Rating: 
Summary: Part of the problem is that its cofusing...
Review: Let me say up front that I am a Christian. There's lots of material in this book that could be taken as offensive for someone of my faith/tradition. Nevertheless, I decided to give the book a try with an open mind, and found on my first read (at about age sixteen) that it was an extremely confusing book, and yes, I was shocked to the core by some of his suggestions. I reread it a few years ago and found myself enjoying it much more. Yes, I don't particularly care for Heinlein's dabbling in adultery, and fornication, nor can I appreciate his approach to incest (probably confusing this with Time Enough For Love), nevertheless, his story on the second read made much more sense, and was much more enjoyable. I find that Christians usually have to open a SF book with an extra dose of open-mindedness, or he/she will never pick up a book. This is probably true for most other genres in this day and age. At any rate, if your problem is a lack of understanding about the story line, put the book down, pick it back up and reread it a few years later. You will find that the story grows on you.
Rating: 
Summary: For mature, open minds only
Review: Ursula LeGuin did it, Star Trek did it, but Heinlein did it best. Traveling between dimensions into universes that were "only imagined" was not a new concept when this book was published. Every daydreamer who reads SF&F has thought about it. The difference is that Heinlein did it with wit and style far surpassing most authors' potential.Didn't get the jokes? Thought the characters talked too much? The conversations were the whole point of the book, not the plot. If that didn't come across, please consider waiting until you're older to pick it up again. Some teenagers with exceptionally open minds and lots of Sci-Fi under their belts can figure it out, but I'd say wait until your twenties. This is an adult book, not because of sex and violence (relatively mild compared to other Heinleins), but because the jokes and the themes will resonate best with those who've lived a little bit and can say "I wondered about that..." Was Heinlein getting senile? No. He was just figuring out what life was all about. His later books (as in "Job" and "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls") are even more complicated than his early ones, indicating *more* careful thought, not less. Was he writing for the money? No, that was the jeuveniles (read "Grumbles from the Grave" for the full score). Sorry, folks: the Master really meant this one. Just because some people didn't get it doesn't mean it was a bad book. Some of the greatest books ever written weren't meant to be "gotten" on the first, or even third, try. If you don't grok it, set it aside and read Heinlein's jeuvies instead. Lucky for all of us, he had several different styles from which to choose.
Rating:
Summary: Do. Not. Start. Here.
Review: Do not, under any circumstances, make this your first Robert Heinlein book. Don't make it your second or third, either. (And don't make it your _last_.) Heinlein wrote this book right after recovering from a carotid bypass. Those of us who had been reading his stuff for a while were thrilled to see it (I remember lapping it up when it was serialized in _Omni_ magazine), largely because it meant he hadn't been permanently rendered unable to write. And there's certainly stuff here for Heinlein readers to appreciate. Some readers don't like Heinlein's dialogue, but I like it just fine and I enjoy the interplay among the four main characters in this one. (Nor do I have any trouble telling which of the characters is narrating at which point.) This is also the novel in which Heinlein sets up the concept of the World-As-Myth. Apparently tired of listening to his characters invite one another to 'have a go at solipsism', he finally has a go at it himself -- and comes up with a 'multiperson' version of it, in which various 'real' universes are 'fictional' relative to one another, yet accessible via six-dimensional rotation using a nifty device invented by protagonist Jake Burroughs. (At the very least, this clever trick allows Heinlein to bring together lots of his characters from his various fictional worlds and let them all have free-love open relationships with each other.) The downside is that it's somewhat self-indulgent. First we visit some of the fictional worlds created by several of Heinlein's own favorite writers. On top of that, the name of every one of the 'bad guys' is an anagram of some variant of Heinlein's own name, or Virginia's, or one of his several early noms de plume. Then, in a very confusing ending, we're sort of given to understand, more or less, that all of them are Heinlein himself, somehow, maybe. My, what a powerful fabulist he must therefore be. Back to the plus side. Readers of _Time Enough For Love_ -- those who liked it, anyway -- will cheer the return of Lazarus Long, as this novel not only brings him back (together with some new members of the Long family) but sets up two further novels in which he appears (_The Cat Who Walks Through Walls_ and _To Sail Beyond the Sunset_; don't start with _those_ either). Of course this is a plus only for those of us who _did_ like _TEFL_; those who didn't won't care for this book either. Interesting late-period Heinlein, then, filled with what Heinlein fans will regard as great characters and great character interaction -- but somewhat bloated with some stuff that doesn't make very good sense and shot through with some extremely trivial intellectual puzzles. (Most of the anagrams aren't very hard; even the one or two comparatively difficult ones won't pose major problems for anyone who knows anything about Heinlein's [and Ginny's] naval service.) The casual Heinlein reader probably won't like it and won't grok it. It's not my favorite either, but I don't think Heinlein wrote any _bad_ fiction. (His nonfiction is another story.) He _was_ a powerful fabulist, and I don't mind indulging him while he celebrates the return of his power in this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: 3/4's of a Good Novel, but what happened to the ending?
Review: I've read most everything Heinlein ever wrote. I have read many of the books he refers to in this novel. I have tried this novel on for size three times. Each time I bog down between 60% & 80% of the way through. Each time I finish it anyways. I find this his most disappointing novel. He begins to develop a great story line, valiant intellectual warriors running from an unknown menace. They demonstrate their ingenuity and adaptivity to rapidly changing situations. As the pages turn, the story departs further and further from it's beginnings and mutates into a reality hopping, story jumping house-that-Jack-built of a book. The characters become less interesting as we realize that little new about them will unfold as Heinlein indulges his fascination with hopping through the space-time axes into alternate fictons. I also find him a bit preachier than he is in most of his novels, especially about gender roles. Sigh. This book is only for the die-hard Heinlein fan. There are plenty of other great reality tweaking books out there. Robert Anton Wilson's Schroedinger's Cat comes immediately to mind. Jack Chalker has written a number of them. (If you enjoyed this review, please leave positive feedback. If you feel it besmirches the Master of SF, then email me. Click the "about me" link above for more of my reviews & my email address. Thanks!)
Rating:
Summary: Transport Yourself to New Realities
Review: I rarely reread books, but I have The Number of the Beast in three different editions (including an illustrated version), and have read the book several times in my life. The book allows readers to mystically transport themselves, becoming part of an awesome adventure that starts at a California party. The book's tremendous strengths are its characters, dialog, and ideas. (Heinlein makes occasional references to other science fiction characters. For example, Deja Thoris is a princess of Mars in an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel.) Although the Number of the Beast diffuses a bit toward the end, I consider it the best of Heinlein's books and hope to be reading it and rereading it until I die. Lose yourself in it. Become immersed in it. Fly with it. The book deals with parallel universes and other dimensions, subjects also treated with great creativity by Cliff Pickover in his book "Surfing Through Hyperspace." Get either book, and learn to soar.
Rating: 
Summary: Turned me off to Heinlein for good
Review: This was the fourth and last Heinlein book I've read. I am now thoroughly sick of Heinlein's self-assured I'm-smarter-than-you-are characters. Having four of these characters banter back and forth about how great they are just got really tiring. The book starts off with a plot which is moderately interesting, and then completely abandons it, just so we can meet more people who Heinlein seems to think know all the answers to life. Given how smart all these good guys are, there's no worthy antagonist, no suspense, and no intrigue.
This was the worst of the four Heinlein books that I've read(Job - 4stars; Stranger - 4stars; I Will Fear No Evil - 1 star),
and they all suffer similar problems involving pedantic, egotistic characters and interesting stories that fall apart half way through.
Thus, I will no longer bother to read Heinlein.
Rating:
Summary: On finding new worlds of great Fiction
Review: This was a very enjoyable book and one which should be read by any Heinlein Fan. However, there are a few books you should read first. Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, Methusla's Children, and The Wizzard of Oz. The four protaganists of this book undertake to explore the many universes after they are nearly killed because of an invention of one of the protaganists who is a scientist. The first part of the book consists of the four members of the team meeting, almost being killed, getting married, building a time ship and undertaking to find out the various universes out there. The second part gets a bit tedious as these four adventurers argue and bicker and take turns voting each other Captain. Heinlein decided, for some reason, to make these four charachters variations on the witty, sarcastic, opinionated, genious sort which tend to be annoying in his stories, but can add a lot to the stories in moderation. Four charachters bantering about and arguing just got old, fourtunatly this section of the book isn't too long. The third part is in which they discover Lazurus Long, who to them is a fictional charachter and they undertake to form the beginings of an orgainisation which will be more fully explored in "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"(you should read this book before reading that one). All in all a good story which enriches the fullenss of the Heinlein universe.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much and not enough
Review: Too much of the same banter and not enough plot movement. It is simultaneously clever and silly and complex and stupid. I really enjoyed the first 50 to 100 pages, but around page 200, I thought about quitting it. I've only stopped reading 2 'adult' novels out of about 1000 read (1 of these I lost). The banter is somewhat reminicent of that of Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls (not watched by choice) - sometimes unrealistically witty. In Heinlein's defense, his four main characters are educated geniuses, not high-school students. For hard sci-fi fans, I definitely cannot recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bewildering and Bad!!
Review: I am an admirer of Heinlein's work, but that didn't stop me from grinding my teeth throughout this nearly unbearable self-indulgent work. Perhaps the publishers counted themselves lucky to get anything from the then 73 year old legend. Whatever the reason,it seems this book was written without the benefit of outside moderating influences such as editors. The worst thing about the novel is the dialog. The second worst thing is the characters. Here is a little taste from the second page: "'WHAT subject? I made a polite inquiry; you parried it with amphigory.' ''Amphigory' my tired feet! I answered precisely.' ''Amphigory,''I repeated. 'The operative symbols were 'mad,''scientist,''beautiful,'and 'daughter.' The first has several meetings--the others denote opinions. Sematinc content:zero.'" It goes on like that for the rest of the novel. The characters spend most of their time talking: talking a lot. The talk revolves mostly around congratulating each other for how ingenious they are, or how sensibly open-minded, or how gifted with surprising talents. There is also much talk about the talking, and introspection as to whether they are doing too much of it, or if each is adequately appreciating the other, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There is a plot line, and it actually gets interesting half way through. Near the end though, the story is merged with previous Heinlein works, notably the Lazarus Long stories. This is when the novel sinks into incomprehensibility, primarily through the sudden introduction of inummerable characters, leaving the reader the vague impression that he should remember them from previous novels, only he can't because he read them twenty years ago. The final chapter is just plain bewildering, and one suspects the entire endeavor is an inside joke completely for the benefit of the author.
Rating:
Summary: Far from his best
Review: I first read this book when it came out in 1980 (I was a *huge* Heinlein fan at the time), and I remember being vaguely disappointed with it at the time. Now, having read it again 20 years later, I'm no more impressed with it. Part of Heinlein's charm to me has always been his ability to make his characters so likeable, regardless of where his plots took them. He's managed that early on with this book - but he soon gets bogged down with trying (and never really succeeding) to be clever. The convoluted 'storyline' soon takes over, but never goes anywhere satisfactory - or even particularly entertaining. It's just one literary reference/gag after another, none of them particularly clever or satisfying to this reader. Even the Heinlein in-jokes and references don't have the charm to pull this book out of the mire it's stuck in. Not his best, not by a mile.
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