Bombastic and completely unfiltered Heinlein

I went into Number knowing that it was a less than favourable entry, but as part of the world as myth series I had categorized it as obligatory at least and mildly interesting in concept at most. Two couples who all read like the same person explore parallel worlds via device while on the run from black hats. The real sell here for listening over reading is the all-star voice cast who bring the material to a much higher level of intrigue than the written word would suggest. The plot is almost unnecessary, elder Heinlein is not getting caught up on conflicts, moral dilemmas, or god forbid character development (the black hats motivations are never fully resolved or explained) and all of his usual topics are present (the hard science of his time, the characters all reflections of the same person with the same interests: libertarianism, free love, incest, space exploration, rampant mansplaining) but this time he clearly isn’t bogged down with an editor telling him he needs more of a story to wrap these ideas around. Number is an absolute skippable entry made interesting only passingly by its place in his larger work and some periphery appearances by other Heinlein characters, including Heinlein himself. I’ve heard ‘literary masturbation’ applied to this book and it’s apt. It was true upon release and the book definitely hasn’t aged with any grace. Apparently, as of 2020, a parallel novel, shelved for whatever reason when Number originally released, is only now seeing the light of day and if that is a good or bad thing for this book I have no intention of finding out.

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do not get this audio book

one of the most boring books he ever wrote, and I am a superfan of Bob Heinlein!!
that being said it was read superbly by the cast.

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Too fast, boring

I've read this book many times, always enjoyed it. Took a chance on the audio even with the poor reviews. There was no dramatic effort put into the speed reading and having 4 narrators was pointless.

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Sexism in space.

There are so many problems with this book, it's hard to know where to start. The most prevalent and distracting issue is the rampant mysoginy. It underlines everything for no real reason. I came to this book for colonial space politics and was instead inondated with attrocious commentary on gender relations. The space empire stuff takes way too long to get off the ground. While I waited patiently for the story to get cool, I was treated to a cast of unlikeable, pedantic, horny, mysoginists bumbling their way through the plot. If you want cool space stuff, go somewhere else. If you want schlocky love stuff, there's far better material out there. If you want sex stuff, there's plenty of horny fanfiction for free on the internet. If you're an incel and love to hear about the inviolate truths about gender relations,.first, reconsider your life, but if you choose to double down, Jordan Peterson will serve you far better than this. Ultimately, this piece of hot garbage is not worth your time or money. Give it a pass.

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