The Number of the Beast
- 511
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Number of the Beast” is an ambitious Heinlein romp across parallel universes that plays games with the genre along the way. Some readers like the opening premise but find that the characters soon dissolve into banter, and that the parade of borrowed fictional worlds feels more indulgent than witty. At over five hundred pages, it is meant for committed Heinlein readers rather than newcomers.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Number of the Beast is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1980. Excerpts from the novel were serialized in the magazine Omni.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.4 across 54 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 27% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.0 | 8 | 15% |
| Hardcover | 6.5 | 46 | 85% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Number of the Beast?
It has 511 pages — longer than 65% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.4, the closest to this book.
