Beastly

[andrewducker]

Dammit, I'm going to have to re-read Number of the Beast. I didn't like it the first time I read it, and subsequent re-readings have never endeared it to me, but I think that this perspective on it might well make it worth reading again (much like later examination persuaded me that Total Recall was actually a good film, once I spotted the twist).

If you're bemused by the mild porn and physical references being thrust in your face, you never notice what's actually going on ... all the way through the book, you see lecture after lecture about Who's In Charge, Why Is This Happening, These Are Books We Really Liked, and This Is Why ... and every single time there's a boring lecture or tedious character interaction going on in the foreground, there's an example of how to do it RIGHT in the background ... and constant harping and lecturing on the shoddiness of writers who don't generate stories that *flow*, but just jerk characters and events around with no rhyme or reason ... AND EVERY TIME THAT HAPPENS, A 'BLACK HAT' POPS IN AND JERKS THINGS AROUND ... and EVERY SINGLE 'BLACK HAT' HAS A NAME WHICH IS AN ANAGRAM OF HEINLEIN'S OWN. (Or of someone very close to him.)

Dammit, dammit, dammit. I wonder where my copy is.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

It might be true, but I found the novel dreadful enough that I can't really make myself care. I didn't find NofB or anything he wrote afterwords to be even remotely worth reading, especially not compared to his earlier work. Watching the toll that aging takes on authors (Poul Anderson last works weren't as bad, but they were not at all up to his earlier standards) is very sad and reinforces my belief that aging is a disease we need to cure.

[nickys.livejournal.com]

If you can't find your copy you can borrow mine.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

(much like later examination persuaded me that Total Recall was actually a good film, once I spotted the twist).

Which twist? Was it the one about everything after the simulation starts being a simulation (which didn't make sense in some ways) or something else?

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I need to rewatch to see if it does make sense if you think of it like that.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

How were you thinking of the twist?

[andrewducker]

Originally I hadn't been at all. But then it was mentioned that that was the twist and I just wanted to re-view it to see if it hung together like that.