The Door Into Summer, by Robert Heinlein
Dan Davis, genius engineer, invents a household chore-doing robot (which I have to admit that I covet) but is screwed out of his patent by his partner and his double-crossing fiancée. Through a sequence of events too fun to spoil, he ends up in the future - and then back to the past, trying to fix things. And, alas, hit on an eleven-year-old. Sort of.
His evil partner’s eleven-year-old daughter Ricky has a massive crush on Dan - and, though he has never known her as an adult, he tells her that if she waits till she’s twenty-one, he’ll marry her then, even though he won't have any contact with her in between her being eleven and the day he marries her. And he does! I find this both squicky and weird. People change a lot between eleven and twenty-one.
There’s also a passage of jaw-dropping sexism in which Dan muses that he should never trust a woman after his fiancée screwed him over - but it’s okay to trust Ricky, because she hasn’t yet reached sexual maturity and so can’t manipulate him with her mind-warping femininity field! I honestly wonder what Heinlein (okay, or Dan) would have said if someone had said, “So, since your male business partner also screwed you, does that mean you should never trust a man?”
This book was one of my favorite Heinleins as a kid, but even then that made me grind my teeth in proto-feminist annoyance.
Reading the book now, I’m struck by the wit and style of some of the prose, which is quite unlike the transparent plainness of Tunnel in the Sky and Space Cadet (and, thank goodness, the icky-poo twee of Podkayne.) Have Space Suit - Will Travel had a similar sense of fun, but fewer wisecracks and memorable turns of phrase. Summer has something of the tone of a private eye novel, which makes sense as it involves a crime, a patsy, a no-good partner, and a double-crossing dame - and is set in that perennial haven for sardonic detectives, Los Angeles.
Other highlights include the ginger ale-drinking tomcat Pete (everyone’s favorite character, I’m sure) and a convincing portrayal of culture shock due to time displacement. The future is so carefully worked out that its datedness and wrong predictions become an aspect of its charm and an intriguing invitation to the reader to compare prediction to reality. This is a very fun book, if you can overlook the sexism and try not to think too hard about the romance.
My edition features a man in a cape and a ridiculous-looking helmet much like that of the X-Men’s Havok, but even less cool, clutching either a desk toy or a piece of modern art: Door Into Summer Signet D2443
In-print version, with strange-looking woman and an unhappy cat: The Door into Summer
Diane Duane’s The Door Into Fire, in which the damsel in distress is a man and so is his lover-rescuer, and the cat is a fire elemental and shapeshifter. I highly recommend it if you like sweet, tastefully sensual, comfort-reading fantasy, but am mostly linking so you can witness the utterly tasteless cover, featuring a writhing naked woman, a glowing phallic symbol, and a Knight Who Said Nii: The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five #1)
This entry was originally posted at http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/755954.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
His evil partner’s eleven-year-old daughter Ricky has a massive crush on Dan - and, though he has never known her as an adult, he tells her that if she waits till she’s twenty-one, he’ll marry her then, even though he won't have any contact with her in between her being eleven and the day he marries her. And he does! I find this both squicky and weird. People change a lot between eleven and twenty-one.
There’s also a passage of jaw-dropping sexism in which Dan muses that he should never trust a woman after his fiancée screwed him over - but it’s okay to trust Ricky, because she hasn’t yet reached sexual maturity and so can’t manipulate him with her mind-warping femininity field! I honestly wonder what Heinlein (okay, or Dan) would have said if someone had said, “So, since your male business partner also screwed you, does that mean you should never trust a man?”
This book was one of my favorite Heinleins as a kid, but even then that made me grind my teeth in proto-feminist annoyance.
Reading the book now, I’m struck by the wit and style of some of the prose, which is quite unlike the transparent plainness of Tunnel in the Sky and Space Cadet (and, thank goodness, the icky-poo twee of Podkayne.) Have Space Suit - Will Travel had a similar sense of fun, but fewer wisecracks and memorable turns of phrase. Summer has something of the tone of a private eye novel, which makes sense as it involves a crime, a patsy, a no-good partner, and a double-crossing dame - and is set in that perennial haven for sardonic detectives, Los Angeles.
Other highlights include the ginger ale-drinking tomcat Pete (everyone’s favorite character, I’m sure) and a convincing portrayal of culture shock due to time displacement. The future is so carefully worked out that its datedness and wrong predictions become an aspect of its charm and an intriguing invitation to the reader to compare prediction to reality. This is a very fun book, if you can overlook the sexism and try not to think too hard about the romance.
My edition features a man in a cape and a ridiculous-looking helmet much like that of the X-Men’s Havok, but even less cool, clutching either a desk toy or a piece of modern art: Door Into Summer Signet D2443
In-print version, with strange-looking woman and an unhappy cat: The Door into Summer
Diane Duane’s The Door Into Fire, in which the damsel in distress is a man and so is his lover-rescuer, and the cat is a fire elemental and shapeshifter. I highly recommend it if you like sweet, tastefully sensual, comfort-reading fantasy, but am mostly linking so you can witness the utterly tasteless cover, featuring a writhing naked woman, a glowing phallic symbol, and a Knight Who Said Nii: The Door Into Fire (The Tale of the Five #1)
This entry was originally posted at http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/755954.html. Please comment there using OpenID.