“The Pursuit of the Pankera”
Apr. 17th, 2020 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenThis assumes that my readers are familiar with the works of Robert Heinlein, and in particular with The Number of the Beast. If you don’t want TNotB spoiled for you, don’t read further. I have now finished an earlier version of TNotB, which has recently been published under its original title, The Pursuit of the Pankera; the two books are identical for over a hundred pages, but then diverge, as our little band of heroes (and pregnant heroines) find different things as they explore the six to the sixth power to the sixth power of universes accessible by their flying craft Gay Deceiver. There are further parallels, and I can sometimes see, despite not having read TNotB in many years, how scenes and descriptions from TPotP were re-used in TNotB.
TNotB ends with a sort of grand jamboree of Heinlein characters from different books, possible because any work of fiction is real somewhere in the multiverse; it’s an example of late-period Heinlein self-indulgence. TPotP is more reminiscent of mid-period Heinlein, where our heroes and their allies are committed to a serious struggle against hostile creatures whose goals are incompatible with the well-being of the human race, as in Starship Troopers or The Puppet Masters, or even Citizen of the Galaxy, although there, the vermin are human slavers. I must say that I prefer the life-is-earnest-and-we-have-duties-to-perform attitude, although one might like to take a vacation in the hedonistic world of a late Heinlein novel. It has been observed that people can only be happy when they have goals other than their own happiness.
Apparently, The Pursuit of the Pankera was not published back in the late 70s because of copyright issues, and I can imagine how the estates of B, B, or S might have objected to Heinlein’s characters visiting the worlds first imagined by other authors. Perhaps the relevant copyrights have expired, or perhaps agreements have been reached.
Meanwhile, if you miss being twelve years old, and having the chance to read a classic Heinlein yarn you haven’t read yet, this isn’t quite that opportunity (and you’re probably many years past twelve), but it’s probably as close as you can come.
TNotB ends with a sort of grand jamboree of Heinlein characters from different books, possible because any work of fiction is real somewhere in the multiverse; it’s an example of late-period Heinlein self-indulgence. TPotP is more reminiscent of mid-period Heinlein, where our heroes and their allies are committed to a serious struggle against hostile creatures whose goals are incompatible with the well-being of the human race, as in Starship Troopers or The Puppet Masters, or even Citizen of the Galaxy, although there, the vermin are human slavers. I must say that I prefer the life-is-earnest-and-we-have-duties-to-perform attitude, although one might like to take a vacation in the hedonistic world of a late Heinlein novel. It has been observed that people can only be happy when they have goals other than their own happiness.
Apparently, The Pursuit of the Pankera was not published back in the late 70s because of copyright issues, and I can imagine how the estates of B, B, or S might have objected to Heinlein’s characters visiting the worlds first imagined by other authors. Perhaps the relevant copyrights have expired, or perhaps agreements have been reached.
Meanwhile, if you miss being twelve years old, and having the chance to read a classic Heinlein yarn you haven’t read yet, this isn’t quite that opportunity (and you’re probably many years past twelve), but it’s probably as close as you can come.
