BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION: THE DOOR INTO SUMMER, A NOVEL BY ROBERT A.HEINLEIN

Hello dear readers and fellow bloggers! Today I'm back with another reading recommendations. The Door into Summer is a science fiction novel by Robert A.Heinlein. Originally published in 1956 in a serialized form in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, it was first published as a novel in its hardcover form in 1957. The plot of this fascinating novel focuses on an engineer who decides that freezing himself (as a method of time travel) is a great idea. This novel is a wonderful mix of action and philosophy. The story is filled with both action and meditations. Most importantly, this novel features one of the coolest cat characters in the history of literature. Yes, this novel was inspired by a cat! Heinlein himself was a self-confessed cat lover. This is what he had to say about this novel : "When we were living in Colorado there was snowfall. Our cat—I'm a cat man—wanted to get out of the house so I opened a door for him but he wouldn't leave. Just kept on crying. He'd seen snow before and I couldn't understand it. I kept opening other doors for him and he still wouldn't leave. Then Ginny said, "Oh, he's looking for a door into summer." I threw up my hands, told her not to say another word, and wrote the novel The Door into Summer in 13 days.^[3]

There you go! You should never underestimate the connection between cats and artists. Many writers have confessed to have been inspired by cats.  If you are a cat person, you should definitely try out this novel. The Door into Summer is somewhat of a love letter to cats and engineering. I wrote this book review some time ago (in 2016), but haven't shared it on my blog yet. Today I decided to reread it, add to it and post it. Scroll down to read my full review. 

THE DOOR INTO SUMMER, A NOVEL BY ROBERT A.HEINLEIN

Are you a science fiction reader who is also cat person? If yes, you’re definitely in for a treat. This novel dwells much on a friendship between its protagonist and Dan and his cat Pete (full name Petronius the Arbiter).

 Pete is an amazingly written cat character if there ever was one. Yes, cat lovers will surely appreciate this one. Cat owners will understand that cats like Pete are as rare as true love and only come once in a life time, if we’re lucky, hence they will understand what makes Pete so special to Dan, his owner. However, even if you happen to dislike or hate cats, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the ingenious way Pete is described. That’s just plain good writing.

“While still a kitten, all fluff and buzzes, Pete had worked out a simple philosophy. I was in charge of quarters, rations, and weather; he was in charge of everything else. But he held me especially responsible for weather. Connecticut winters are good only for Christmas cards; regularly that winter Pete would check his own door, refuse to go out of it because of that unpleasant white stuff beyond it (he was no fool), then badger me to open a people door. He had a fixed conviction that at least one of them must lead into summer weather. Each time this meant that I had to go around with him to each of eleven doors, hold it open while he satisfied himself that it was winter out that way, too, then go on to the next door, while his criticisms of my mismanagement grew more bitter with each disappointment.” Robert A. Heinlein, The Door into Summer

DAN AND PETE- A REAL FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THE CAT AND ITS OWNER

I’m making it sound like this is a novel about cat. Well, it’s not but it sorts of is. The cat I’m talking about is an important character, not in any futuristic genetically altered pet sense of the world. Pete just happens to be a side kick of our protagonist and at one point in time- his only friend. Pete is just a regular smart tomcat that is fiercely loyal to his owner. Who might that be the owner of this amazing cat? 

WHO IS DAN DAVIS, THE NOVEL'S HERO? Our protagonist is Dan Davis, an engineer, a well written and rounded character, one could say a typical Heinlein hero. Dan is no without his flaws, but it is easy to love him because he has so many redeeming qualities. When I say that Dan is a typical Heinlein hero /protagonist character I mean exactly that.  Dan is  a very intelligent bad ass guy who is on to take on the world and won’t let anything stop him. He is charming yet bold, brave but thoughtful, no fool but willing to take calculated risks. What I really liked about him is the way he interacted with Pete. Their friendship was not only well described and credible, it was also a big part of Dan's character. 

“I have spent too much of my life opening doors for cats—I once calculated that, since the dawn of civilization, nine hundred and seventy-eight man-centuries have been used up that way. I could show you figures.”

DAN, THE CAT OWNER AT THE START OF THE NOVEL

However, as the novel opens, Dan isn't exactly shown in the best light. He might be the hero of the story, but you couldn't tell that right away. Dan is mostly portrayed as very intelligent man who is full of wise things to say about life and engineering, such as: “Engineering is the art of the practical and depends more on the total state of the art than it does on the individual engineer. When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before.” 

Nevertheless, this isn’t exactly how Dan starts out! When the novel opens, Dan is not up to much. The novel opens with our guy drinking himself to death on account of his best friend and his ex-finance tricking him out of his invention (and hard earned future glory as well as financial security). So, he is a bit depressed. Actually, make that very depressed. His cat Pete seems to be his only companion. There is also a mention of  girl who is a daughter of his late friend and  Dan seems to care for  her. 

“But liking cats is hard to fake to a cat person. There are cat people and there are others, more than a majority probably, who “cannot abide a harmless, necessary cat.” If they try to pretend, out of politeness or any reason, it shows, because they don’t understand how to treat cats—and cat protocol is more rigid than that of diplomacy.”

THE CAUSE OF DAN'S PROBLEMS - TRUSTING  A WOMEN WHO DOESN'T LIKE CATS!

The reason why Daniel 'Dan' is drinking himself to death? Well, his business partner together with his girlfriend Belle stole his patent. He should have known better than to trust a woman who doesn't like cats. In all seriousness, Dan is a pretty bad state. However, he is not the type to give up. There's an option he's considering: freezing himself!

“I was not in bad health (aside from a cumulative hangover), I was still on the right side of thirty by a few days, and I was far from being broke. No police were looking for me, nor any husbands, nor any process servers; there was nothing wrong that a slight case of amnesia would not have cured.
But there was winter in my heart and I was looking for the door to summer. If I sound like a man with an acute case of self-pity, you are correct. There must have been well over two billion people on this planet in worse shape than I was. Nevertheless, I was looking for the Door into Summer.”

The reasons why Dan wants to freeze himself are numerous and I'll go into them in more detail. There is the revenge aspect, the curiously of an engineering and a possible romantic involvement. “Nothing could go wrong because nothing had...I meant "nothing would." No - Then I quit trying to phrase it, realizing that if time travel ever became widespread, English grammar was going to have to add a whole new set of tenses to describe reflexive situations - conjugations that would make the French literary tenses and the Latin historical tenses look simple.”

ENTERS THE CHARACTER OF RICKY,  A GIRL DAN RESPECTS

 The only person he cares for in this world is Ricky, who happens to be a ten-year-old daughter of his late friend. He respects her and we suppose he imagines she might be a good companion someday because he decided to freeze himself so that they can be together in ten years’ time. Well, that is not his only reason. It's probably not the most important one either. Still, some people find this part to be quite disturbing. However, it isn’t like he wants to be with her when she’s a kid, he is romantically interested in the women she will be once she grows up. There is no knowing who that will be, you might say and yes that would be a valid point but it doesn’t seem to bother our protagonist. If Pete likes her, the girl must be o.k and will stay that way (maybe Dan believes in cat’s intuition). I would say there is nothing fishy in the relationship between Dan and Ricky, but I can see why some might consider it to be a bit weird. I find it weird as well. Moreover, I have some questions about it- Why the need to freeze himself up in the first place? Dan could have waited for her to grow up. On the other hand,  that sounds creepy,  doesn’t it? To watch someone growing up and then to marry them? Way creepier than just freezing yourself up and meeting them in the future? Possibly yes.

RICKY WAS MODELLED ON HEINLEIN'S WIFE VICTORIA
Maybe it worth mentioning that this character was based on Heinlein's wife, he even used her childhood nickname Maybe we're overthinking this character as modern readers. Nevertheless,  it is interesting to examine this relationship in the novel.  Dan wants this relationship to happen when they’re about the same age. Does that indicate that he actually thinks there is something wrong in relationships in which there exists a significant age difference? Or more likely he needs the freezing up part to make the story more interesting? I mean this is a SF novel and the readers all waiting for the story to become well more SF. 

THE SCIENCE FICTION ASPECT OF THE 'FREEZING' AND DAN'S MOTIVATION FOR IT

Furthermore, you know Dan is not motivated just by the desire to be with the future grown up Ricky. There isn’t much talk about Ricky if you think about it, this isn’t Lolita type of novel. It is more focused on science fiction aspect than on romance. Ricky is, in some ways, almost an after thought. There is not much talk about Dan's feelings at that point and that’s not going to change drastically for the time being. Don’t expect Daniel to get all emotional, it is not going to happen. This avoidance of emotional talk (or perhaps even thoughts) may be due to the fact that Dan makes that freezing himself up decision after a long period of drinking. It may be that his true feelings for Ricky only develop later on. At any rate, she isn’t the sole motivation.  Still, Ricky has a role to play, perhaps as a symbol, a light at the end of the tunnel, an indication that Daniel will trust again. “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.”

 WHAT DOES DAN WANT TO ACCOMPLISH WITH TIME TRAVEL? 

Dan wants revenge. He wants to rub it into the face of his ex. He wants to be young when she is old. Perhaps most importantly, he wants to live in the future. He is an engineer you know. He is wondering what the world will look like in a number of years. Speaking of which, it is fascinating to observe how correct or how wrong Heinlein’s predictions were. There is certainly a lot of talk about the future in this one. Moreover, there is the actual ‘future’ experienced by a man from another time epoch and you can trust in one of the greats of Science Fiction to make that part good.

THEN THERE IS A PLOT TWIST....
It does get more interesting because things don’t go as planned, I mean the freezing up and all. Dan is once again betrayed by his business partner and ex. The ex friend and the ex love interest find up about his plan and  have him freezed up in such a way that he wakes up penniless. When Dan wakes up in the future, he starts seeing things he is sure he had himself invented. As he said, every engineer has his own signature and it is his signature he is seeing everywhere! This is driving him crazy.

...AND YET ANOTHER PLOT TWIST INVOLVING TIME TRAVEL
Enters time travel. You know a book about just being frozen wasn’t going to cut it. Dan needs to travel back in time. There needs to be more action. Not surprisingly, that is what we get. More action and adventure. No complains here. As I said, this book is an interesting mixture of philosophical passages and adventure. It's fast moving but it's also filled with  meditative and quotable passages. 

ROMANCE DOESN'T SEEM TO PLAY A KEY ROLE IN THE BOOK, ALBEIT IT'S AN ODD ONE

You know I’m not even sure if women play an important part in this novel. Perhaps they don't really. We have one typical femme fatale and one angelic girl, but the relationships between Dan and them are never explored into great detail. As far as relationships are concerned, this seems to be more about the love between a man and his cat then about love between a man and a woman.  That's my impression anyway. Just for a record, I don’t have a problem with that. Not everything has to be all romantic and stuff. Sometimes it is refreshing to read a story that's not all about romance.

THE TWO WAYS TO READ AN ODD RELATIONSHIP

There is certainly a way to read the story between Dan and Ricky that makes it all sweet and romantic, but I think Ricky is there mostly for the plot development. Her character becomes a plot motivator, but is never in the spot light.  This is a one-man show or more precisely one man and his cat show! Romance isn’t a fundamental part of it, but it doesn’t feel out of place either. As I said, the relationship between Dan and Ricky can be read in a very sweet light (or in a slightly creepy one) …or it can be just ignored, if that isn’t your thing. It's certainly an odd concept and I'm not sure did Heinlein mean anything by it.

INTERESTING ENOUGH TO KEEP ITS READER MENTALLY STIMULATED 

The Door into Summer is a wonderful novel that is mostly about adventure, time travel, engineering, future predictions, action, being bad ass and all those things we love about Heinlein. It is interesting enough to keep us intellectually stimulated and there is a touch of emotion that is just enough. I really enjoyed reading it. I have a copy at home, so I’ll probably reread it again eventually (emphasis on again because I have already reread it). 

THE CONCLUSION AND FINAL RECOMMENDATION: 

I recommend this book to engineers, Heinlein’s fans, cat’s lovers, readers of SF as well as those interested in time travel stories. This is a fabulously written Science Fiction  novel, pretty short but filled with such lovely things! The protagonist is and awfully charming and smart guy and it is great fun reading about his adventures. If you want to read a novel with a guy that makes it against all odds, this is the novel for you.

Final words? The Door Into Summer is a highly enjoyable read. It is perhaps not Heinlein’s best work, but it is a very good novel. It found it to be incredibly uplifting and fun. In addition, this novel managed to accomplish what many great works of literature have tried but failed and that is describe perfectly an infinitely complex creature called....the cat.

 DO YOU WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT ROBERT A.HEINLEIN'S WORKS?

READ MORE OF MY REVIEWS:

SHORT STORIES: DELILAH AND THE SPACE-RIGGER, WATER IS FOR WASHING, SPACE JOCKEY, THE LONG WATCH

NOVELLAS: WALDO    MAGIC INC.

NOVELS: PODKANYE OF MARS ,   SPACE CADET  ,  THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST ,   BEYOND THIS HORIZON , STARSHIP TROOPERS, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, THE ORPHAN'S OF THE SKY

Thank you for reading and commenting. Take care!