Fiction with an interesting concept Options

[Wytil]

Several years ago an American author Robert A Heinlein introduced an interesting concept in some of his fiction novels. The concept was that fiction became real or alive as soon as enough readers beleived in it.
In the book "The Number of The Beast" the first device for such traveling was invented and off through whatever our heroes went. 8)
Among the places they visit
I wrote a short story a couple of years ago and put it on FF.net. I think it was probably incomprehensable to most of those who stumbled across it.
But then I would not be surprised, most stories with a philosophical bent would be.

[Roxanne]

Heinlein's book "The Number of the Beast" is where he really pushes this idea. He had quite a prolific output prior to that. In NOTB, his protagonists are fleeing the bad guys by using a craft that can travel between dimensions, for lack of a better term. (Sorry if I'm using the wrong term here - I'm working from memory, and it's been a while!)

At any rate, as the craft lands in various places, the "good guys" start to recognize the people/beings they encounter as the incarnations of literary characters. Some are from Heinlein's other stories, so you only recognize those if you've read his other works. Others are from classic literature, particularly the "golden age" SF juveniles that Heinlein loved, like the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, the Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith.

Heinlein's something of an acquired taste, but if you like him, you love him. But he's very opinionated, and a strange mix of conservative and liberal. I'd recommend starting with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (if you like SF) or "Glory Road" (if your taste runs more to fantasy).