An entertaining, if short, mid-century SF novella

books:


	• The Door into Summer Robert A. Heinlein Del Rey, 1986 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 94 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Sci-Fi and Cat Lovers' Book

This is a great book for science fiction lovers and cat lovers. It is a classic tale of time travel. It's also great to see a book where the hero is an engineer.

Since it was written in the 50s, there are some views of the future that seem dated, like the drafting maching. However, we do have something like it in AutoCad and ProE. It is just interesting to see what his ideas for the future would be and compare it to what actually is. Like with the drafting machine, he is not too far off.

Near genius

The Door Into Summer was a great novel. I loved the ideas of an inventor engineer who lives in the future of 1970 and who takes the cold sleep to 2001 after being duped by his lover and best friend.
One weakness for me was the love relationship with his friends very young ward (the one they saved after the war) was strange given the criminal age difference. Granted, later the difference is less so but its still weird. If she had been some employee at the plant and if Heinlein had predicted computers and the internet he would have had a perfect book. However, take into account that the novel was written around 1956 and that technology in the prior 15 -20 years had changed dramatically I can see the optimism for robotic advances.
Too bad he didn't set it a little further in the future so that younger readers could still read it without rolling their eyes. Still, he tells a cool detective story and rationalizes time travel in a way that rebels against alternate time lines a bit. As an adult who can consider the time it was written it is still a great discovery.

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An entertaining, if short, mid-century SF novella

I am in the process of re-reading many of the SF books I first read in my youth, and The Door Into Summer is among the better ones. It's a short little book: only 154 pages of actual story text, and it reads more like an extended short story than a full-length novel. As others have pointed out, the book is hopelessly outdated in its visions of future technology, but that does not really detract from it all that much. Dan, the main character, is likable, the story is entertaining and moderately suspenseful, and if you like cats you'll be charmed by the descriptions of Dan's fearless feline companion, Pete.

The book's main weakness is that you, the reader, will pick up on clues about what's going on long before Dan does... which makes you wonder how smart he really is. And the ending feels a bit rushed - as if Heinlein suddenly had to wrap things up in a hurry. Otherwise, you'd think he'd flesh things out more, since the book is so short.

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A favorite I re-read every couple years

It's one of my favorite stories about "true love", yet not mushy at all. I'd say more but don't want to give the story line away. That's the main point, wrapped up in a wonderful science fiction story. It's very well told, a real page-turner with no slow spots at all.

This could be read by teens starting at age 13 or so, and is still a great read for most adults too.

It always amazes me how many inventions and ideas in this book have actually come into being since then. See how many you can identify! Heinlein was truly a man ahead of his time.

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Excellent read

Robert Heinlein has proven himself many times before, and has not disapointed with The Door into Summer.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Dan Davis was tricked by an unscrupulous business partner and a greedy fiancee into spending thirty years in suspended animation just when he was on the verge of a success beyond his wildest dreams. But when he awoke in the future, he discovered he had the means to travel back in time -- and get his revenge!

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