New Heinlein Novel Coming

Well, this is unexpected and exciting news. From a Facebook post by Shahid Mahmud.

A New Robert A. Heinlein Book to be Published Based on Newly Recovered Manuscript.

The complete text of a new book by Robert A. Heinlein has been recovered and restored and will be published by Phoenix Pick in November 2019.

Rockville Maryland. February 1, 2019

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announced that, working with the Heinlein Prize Trust, they have been able to reconstruct the complete text of an unpublished novel written by Robert A. Heinlein in the early eighties.

Heinlein wrote this alternate text for “The Number of the Beast.” This text of approximately 185,000 words largely mirrors the first one-third of the published version, but then deviates completely with an entirely different story-line and ending.

This newly discovered text also pays extensive homage to two authors Heinlein himself admired: Edgar Rice Burroughs and E. E. “Doc” Smith, who became a good friend. Heinlein dedicated his book “Methuselah’s Children” to Smith, and partially dedicated “Friday” to Smith’s daughter, Verna.

The alternate text, especially the ending, is much more in line with more traditional Heinlein books, and moves away from many of the controversial aspects of the published version.

The title will likely be Six-Six-Six.

It will be quite interesting to see what this book is like, especially in comparison to The Number of the Beast, which is generally regarded as Heinlein's worst book.

For those of you who are new to this blog, I should note that Heinlein changed my life, quite literally. I discovered him, and science fiction, when I was in grade school and a school librarian handed me Red Planet after I had read all the science books in the school library. It led to a life-long love affair with science fiction and almost certainly my current marriage. So you will likely see more about Heinlein and Six-Six-Six here in the future.