The Door Into Summer, by Robert Heinlein

[rachelmanija]

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

Comments

[nancylebov]

I need to reread it (and this time I'll write down the list of inventions that Heinlein/Dan anticipated), but I thought Dan believed that he couldn't think clearly around women that he was attracted to, but he doesn't think it's something the women are doing to him.

For me, the squickiest thing is that Ricky doesn't want to be revived if Dan doesn't show up for her. The same trope appears in Job.

[sophia_helix]

I have my dad's cover, which looks like this. I remember being very curious for years as to what the book was about, and being very excited to finally get to read it as a teen. Funnily enough, I don't remember the actual book all that well, just that all my dad's Heinlein books, purchased in the '70s or '80s, looked exciting.

[fitzcamel]

I've always loved those covers.

[tekalynn]

We tell our cat that he's looking for the door into summer, whenever we open an outside door and he's terribly disappointed to find it's dark/cold/rainy/feline-displeasing, instead of warm and sunny as Outside always should be in his worldview.

[gaudior]

Awww!

[gaudior]

WORST DOOR INTO FIRE COVER EVER.

Ours is this one,, with the naked blue goddess-- which until now, Lila points out, we had thought was the worst possible cover. BUT APPARENTLY NOT.

The Heinlein sounds interesting...

[flemmings]

I have that too! With the photoshopped Horse On Fire! if they had Photoshop in the 80s...

[jinian]

Horse On Fire seems to be a theme for this book's covers.

[rachelmanija]

To be fair, the book does contain a horse on fire. That's the shapeshifting fire elemental. (Who later ends up in a group marriage with all the other protagonists. By the way.)

[tool_of_satan]

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.

Heinlein's style definitely varied, possibly in accord with the central characters of the books - the protagonists of Tunnel in the Sky and Space Cadet are both bland, and so is the prose.

It may also have something to do with first person vs. third person narration, given that Space Suit and this book are both first. I don't think any of the other juveniles are in first. Double Star is, and also has a decent prose style.

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.I hadn't thought about it, but that makes sense. The only Heinlein

[tool_of_satan]

I was wrong - Podkayne of course has first-person narration (and a distinctive prose style, with distinctive != good) and so does Farmer in the Sky. Farmer isn't one I'd really recommend - not awful, but somewhat dull and with a weird tacked-on ending.

[strangerian]

I'd guess the prose style is better in general in Heinlein's books for adults (until he got cranky and self-indulgent). The juveniles don't have much "written down" feel, but it's clear they were meant for a different audience. Possibly they just had to go through a different set of editors.

[readsalot]

Definitely different editors--if you read Grumbles from the Grave, you can see him complaining mightily about the editor of the juveniles, who apparently insisted on a very prim writing style.