The Door into Summer by Robert Anson Heinlin

I have just finished reading "The Door into Summer" by Robert A. Heinlein, one of my favorite science fiction writers. This is a time-travel novel written in 1956. It is set, mainly, in a fictional, at the time, California of 1970 and 2000. It deals with one of the paradox on the flow of time and multiple personae; what if you somehow step out of the time-line for a while, in this case by means of cryogenic sleep, and then, after waking up, manage to go back to the time before you step out, avoid mixing with your former self, step out again and then reintegrate to the time-line before you woke up the first time? I cannot write more about it as I'm already confused.

This novel is quite different from what I have read by Heinlein, that is the Lazarus Long saga, the novels where any of the Rolling Stones appear somehow, Starship Troopers, et cetera. It shows a most grounded engineering side of Heinlein and seems to be written in quite a nonchalant mood. It reads pretty easily and smoothly flows.

I actually recommend it if you have nothing to do on a rainy weekend or a long trip. You can easily finish it in less than 8 hours.

This book is still under copyright law and not part of the public domain. You have to get a copy or an e-copy. Mine cost $290 TWD, which was around $8.50 USD at the time. Those were some nicely spent TWDs.

Other books I've read