The Door into Summer (Mass Market Paperback)

I love this novel. It's brilliant the way he works in clues to Dan's future past, and Heinlein's discussion of time travel is enough to make anyone a fanatic about the subject. When I think about time travel, I continue to think of this novel and its simple experimental analogies of coins and guinea pigs. It's mind-boggling yet completely comprehensible. I also love animals, and good old Pete is one of the most memorable feline characters in the universe of fiction. Finally, the concept of the title is well-nigh epiphanous (if I may coin a word). Dan explains how Pete would make him open every door in his house whenever it snowed, convinced that behind one of those doors it will be summer time. Dan describes all of his adventures as his own search for the Door Into Summer. The only possible explanation I can formulate as to why this novel did not win the Hugo for best science fiction novel of 1957 is the fact that Heinlein won the award the previous year for Double Star and could not comfortably be given the award two years in a row. The Door Into Summer is much better than Double Star; in fact, it is much better than all but a handful of science fiction novels ever published.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews   Was this review helpful to you?

Report this | Permalink Comment Comment

It's this last trait that leads to all the troubles Davis faces, as he falls head-over-heels for the secretary he and his partner hire to help run their new business of making and marketing his Hired Girl robot. Naturally, the 'secretary' is a sharpie out to take the company for all she can get, and she and Davis' partner eventually manage to screw Davis royally, leaving him bitter and willing to take the 'Cold Sleep' treatment for 30 years to get away from the mess. Before going to sleep, however, he decides to talk to his partner one last time. The ensuing scene, with his partner and secretary being attacked by his cat Pete while he is drugged into immobility, is one of the most amusing and endearing 'fights' in all of SF. The 'fight', however valiant, is lost, and Davis ends up taking the cold sleep, to awake in the year 2000.

His impressions and problems for the that year, and how he eventually finds a way to travel back to the year 1970 in order to straighten out the problems with his former partner and secretary, form the balance of this fine adventure. Through all of this, Heinlein, most unusually for him, paints an extremely optimistic viewpoint, both for scientific advances and for human nature. Lacking in the heavy philosophy that so often characterizes his later works, it never the less has something important to say about the human condition, best exemplified by this quote: "I had taken a partner once before -- but, damnation, no matter how many times you get your fingers burned, you have to trust people. Otherwise you are a hermit in a cave, sleeping with one eye open. There wasn't any way to be safe; just being alive was deadly dangerous...fatal. In the end."

A fun, fast read, and the characterization of Davis is excellent, a person you get to know and admire for all his block-headed stubbornness. The ending will probably bring tears to your eyes -- hopefully, yes, one of the doors of your house will be a Door into Summer, if you just keep trying doors.

This book probably missed out on a Hugo due to an accident of timing, as the 1957 World Science Fiction Convention was held in London and decided not to give out any Hugos for fiction. Perhaps it will be awarded a 'Retro' Hugo in 2007 - it deserves it.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews   Was this review helpful to you?

Report this | Permalink Comment Comment

In a deft double betrayal, Belle and Miles effectively steal the business from under Dan's nose, abandoning him to the affections of his last true friend, Pete, his cat. Dan is then plunged into a series of events in which he travels in time the slow way and the fast way.

This book doesn't waste time in lengthy discussion of the ethics and problems of time travel or the question of paradox. All of the relevant issues are dealt with, but are so well woven into the fabric of the story that you will only notice your mind reeling with the torrent of ideas when you put the book down to put the kettle on. Old Heinlein fans will be able to recognize his characterizations immediately and the familiar personalities only add to the peculiar sense of family that one seems to develop when reading Heinlein's books. Those of you new to Heinlein, however, will not find the characters difficult to identify with, you just may find them a little stereotyped or cliched, initially, but this only makes them that much more accessible. Welcome to the family.

Any fan of Heinlein will recognise immediately the moral, sociological and political fish swimming just beneath the surface of the story. As usual, Heinlein cannot resist questioning the social mores by which we live our lives and judge others, but you won't find any diatribes or sermons in what he writes. He just invites you to think about some of the customs that we take for granted in our daily lives and ask ourselves if they really are as sensible as familiarity makes them. This is not unusual for a Heinlein book, and probably less obvious in The Door Into Summer than in, for example, Time Enough For Love, Job, The Number of the Beast and, of course, Stranger in a Strange Land. The suspicion one gets from the title of a hunt for a utopian ideal is satisfied, but the search for the door into summer is no mission on which any of the main protagonists in the book embark. Instead, the reader gets buoyed up on a gradual dawning of optimism, and although the book leaves you with some things to mull over, I challenge any fan of a great story to read this book cover to cover and not have a smile tweaking their lips on reading the last paragraph. Definitely a nostalgia book, and if you're the kind of person who reads a book more than once if you like it, buy this one in hardback ! Not his greatest book. Not his most thought provoking and stimulating by any means. It is a damn good read, though.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews   Was this review helpful to you?

Report this | Permalink Comment Comment