a lot of every sci-fi plot and thought imaginable into this book. It's long and very entertaining.

Long falls apart at the end

The voice actors were terrible. It was hard to follow the characters. Story was good but fell apart at the end, To long, drug out. The last section made very little sense with the story line.

Great Book, good cast of narration too.

This is definitely one of my favorite Heinlein novels. The deeper you take your reading with this one, the more you get out of it. But then again, that’s life right?

Overall Good Story

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

I read this book years ago and thoroughly enjoyed listening to this excellent production. I had forgotten how confusing the story could be at times but the cast did a fantastic job and I really enjoyed listening to it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I am not sure who my favorite character is because they were all portrayed so well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, though I did listen to it over a few days.