THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST ..

New York: Fawcett Columbine, [1980]. First U.S. edition, trade paperback issue. A fine copy. (#169068) (29776). Octavo, pictorial wrappers. An homage to and parody of the Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, written in a pulpy 1930s style, based on the premise of numerous parallel worlds created by the act of imagining them. "An amazing farrago of SF and fantasy in which various fictional worlds intersect and the characters come to realize that they themselves are equally unreal. Lazarus Long (from TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE) and Jubal Harshaw (from STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND) turn up again, as do many other familiar figments. It's all very jokey on the surface, but a desperate nightmare of solipsism seems to lie below. Dreadful old rubbish: one of Heinlein's worst." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 261. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions.