History Literature / TheNumberOfTheBeast

* WarpWhistle: Gay's command codes. Many lead to safe or relatively safe positions ("Gay Bug Out" leads to an uninhabited field on Mars, for instance); "Gay Bounce" just goes ten kilometers straight up, and is used as part of the failsafe against TeleFrag incidents.

* GeniusBreedingAct: It's briefly suggested that the four members of the ''Gay Deceiver'' crew ought to have babies together, as they're all extremely intelligent and would presumably pass that on to their offspring. In ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'', they and the Longs have had several communal children, all of whom are hypergeniuses.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''Pursuit'' when somebody is in a "fictional" story they're familar with they conveniently forget all major spoilers to that story until they're no longer in a place to do anything about them, Hilda mentioning she forgot all major events after where the Lensmen series was in time. ''Number'' handles it by implaying a variation on NeverTheSelvesShallMeet and that a person and their fictional account simply won't coexist in the same area.

* CollegeWidow: Hilda is explicitly described this way. However, she protests that all her lovers were age-appropriate.

* GenderBender: Among Lazarus Long's family, the Burroughs are surprised to meet a ''female'', resurrected Libby Andrew Long, formerly ''Andy'' Libby and a major figure in ''Methuselah's Children''. It turns out that Lazarus used TimeTravel to find Andy's corpse (which was [[BurialInSpace buried in space]]) in order to rejuvenate/resurrect him with modern technology. In the process of doing so, it was discovered that Andy had a female gender identity (and XXY sex chromosomes), and so they worked some genetic magic to make "him" into Libby Andy.

* FreeLoveFuture: The Burroughs start out fairly conventional, but end up being decidedly casual about who sleeps with whom, and Lazarus takes this UpToEleven in his extended family, with just about everyone sleeping with everyone else by the end.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the last third of the book, many characters from other Heinlein books are encountered; including Lazarus Long, [[Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress Hazel Stone]], [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand Jubal Harshaw]], [[Literature/GloryRoad Oscar Gordon, Star, Dr. Rufo]], et al. Earlier on, characters from non-Heinlein books are seen or mentioned; including about a dozen [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]] characters, [[Literature/AliceInWonderland the White Rabbit]], and [[Literature/{{Lensman}} Worsel]]. Most notably, some real people are mentioned, such as [[Creator/LewisCarroll Charles Dodgson]]. At the convention in the end of the book, several mentions are made that the characters are waiting for "Isaac, Bob, and Arthur," which is a not-so-subtle reference to the "Big Three" authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction: Creator/IsaacAsimov, Creator/RobertAHeinlein, and Creator/ArthurCClarke. Asimov actually gets discussed more than Heinlein, which is fitting as the two were old friends and colleagues. Heinlein even takes the opportunity to poke some fun at Asimov, mentioning that he's "slowed down" to only writing about 20 books a year, and that he can have his head turned simply by having an attractive woman sit on his lap.

* BiTheWay: Pretty much all the major characters. Deety and Hilda kiss several times and clearly enjoy it, Jake has a quick flashback to a gay encounter from his youth. Only Zeb expresses any significant discomfort with homosexuality. The Longs, of course, have long since discarded any inhibitions in this regard.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the last third of the book, many characters from other Heinlein books are encountered; including Lazarus Long, [[Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress Hazel Stone]], [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand Jubal Harshaw]], [[Literature/GloryRoad Oscar Gordon, Star, Dr. Rufo]], et al. Earlier on, characters from non-Heinlein books are seen or mentioned; including about a dozen [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]] characters, [[Literature/AliceInWonderland the White Rabbit]], and [[Literature/{{Lensman}} Worsel]]. Most notably, some real people are mentioned, such as [[Creator/LewisCarroll Charles Dodgson]]. At the convention in the end of the book, several mentions are made that the characters are waiting for "Isaac, Bob, and Arthur," which is a not-so-subtle reference to the "Big Three" authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction: Creator/IsaacAsimov, Creator/RobertAHeinlein, and Creator/ArthurCClarke. Asimov actually gets discussed more than Heinlein, which is fitting as the two were old friends and colleagues.
** Heinlein even takes the opportunity to poke some fun at Asimov, mentioning that he's "slowed down" to only writing about 20 books a year, and that he can have his head turned simply by having an attractive woman sit on his lap.

* MeaningfulName: Zebediah ''John Carter'' and ''Dejah Thoris'' Burroughs were both intentionally named (by their parents) for characters in the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series. This is {{Lampshaded}} by the characters themselves, who are naturally both fans of it.
** Every villain's name is an anagram of either Heinlein's name, or of his wife Virginia's.

* PhonyDegree: Zeb twists this trope into a pretzel. His doctorate in education came from a legitimate university, and he met all academic requirements. He freely admits to deliberately gaming the system to get that degree, to show that degrees ''per se'' are meaningless.
** Apparently Lazarus owns a diploma mill in his home timeline/universe.

** TeleportersAndTransporters: The Borroughs device. Also Gay Deceiver after the device is mounted in her.
** TeleFrag: After a moment of in-universe FridgeHorror, Gay gets programmed with steps to avoid this. Not that it keeps them from almost crashing into things at their destination by normal means...
** WarpWhistle: Gay's command codes. Many lead to safe or relatively safe positions ("Gay Bug Out" leads to an uninhabited field on Mars, for instance); "Gay Bounce" just goes ten kilometers straight up, and is used as part of the failsafe against TeleFrag incidents.

* TimeTravel: Thanks to the Burroughs device. It turns out that time is only one of the major dimensional axes that one can travel on; there are two others in addition to the traditional four, and any of them can be accessed by rotation or translation, providing a number of possible universes approaching infinity.
** It is notable that Lazarus' universe ''already'' featured TimeTravel prior to the Burroughs' arrival; it was merely inconvenient and difficult to calculate properly, and only worked within the one universe.
* TitleDrop: The "NumberOfTheBeast" is mentioned several times. Also, at one point near the end, Jubal Harshaw is discussing culture shock, and calls himself a "Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand," which is the title of the book that he's from. Deety also claims ''not'' to be a "stranger in a strange land" in Oz, as she is so familiar with the stories.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In the last third of the book, many characters from other Heinlein books are encountered; including Lazarus Long, [[Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress Hazel Stone]], [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand Jubal Harshaw]], [[Literature/GloryRoad Oscar Gordon, Star, Dr. Rufo]], et al. Earlier on, characters from non-Heinlein books are seen or mentioned; including about a dozen [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]] characters, [[Literature/AliceInWonderland the White Rabbit]], and [[Literature/{{Lensman}} Worsel]]. Most notably, some real people are mentioned, such as [[Creator/LewisCarroll Charles Dodgson]]. At the convention in the end of the book, several mentions are made that the characters are waiting for "Isaac, Bob, and Arthur," which is a not-so-subtle reference to the "Big Three" authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction: Creator/IsaacAsimov, Creator/RobertAHeinlein, and ArthurCClarke. Asimov actually gets discussed more than Heinlein, which is fitting as the two were old friends and colleagues.

The plot centers around four geniuses, Zebediah ("Zeb") John Carter, Dejah Thoris ("Deety") Burroughs, her father Jacob, and their friend Hilda Mae, who find themselves embarking on a zany romp through TheMultiverse thanks to Jacob's newly invented time machine. Along the way, they discover that every single fictional universe ever invented by anyone is real and can be accessed by shifting one's dimensional coordinates appropriately, which ends up taking them into the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series, Literature/JohnCarterOfMars, the [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz stories]], and many other fictional worlds before they end up in the world of Heinlein's own archprotagonist Lazarus Long. Throughout this process, they are pursued by marauding interdimensional adversaries with the power to rewrite history, who end up possibly being controlled by a rival Author. The book ends with the Burroughs and Carters (as Zeb and Hilda have married Deety and Jacob, respectively) joining Lazarus Long's extended family and staging a convention for all the fictional heroes of the multiverse.

The plot centers around four geniuses, Zebediah ("Zeb") John Carter, Dejah Thoris ("Deety") Burroughs, her father Jacob, and their friend Hilda Mae, who find themselves embarking on a zany romp through TheMultiverse thanks to Jacob's newly invented time machine. Along the way, they discover that every single fictional universe ever invented by anyone is real and can be accessed by shifting one's dimensional coordinates appropriately, which ends up taking them into the Literature/{{Lensman}} series, Literature/JohnCarterOfMars, the [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz stories]], and many other fictional worlds before they end up in the world of Heinlein's own archprotagonist Lazarus Long. Throughout this process, they are pursued by marauding interdimensional adversaries with the power to rewrite history, who end up possibly being controlled by a rival Author. The book ends with the Burroughs and Carters (as Zeb and Hilda have married Deety and Jacob, respectively) joining Lazarus Long's extended family and staging a convention for all the fictional heroes of the multiverse.

The plot centers around four geniuses, Zebediah ("Zeb") John Carter, Dejah Thoris ("Deety") Burroughs, her father Jacob, and their friend Hilda Mae, who find themselves embarking on a zany romp through TheMultiverse thanks to Jacob's newly invented time machine. Along the way, they discover that every single fictional universe ever invented by anyone is real and can be accessed by shifting one's dimensional coordinates appropriately, which ends up taking them into the Literature/{{Lensman}} series, Literature/JohnCarterOfMars, the [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz stories]], and many other fictional worlds before they end up in the world of Heinlein's own archprotagonist Lazarus Long. Throughout this process, they are pursued by marauding interdimensional adversaries with the power to rewrite history, who end up possibly being controlled by a rival Author. The book ends with the Burroughs (as Zeb and Hilda have married Deety and Jacob, respectively) joining Lazarus Long's extended family and staging a convention for all the fictional heroes of the multiverse.