# New Heinlein book?



## Danny McG (Feb 23, 2019)

I saw something online about a manuscript being found.
 A radically different version of *The Number of the Beast*. 

There was a few words about it getting published this year but I lost the link.

Has anyone got info about this please?


----------



## Pyan (Feb 23, 2019)

This one?

An alternate text for The Number of the Beast?


----------



## Danny McG (Feb 24, 2019)

pyan said:


> This one?
> 
> An alternate text for The Number of the Beast?


Yeah, cheers, that's what I started reading but then I lost and couldn't find it.
TNOTB got a bit cloying and sugary IMO so I hope a new version ends a bit better


----------



## Bick (Feb 26, 2019)

I read about this on Heinlein’s Wikipedia page - it’s referred to as *666* on that site.


----------



## Vince W (Feb 26, 2019)

If there's anything the world doesn't need it's another version of Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. I like Heinlein generally but this one was excruciating to read.


----------



## Bick (Oct 4, 2019)

By all accounts, this will now be published mid-2020 and will be titled *The Pursuit of the Pankera*.

From risingshadow.net:

The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel about Parallel Universes.
Phoenix Pick recently announced that, working with the Heinlein Prize Trust, they have been able to reconstruct the complete text of an unpublished novel written by Robert A. Heinlein.
Heinlein wrote this as an alternate text for The Number of the Beast. Reconstructed from notes and typed manuscript pages left behind the ‘Dean’ of Science Fiction, The Pursuit of the Pankera is approximately 185,000 words and while it largely mirrors the first one-third of the The Number of the Beast, it then follows a completely different story-line.
The plot for both The Pursuit of the Pankeraand The Number of the Beast centers around four geniuses, Zebediah ("Zeb") John Carter, Dejah Thoris ("Deety") Burroughs, her father Jacob, and their friend Hilda Mae, who find themselves embarking on an adventurous journey (Heinlein style) through The Multiverse thanks to Jacob's newly invented time machine.
Both books start off with the main characters being pursued by the marauding inter-dimensional adversaries, The Black Hats (or Pankis), who are trying to kill them.
However, while The Number of the Beast then deviates away from this plot line (approximately one-third of the way through) and subsequently ignores The Black Hats with the conclusion of the book having nothing to do with the adventure that starts the book, The Pursuit of the Pankera remains much more focused on the Black Hat threat leading to a more traditional Heinlein adventure and ultimate conclusion. The famous (or infamous) Party scene does not exist in the new book, nor does Lazarus Long make an appearance.
Fans of classic science fiction are also going to get a special treat by Heinlein’s much more authentic usage of some classic science fiction universes in The Pursuit of the Pankera. Heinlein pays homage to the authors he admired by having his characters visit universes like Burroughs’ Barsoomuniverse and E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith’s Lensmanuniverse and interacting with characters actually inhabiting those worlds.
Not only is The Pursuit of the Pankera much more of a traditional Heinlein adventure and a more direct homage to classic authors, in some ways it harkens back to his more classic juveniles in the manner in which the plot is set-up and resolved.
Readers should, thus, not expect to find just a slightly different version of The Number of the Beast in The Pursuit of the Pankera. Even though both books share the same main characters and mostly mirror each other for the first one-third of the book, these are two totally different books and The Pursuit of the Pankera will remind readers more of ‘classic’ Heinlein than The Number of the Beast.


----------



## Bick (Oct 4, 2019)

That makes it sound more accessible than TNotB.


----------



## Vince W (Oct 4, 2019)

Indeed. It sounds like something I'd want to read.


----------



## Danny McG (Oct 5, 2019)

Vince W said:


> Indeed. It sounds like something I'd want to read.


Ditto, I'm looking forward to it


----------



## Bick (Oct 5, 2019)

It seems it’s being published by a small press (Phoenix Pick) and given the cost, they have initiated a Kickstarter fund-raiser to publish it. I’m slightly surprised a small press publisher got the gig for this as it will sell fairly well I’d have thought. 









						Kickstarter launched for new Heinlein novel
					

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for the new Heinlein novel, The Pursuit of the Pankera. If you were planning to buy the ebook, you should probably go ahead and use the campaign to get an a…




					lfs.org


----------



## Vince W (Oct 5, 2019)

That is surprising. I don't back Kickstarters as a rule.


----------



## Bick (Oct 5, 2019)

No, me neither, but they seem to have all the money they need, so we’re off the hook.


----------

