The New York Times bestseller that bridges the iconic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress with the World as a Myth finally returns to print after a wait of 35 years. An outstanding example of Heinlein's sharp skills of conversational writing, the book starts as a localized mystery when writer and military veteran Richard Ames's dinner is interrupted by an assassin approaches him to ask him to kill a man. However as soon as the request, the assassin himself lies dead across the tablecloth. So begins a masterpiece of flight and misdirection which leads the story into a massive inter-dimensional mission. The book is also a reunion with the wildest architecture in Heinlein's imagination: the World as Myth, where the Long family keeps its own calendar and fiction and fact trade places. Hazel Stone of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress takes the stage; so do Lazarus Long and Jubal Harshaw. A must read for Heinlein enthusiasts and fans of science fiction in general, this is Heinlein at this most playful.