The Number of the Beast has four first person narrators - two women, two men two young, two older. The Number of The Beast is the first novel in which this idea really was brought to the forefront by Heinlein, though some critics think Stranger in a Strange Land is where the World as Myth first was used by Heinlein (which might be true but I’m not re-reading that novel just to see if that’s true as it’s definitely not one of my favorite Heinlein novels). Some Storytellers, say Frank Baum, were the best at creating their universes others were more mundane in the act of creation. The premise was that all worlds were merely fictions created by Storytellers. Toward the end of his writing career, Heinlein wrote four novels that were attempts, however flawed, to tie together his fiction into what he called The World as Myth. A perfect partner-as long as she didn’t talk.”

She kept her weight on her own feet, danced close without snuggling, and knew what I was going to do a split second before I led it. Today most girls who even attempt ballroom dancing drape themselves around your neck and expect you to shove them around the floor. I went on waltzing while taking another look down her evening formal. The thing to do with a silly remark is to fail to hear it. She wasn’t old enough to remember the pulps. That’s what she said: the oldest cliché in pulp fiction. “He’s a Mad Scientist and I’m his Beautiful Daughter.”

Robert heinlein audiobook