The Number of the Beast
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About this listen
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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“The most influential science fiction writer of all time!” (Locus)
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With Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the Galactic Federation offers help to the backward humans - for a price. You can protect yourself from your enemies, but God save you from your allies!
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Another heads up!
- By Dr. Daniel Chapman on 06-12-14
By: John Ringo
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Marsbound
- By: Joe Haldeman
- Narrated by: Liza Kaplan
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Carmen Dula and her family are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime - they're going to Mars. Once on the Red Planet, however, Carmen realizes things are not so different from Earth. There are chores to do, lessons to learn, and oppressive authority figures to rebel against.
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Meh.
- By Wes Parker on 03-19-09
By: Joe Haldeman
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The Unsung Hero
- Troubleshooters, Book 1
- By: Suzanne Brockmann
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor, Melanie Ewbank
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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After a near-fatal head injury, Navy SEAL lieutenant Tom Paoletti catches a glimpse of an international terrorist in his New England hometown. When he calls for help, the Navy dismisses the sighting as injury-induced imaginings. In a last-ditch effort to prevent disaster, Tom creates his own makeshift counterterrorism team, assembling his most loyal officers, two elderly war veterans, a couple of misfit teenagers, and Dr. Kelly Ashton.
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New narration breathes life into this for me
- By Kindle Customer (VH) on 06-21-16
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The Deep Blue Good-By
- A Travis McGee Novel, Book 1
- By: John D. MacDonald
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
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He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
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Before the A-Team, there was Travis McGee
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-12-16
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Weekend Warriors
- Sisterhood, Book 1
- By: Fern Michaels
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On the surface, these seven women are as different as can be - but each has had her share of bad luck, from cheating husbands to sexist colleagues to a legal system that often doesn't do its job. Now, drawn together by tragedy, they're forging a bond that will help them right the wrongs committed against them and discover an inner strength they didn't know they had. The Sisterhood is learning that when bad things happen, you can roll over and play dead...or you can get up fighting...
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Weekend Warriors
- By Ms Mare on 04-04-09
By: Fern Michaels
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Killed at the Whim of a Hat
- By: Colin Cotterill
- Narrated by: Jeany Park
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jimm Juree was a crime reporter for the Chiang Mai Daily Mail with a somewhat eccentric family. When she is forced to follow her family to a rural village on the coast of Southern Thailand, she’s convinced her career—maybe her life—is over. So when a van containing the skeletal remains of two hippies is inexplicably unearthed in a local farmer’s field, Jimm is thrilled. Shortly thereafter an abbot at a local Buddhist temple is viciously murdered.
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delighted...
- By Bobbie on 08-23-11
By: Colin Cotterill
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The Goliath Stone
- By: Larry Niven, Matthew Joseph Harrington
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Doctor Toby Glyer has effected miracle cures with the use of nanotechnology. But Glyer’s controversial nanites are more than just the latest technological advance, they are a new form of life - and they have more uses than just medical. Glyer’s nanites also have the potential to make everyone on Earth rich from the wealth of asteroids.
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Boring, unbelievable nano junk!
- By GH on 06-27-13
By: Larry Niven, and others
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Family Law
- Family Law Series, Book 1
- By: Mackey Chandler
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
People love easily. Look at most of your relatives or coworkers. How lovable are they? Really? Yet most have mates and children. The vast majority are still invited to family gatherings and their relatives will speak to them. Many have pets to which they are devoted. Some even call them their fur-babies. Is your dog or cat or parakeet property or family? Not in law but in your heart? Can a pet really love you back? Or is it a different affection? Are you not kind to those who feed and shelter you? But what if your dog could talk back? Would your cat speak to you kindly?
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Excellent story and very probable
- By Jack Daniels on 08-12-18
By: Mackey Chandler
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The Philosopher's Flight
- A Novel
- By: Tom Miller
- Narrated by: Gibson Frazier
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy - an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service - a team of flying medics - Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals.
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Brilliant multi layered story
- By Kent Lanigan on 02-21-18
By: Tom Miller
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A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
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Robert A. Heinlein wrote The Number of the Beast, which was published in 1980. In the book Zeb, Deety, Hilda, and Jake are ambushed by the alien "Black Hats" and barely escape with their lives on a specially configured vehicle (the Gay Deceiver) which can travel along various planes of existence, allowing them to visit parallel universes. However, unknown to most fans, Heinlein had already written a "parallel" novel about the four characters and parallel universes in 1977.
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Stupid production
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To Sail Beyond the Sunset
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Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best seller The Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead.
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Don't Dilly Dally, Dolly
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The Cat Who Walks through Walls
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When a stranger attempting to deliver a cryptic message is shot dead at his dinner table, Richard Ames is thrown headfirst into danger, intrigue, and other dimensions where Lazarus Long still thrives, where Jubal Harshaw lives surrounded by beautiful women, and where a daring plot to rescue the sentient computer called Mike can change the direction of all human history.
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Abridge Version
- By Klipper421 on 10-05-12
By: Robert Heinlein
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I Will Fear No Evil
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As startling and provocative as his famous Stranger in a Strange Land, here is Heinlein’s grand masterpiece about a man supremely talented, immensely old, and obscenely wealthy who discovers that money can buy everything.
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Disappointing Heinlein
- By Randall on 03-02-12
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Time Enough for Love
- The Lives of Lazarus Long
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- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Time Enough for Love is the capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History series. Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries, his love for time ultimately causing him to become his own ancestor. Time Enough for Loveis his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical ideas on sexual freedom.
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Age changes perspective
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Performance
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After the fall of the American Ayatollahs as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land and chronicled in Revolt in 2100, the United States of America at last fulfills the promise inherent in its first Revolution: for the first time in human history there is a nation with Liberty and Justice for All. No one may seize or harm the person or property of another, or invade his privacy, or force him to do his bidding. Americans are fiercely proud of their re-won liberties and the blood it cost them; nothing could make them forswear those truths they hold self-evident. Nothing except the promise of immortality…
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A delight to revisit a science fiction classic
- By Anne on 02-16-13
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The Pursuit of the Pankera
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- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Robert A. Heinlein wrote The Number of the Beast, which was published in 1980. In the book Zeb, Deety, Hilda, and Jake are ambushed by the alien "Black Hats" and barely escape with their lives on a specially configured vehicle (the Gay Deceiver) which can travel along various planes of existence, allowing them to visit parallel universes. However, unknown to most fans, Heinlein had already written a "parallel" novel about the four characters and parallel universes in 1977.
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Stupid production
- By Arthur W. Smart on 06-21-20
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To Sail Beyond the Sunset
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Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best seller The Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead.
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Don't Dilly Dally, Dolly
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-17-14
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The Cat Who Walks through Walls
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Performance
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When a stranger attempting to deliver a cryptic message is shot dead at his dinner table, Richard Ames is thrown headfirst into danger, intrigue, and other dimensions where Lazarus Long still thrives, where Jubal Harshaw lives surrounded by beautiful women, and where a daring plot to rescue the sentient computer called Mike can change the direction of all human history.
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Abridge Version
- By Klipper421 on 10-05-12
By: Robert Heinlein
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I Will Fear No Evil
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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As startling and provocative as his famous Stranger in a Strange Land, here is Heinlein’s grand masterpiece about a man supremely talented, immensely old, and obscenely wealthy who discovers that money can buy everything.
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Disappointing Heinlein
- By Randall on 03-02-12
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Time Enough for Love
- The Lives of Lazarus Long
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- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Overall
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Performance
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Time Enough for Love is the capstone and crowning achievement of Heinlein's famous Future History series. Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he simply refuses to die. Born in the early 1900s, he lives through multiple centuries, his love for time ultimately causing him to become his own ancestor. Time Enough for Loveis his lovingly detailed account of his journey through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds. Using the voice of Lazarus, Heinlein expounds his own philosophies, including his radical ideas on sexual freedom.
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Age changes perspective
- By Candis on 08-27-16
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Friday
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Friday, a secret courier, is thrown into an assignment under the command of her employer, a man she knows only as "Boss." She operates from and over a near-future Earth in North America, a vulgar and chaotic land comprised of dozens of independent states. In America's disunion, Friday keeps her balance nimbly with quick, expeditious solutions as she conquers one calamity and scrape after another.
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Almost A Perfect, This Time.
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Glory Road
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Performance
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. C. “Scar” Gordon was on the French Riviera recovering from a tour of combat in Southeast Asia, but he hadn’t given up his habit of scanning the personals in the newspaper. One ad in particular leapt out at him: "Are you a coward? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential...."
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Heinlein's great story, a glorious spin by Pinchot
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Job
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Performance
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After firewalking in Polynesia, fundamentalist Minister Alexander Hergensheimer never saw the world the same. Now called Alec Graham, he was in the middle of an affair with his stewardess, Margrethe, and natural disasters kept following them. First, there was an impossible iceberg that wrecked the ship in the tropics; then, after being rescued by a Royal Mexican plane, they were hit by a double earthquake. To Alex, the signs were clear that Armageddon and the Day of Judgment were near.
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OK, So I Get The Joke Already...
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The Man Who Sold the Moon
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Performance
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Today the moon - tomorrow the stars. The Man Who Sold the Moon: A landmark volume in Heinlein’s magnificent Future History series. D. D. Harriman is a billionaire with a dream: the dream of Space for All Mankind. The method? Anything that works. Maybe, in fact, Harriman goes too far. But he will give us the stars....
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Great story but...
- By Chris on 03-30-17
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Time for the Stars
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Travel to other planets is now a reality, and with overpopulation stretching the resources of Earth, the necessity of finding habitable worlds is growing ever more urgent. There’s a problem though—because the spaceships are slower than light, any communication between the exploring ships and Earth would take years.
Tom and Pat are identical twin teenagers. As twins they’ve always been close, so close that it seemed like they could read each other’s minds.
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My First Heinlein
- By DJM on 01-27-11
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The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
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- Unabridged
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In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.
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Heinlein's Masterpiece
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Sixth Column
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The totalitarian East has triumphed in a massive invasion, and the United States has fallen to a dictatorial superpower bent on total domination. That power is consolidating its grip through concentration camps, police state tactics, and a total monopoly upon the very thoughts of the conquered populace. A tiny enclave of scientists and soldiers survives, unbeknownst to America’s new rulers. It’s six against six million - but those six happen to include a scientific genius, a master of subterfuge and disguise who learned his trade as a lawyer-turned-hobo, and a tough-minded commander....
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The Yellow Peril as it was
- By Thomas Martin on 04-16-12
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The Puppet Masters
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
First came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed. Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the US government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting in. And four more agents who were sent in also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery
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Great book, distracting narration
- By Jon on 04-25-22
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Revolt in 2100
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Performance
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Story
After the fall of the American Ayatollahs (as foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land) there is a Second American Revolution; for the first time in human history there is a land with Liberty and Justice for All.
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Heinlein's Future History
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Double Star
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
One minute, down-and-out actor Lorenzo Smythe is, as usual, in a bar, drinking away his troubles while watching his career circle the drain. Then a space pilot buys him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knows, he’s shanghaied to Mars. Smythe suddenly finds himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who has been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians is at stake, and failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war.
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Hugo Award Well Deserved. A+
- By Margaret Pierce on 07-27-20
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The Door into Summer
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Dan Davis, an electronics engineer, had finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot that could do almost anything. Wild success was within reach, but then Dan's life was ruined. In a plot to steal his business, his greedy partner and greedier fiancée tricked him into taking the "long sleep": suspended animation for 30 years.
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classic
- By Greg on 04-05-09
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Citizen of the Galaxy
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
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- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In a distant galaxy of colonized planets, the atrocity of slavery is alive and well. Young Thorby was just another bedraggled orphan boy sold at auction, but his new owner, Baslim, is not the disabled beggar he appears to be. Adopting Thorby as his son, Baslim fights relentlessly as an abolitionist spy. When the authorities close in on Baslim, Thorby must find his own way in a hostile galaxy. Joining with the Free Traders, a league of merchant princes, Thorby must find the courage to live by his wits and fight his way up from society's lowest rung.
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Good nostalgia; pretty good YA sci-fi
- By Mark on 06-18-18
What listeners say about The Number of the Beast
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. Schmitt
- 08-06-12
Great story!
What made the experience of listening to The Number of the Beast the most enjoyable?
Remembering the story and how it connects to the bigger story of Laz and his family
Who was your favorite character and why?
Hilda Corners-Burroughs.
She kicked Lazarus' ass
Which scene was your favorite?
The meeting with Dora and her crew
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
The devil is in the details
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4 people found this helpful
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- Laurulcat
- 09-23-12
Audio version of an old favorite not disappointing
This has always been one of my favorite Heinlein books. The philosophy and mathematics discussed in it are very interesting and many issues are discussed about human nature and human motivation. I love the different timelines he outlines in the book and often get a chuckle out of the "what if" factor in the differences between the timelines.
The different characters having different readers gave the book a personal feel that just reading the book does not. Each character is filled out by their narrator and the interaction between the characters really comes alive.
Definitely recommend this book to other Heinlein fans.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rozan Morrison
- 04-22-21
Glad it’s over
I love Heinlein but this is his worst and it’s so long. I finished it because I paid for it but it was pure torture. The performance was good too bad the story was horrible.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bryan
- 01-05-23
I hated 4 performers reading ...
So, there are 4 performers and I didn't like the performance at all in this format. I would choose a single performer any day. That said, I loved listening to a favored book from my childhood after so many years. A simpler time with simpler messages. No modern politics, outdated references, old fashioned protagonists and idiom. I love it so much all over again with the new perspective of modern me 45 years later. Dated and timeless at the same time. Odd how I missed the story holes and chunkiness of the plot so long ago. The nostalgia makes up for the shortcomings.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Otto
- 07-18-12
Time travel, alternate universes, and more!
What made the experience of listening to The Number of the Beast the most enjoyable?
As is typical of a Heinlein yarn, this one has free-thinking, lusty characters who engage in far-ranging philosophical discussions, occasional battles, and ties to much of his earlier work. I remember reading it when it was new, and while some parts are holdovers from the early 1970s, it aged well and any disparity was swept away by the end.
Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I am not generally a fan of books with multiple narrators, and while the narration was certainly well done and in character with the way the book was written, I believe I would have enjoyed the experience more with a single gifted narrator such as Dick Hill.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
This was not a book that could be absorbed in one sitting. There were parts that simply induce sleep.
Any additional comments?
Heinlein managed to pay homage to many of his contemporaries and inspirations in this book. By that point, I was tired of listening to it, and simply wanted it to end.
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- MarkKnight999
- 06-16-18
One of my most favorite of Robert's books!
Heinlein is my absolute favorite author and a true Grand Master of the Science Fiction genre.
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- Elisa Buch
- 08-30-12
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.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Noel
- 10-05-12
Beloved Story, Inconsistent Performance
Where does The Number of the Beast rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I rarely hear REALLY well-done Heinlein titles. I don't think they get their best narrators for it, so I wasn't too disappointed. The one exception is Bernadette Dunne, who did an AMAZING job as Sharpie. Not surprising, as her rendition of Maureen Johnson was one of the best Heinlein audiobooks I've had the pleasure of listening to. She groks how to narrate a Heinlein woman!
What other book might you compare The Number of the Beast to and why?
The story itself was written for Heinlein fans who were also nostalgic about Golden Age science fiction. It's one of my favorites as a "fun" read.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
They got a poor match for Deety. While they needed a "young" voice, the character WAS a strong-willed genius. Also, her rendition of male voices really didn't work out well.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
It's a Heinlein novel. Of COURSE we'll screw it up.
Any additional comments?
If you were a fan of the book, you'll probably still enjoy the performance. As a fan of audiobooks in general, I just don't expect much of the performance for the Heinleins. Pity...
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2 people found this helpful
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- nailsthatglow
- 04-12-17
The main influence for the multiverse in comics
If you have read three novels by this writer, chances are you have read at least one of the stories by each of the mentioned writers and the world they come from.
positioned to tie the various timelines of all his novels. a must read for any fan.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- J.R. Snyder
- 09-06-14
Misses greatness, but still enjoyed it
First the book: This is a great addition to the set of Heinlein's works for those who loved Lazarus Long and wanted more in that vein. The book is largely character driven, plot is uncomplicated, but enjoyable if you can come to enjoy the people in it.
Next the reading: This could have been stunning. An ensemble cast reading of this book... the idea took my breath away. That is not, precisely, what this is. The book is, with an exception or two, written from the perspective of the four major characters, each one voicing a chapter at a time. One reader takes each chapter, so you have Hilda's voice... and Hilda's reader doing Zeb's voice... anyone familiar with audiobooks is accustomed to that, but it was a strange choice. One voice is a bit grating as other reviewers have indicated. The two main male voices are pleasing, but were mis-cast, they should have been reversed.
I am a great lover of this book, so I still enjoyed this reading, but I couldn't help but reflect regularly as it went on that it could have been so much better than it is. If a flawed choice in reader or readers ruins an audiobook for you, I do not recommend this recording.
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