The Pursuit of the Pankera
by Robert A. Heinlein
The 2020 posthumous publication of this 1977 manscript shows us Heinlein’s first forey
into the multiperson solipsism of semi-mad scientist Jake Burroughs, his beautiful
daughter Deety, her strong love interest Zeb Carter, Hilda Corners and their
time/dimension-traveling ship Gay Deceiver. In all, the earlier manuscript has
three adventures that were significantly changed in his eventual 1980 publication of the
work, retitled as The Number of the Beast:
- In Pankera, the Mars Ten actually is Barsoom where the gang meets the Princess of Mars and others, while in Beast, Mars Ten is a relatively boring futuristic British Mars.
- Pankera has a long adventure in the Lensman universe, while Beast has only a few pages.
- Pankera’s ending is a 30-page, rushed description of how they plan to launch a major war against the Panki, while Beast’s 130-page ending takes the gang to the universe of Dora and Lazurus Long where they rescue Maureen from the past and are joined by a passel of Heinlein’s characters.
— Michael Main
Sharpie, you have just invented multiperson solipsism. I didn’t think that was
mathematically possible.
Six-Six-Six by Robert A. Heinlein, unpublished,
1977.