Тут прекрасно все. Історія , подорожі в часі, сюжетні повороти та кіт❤️

This book is pretty different from what I usually read and enjoy. The story, style and protagonist are very much of its time and none of them are what I usually gravitate towards, but the compelling writing, the subtle humor and especially the strong relationship between Dan and his cat Pete made me like this a lot.

It´s less about time travel than it is about ingenuity: a good part is about the protagonist´s company and inventions and about him trying to get his way. Time travel just happens at the end, but we still get to see a good deal of two imagined futures, now both in our past. Dan is an interesting character, he probably appealed to the everyday man of the time and still to some men today, but I wonder how intentional some of his flaws are. He obviously has a messed-up relationship to the women in his life, as proven again by the ending and he can be pretty annoying and oblivious to some things around him, but part of me still reads him as essentially the unquestioned good guy.

For me, the book was fascinating in many ways, even if the focus of the story was not where I thought it would be.

L'epoca d'oro della fantascienza non smetterà mai di stupirci.

What happens when you combine one-way time travel with suspended animation? In this case, an old-fashioned Heinlein novel, which would not have been old-fashioned while he was writing it. From the vantage point of his entire oeuvre, it fits in nicely in the middle, not quite one of his juveniles, but not yet the wilder flights of science fiction he would drift toward.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

For today's standards it is a rather short novel with Heinlein still in his early stage, trying to develop the style that later led to his major works, and short is better in this case. It is told first person perspective and this makes things difficult for the narrative part but better for the introspective one.
There are no discussions of time travel issues or paradoxes to be solved, still the book is enjoyable, but if you want science fiction with any depth or emotional resonance, don't expect to find it here, with the exception that he loves the world of the future but dreams of his friends from the past. The future holds things Dan has never dreamed of, but it also holds a really strange past for him— when he wakes up in 2000, much has changed...some of these changes are good. But there are a couple of things that just don't make sense. Things with no easy answer...without time travel, like his gradual realization that many people he never met seem to remember seeing him before. Unfortunately all the things Heinlein assumes will be easy turn out to be almost impossible, and all the things he thinks will be impossible turn out to be easy but one of the problems with writing science fiction set in the near future is the fast transition from "near future" to "did not happen past." To be fair, remember that this book is the product of its time, the 50s.

This is a rare book, one of those that makes you want to read it forever, over and over. Makes you sad that it is finished. Makes you sad that there is no more.

Wistful and smile are two words which come to mind.

Only two though, can't get too carried away.

Después de muchísimos años de leerla, en mi segunda lectura del texto, me sigue pareciendo una magnifica novela del gran autor Robert A. Heilein....ya decía Asimov que envidiaba la pluma del escritor por su dinamismo, y es que Heinlein es grande por muchas cosas, pero sobretodo, por no querer atiborrar a lector del 'material refinado' en sus narraciones para que éste sepa lo listo que es y cuanto sabe (cosa de la que pecan casi todos su contemporáneos; Asimov, K. Dick..), lo que hace que la obra se torne densa para algunos en ocasiones ,y quizá, insoportable para otros; y lo digo yo, que he leído todo las historias de robots de Asimov, y me encantan, pero sí encuentro que dos de sus personajes principales en éstas historias filosofan demasiado y te envuelven (escojo la palabra porqué lo hacen en demasía) de detalles técnicos

Pero dejo de enrollarme y voy allá con una pincelada del argumento...

Nuestro personaje principal se llama Daniel Davis, y es un ingeniero mecánico que junto a su mejor amigo y compañero de ejercito y combate en la guerra de las seis semanas, Miles, fundan una compañía que se encarga de crear androides domésticos. En pleno auge de su carrera como creador, ultimando su más perfecto modelo de androide que revolucionará el mercado,con la compañía de su inestimable minino Pet (también ex compañero de batallas) y a poco de casarse con la mujer que quiere ( Belle, secretaria de la empresa), Dan se encuentra de un día para otro de tenerlo todo a la nada....lo que le 'impulsa' a la decisión tomar el largo sueño, hibernar durante 30 años, del 1970 al 2000....¿podrá enmendar su pasado y perdonar a sus traidores? ¿qué le deparará el presente a éste durmiente en el tiempo?

Opinión:

Empezamos la lectura, con nuestro protagonista, derrotado, en un bar y sin saber muy bien que hacer con su vida, tan sólo le 'queda' su inestimable amigo Pet (Petronio el árbitro), un gato casi co-protagonista de la narración y observador de las desgracias y triunfos de Dan y partícipe en su lucha (deliciosamente narrado y de manera muy exacta el carácter gatuno).

La narración es en primera persona, y enseguida que empieza uno a leer, te pasa el tiempo volando, es una lectura ágil y no muy rebuscada ( primero por su variación de temática dentro de la misma novela: drama, un poco de acción, film noir, viajes al futuro y al pasado, romance..y segundo, porqué las partes más técnicas no se hacen pesadas en sus descripciones; Heinlein sabe muy bien simplificar y acortar explicaciones para no aburrir). El tempo de la novela es soberbio, no excesivo en ninguna de sus variaciones temáticas, a lo largo de la narración viajaremos junto a nuestro héroe derrotado del pasado al futuro y al presente, unas veces mediante flashbacks y otras en un discurrir de tomas de decisiones del protagonista. Los personajes están muy bien definidos desde el principio y suficientemente descritos, hay un malo malísimo, un trío en discordia..parecerá muy tópico con tantas novelas que hay actualmente en el mercado con todos estos ingredientes, pero he de deciros que está escrita en 1957

La visión del mundo futuro quizá peca de pasada (otra vez os lo pongo, es del 1957), pero tampoco se da demasiadas explicaciones, por lo cual no perturba el ambiente de la narración y deja volar la imaginación a tu gusto.


El verdadero romance de la novela, puede resultar algo impactante y quizá hiera la sensibilidad de ciertas personas, pero en todo momento es puro e inocente y enternecedor, hay que cogérselo cómo parte de la ficción de ésta obra.

Es una historia conmovedora ciertamente, por lo que arraigan los personajes en ti, por ser un relato de ciencia ficción dinámico que utiliza el medio justificadamente para las idas y venidas de nuestro protagonista; un relato sobre buenas y malas personas, el devenir de la vidas en su toma de decisiones, segundas oportunidades y esperanzas.
Atención al titulo, es muy significativo...no querríamos todos encontrar una permanente 'puerta al verano' en nuestras vidas?

Великолепен роман.
Хайнлайн е сътворил фантастическо-приключенска книга, която намирам за задължителна в юношеска възраст, за изграждане на вкус, нагласа и настроение.

Нищо оригинално няма от днешна гледна точка в сюжета, изпълнението и донякъде двуизмерните герои; историята се чете бързо и с абсолютен кеф. Това обаче, което прави от книгата роман, който завинаги ще пазя в сърцето си, е изключително оригиналната и стегната метафора, залегнала зад заглавието. Тя и рамкира произведението, укротява страниците и им придава една друга мъдрост и меланхолия, които обикновено са присъщи на Бредбъри, примерно.

"Врата към лятото" е изключителен литературен образ - от онези, които ме карат да скърцам със зъби, че не съм измислил аз и че може би никога няма да съм в състояние да сътворя по подобен начин. Пестеливият му начин на употреба говори за абсолютната концепция, зад която е застанал Хайнлайн, но също и за невероятното му писателско умение да внуши тъкмо каквото иска по най-добрия начин.

Robert A. Heinlein proves once again he can use a interesting plot that is both amusing and serious to make important points about society. This novel, which was quite funny in parts, tension packed in some passages, and brilliantly witty in other sections shows how Heinlein was able to mix a pleasing concoction out of good dialogue, interesting characters, a exciting plot, thought provoking topics, and a mixture of this both scientific and fictional. A nice, short weekend read, that is also good science fiction without becoming overly burdened by science or too extraordinary.

Robert Anson Heinlein è stato definito uno dei padri fondatori della fantascienza moderna assieme a Isaac Asimov e Arthur C. Clarke. Nasce a Butler (Missouri) il 7 Luglio 1907. Si laurea all'accademia navale di Annapolis, nel 1929 ed in quello stesso anno sposa Leslyn MacDonald, da cui in seguito divorzierà. Nei cinque anni successivi presta servizio a bordo di navi della Marina, ma, nel 1934, per gravi motivi di salute è costretto a ritirarsi. Per qualche tempo si dedica agli studi di astronomia, interrotti di nuovo per motivi di salute, e poi alle vendite immobiliari, al campo minerario ed alla politica. Nel 1939, Heinlein si imbatte per caso, sulla rivista “Thrilling Wonder Stories”, nel bando di un concorso letterario: cinquanta dollari per il miglior racconto di fantascienza. Quasi per scherzo, scrive La linea della vita, la sua prima opera letteraria. Non vince il concorso, ma il racconto gli venne subito richiesto da John W. Campbell, direttore di “Astounding Science Fiction”. Campbell comincia ad acquistare regolarmente gli scritti di Heinlein, che osserverà poi scherzosamente: “Da quanto tempo esiste questa pacchia? Perché nessuno me lo aveva detto?”
Tra il 1942 e il 1945 Heinlein lavora come ingegnere al Naval Air Experimental Center di Philadelphia. Nel 1948 sposa in seconde nozze Virginia Gerstenfeld. Nel 1956 vince il premio Hugo per il racconto Stella Doppia. L'anno successivo fa il bis con il romanzo Fanteria dello Spazio. Altri due Hugo gli vengono assegnati nel 1962 (per Straniero in terra straniera) e nel 1967 (La Luna e' una severa maestra). Nel 1969 commenta con Walter Cronkite il primo allunaggio. Muore a ottant'anni, il 9 Maggio 1988 a Carmel, California.

Uno dei pregi riconosciuti ad Heinlein è stato quello di essere riuscito a riversare con naturalezza nei suoi romanzi tutte le sue personali convinzioni ed i suoi valori: l’amore per la disciplina e la vita militare, la sua particolare dualistica visione della politica, il patriottismo, la sua razionale mentalità da ingegnere. Tipico dei romanzi di Heinlein è il rapporto discepolo-mentore. Gran parte delle sue storie sono basate sul confronto/scontro tra due personaggi, uno giovane e ingenuo, l'altro maturo e smaliziato, artificio letterario noto (si pensi a Holmes e Watson), utile per spiegare un punto di vista senza correre il rischio di apparire saccente.

Credo che questo romanzo piacerebbe anche a chi non gradisce particolarmente il genere fantascientifico. Se, infatti, è vero che ci vengono prospettate situazioni che presuppongono uno sviluppo tecnologico non ancora del tutto in nostro possesso, è altrettanto vero che lo stile chiaro e preciso con cui Heinlein ce le presenta le rende del tutto plausibili. I personaggi sono piuttosto ben delineati e la trama scorrevolissima, grazie anche ad una parziale commistione con genere “giallo” che crea parecchia suspense. Il protagonista, infatti, ricorre all’ibernazione per poter sfuggire ad una truffa ordita ai suoi danni dalla propria compagna e dal socio in affari.

Ma, soprattutto, indimenticabile è Pete, il gatto che lo accompagna ovunque e che non si rassegna all’inverno. Voglio riportare qui l’incipit del libro, che ho sempre trovato degno della miglior letteratura:
Un inverno, poco prima della Guerra delle Sei Settimane, io e il mio gatto, Petronio Arbitro, abitavamo in una vecchia casa di campagna nel Connecticut. Credo che quella casa non esista più. Non era lontana dalla zona di Manhattan che andò completamente distrutta, e poi si sa che le vecchie case di legno bruciano come la carta velina. Ma anche se esiste ancora, non credo che serva molto in quanto è priva di impianti igienici, ma a me e a Pete piaceva, sia perchè l'affitto era basso, sia perchè la sala da pranzo, rivolta a nord, era per me un'ottima stanza per disegnare. Unico svantaggio erano le undici porte che si aprivano nella casa. Dodici anzi, se contiamo quella di Pete. A proposito, Pete è sempre Petronio Arbitro. Lo chiamo così per comodità. Io ho sempre fatto in modo, in tutte la case dove siamo andati a vivere, che Pete avesse la sua porta personale. Nel caso specifico si trattava di un'apertura praticata nella porta-finestra di una stanza disabitata, apertura grande abbastanza per lasciare passare Pete con baffi e tutto. Per troppo tempo avevo aperto e chiuso porte ai gatti: da qui la decisione di ricorrere a quello stratagemma. Pete si serviva abitualmente della su porta, tranne quando riusciva a costringermi ad aprirgliene una normale. Una cosa era certa: non si serviva mai della sua porta quando fuori c'era la neve. Fin da quando era un micio tutto pelo e ronron, Pete aveva elaborato una filosofia molto semplice: io dovevo occuparmi della casa, dei viveri e del tempo, lui pensava a tutto il resto. Mi riteneva in particolar modo responsabile delle condizioni atmosferiche. Gli inverni nel Connecticut vanno bene per le cartoline natalizie, e durante l'inverno Pete provava regolarmente a uscire dalla sua porticina, e regolarmente si rifiutava di andare fuori a causa della sgradevole cosa bianca che c'era all'esterno. Allora veniva da me, per pregarmi di aprire una porta normale, convinto che almeno una di esse si aprisse su una bella giornata estiva. Così, tutte le volte io dovevo fare il giro delle undici porte e aprirle in modo che si persuadesse che anche fuori di quelle era inverno. A ogni porta il suo disprezzo per la mia inettitudine aumentava, accresciuto dalla delusione. Usciva, finalmente, ma stava fuori il tempo necessario a far calare la pressione idraulica. Quando tornava, il ghiaccio rappreso intorno alle zampe risuonava sul pavimento di legno, come se calzasse minuscoli zoccoli, e Pete mi lanciava occhiate di fuoco, rifiutandosi di fare le fusa finché non riusciva a leccare via tutto. Dopo di che mi perdonava, fino alla prossima volta. Con tutto questo non rinunciava mai alla sua ricerca di Una Porta che si aprisse sull'Estate.

Якщо коротко, то мінус за сексизм і педофілію.
Ну ��е явно вона, бо інакше пояснити не можу.

Загалом, книга хороша, жвава, читалась швидко і захопливо. Є претензії до дивної анотації, вона і спойлерить і перекручує сюжет водночас.
Знайомитимусь з автором далі.

The Door into Summer was originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October, November, December 1956) and published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1957.
Unlike my previous Heinlein novel re-read, The Door Into Summer is an adult novel, which at this stage of Heinlein’s career were being written in tandem with his so-called ‘juvenile’ novels. Putting Door into Summer into context, the most recent of these juveniles was Time For the Stars, which I admired but didn’t love when I last re-read and reviewed it.

The Door into Summer is a story that still holds up very well, perhaps more so than many of his 1950’s novels, and also gives us Heinlein tropes that will be used again and again in the future. It is rarely out of print, and often appears in ‘Best of’ lists – the Locus Readers Polls have often included it as one of the best. According to Wikipedia, in three separate Locus Magazine readers polls, from 1975 to 1998, it was judged the 36th, the 29th, and the 43rd all-time best science-fiction novel respectively.

According to biographer William H Patterson the background to this novel is that Heinlein wrote this one very quickly, being inspired by a sudden remark that Heinlein’s wife Virginia (Ginny) made when their cat (Pixie III) refused to leave the house on a snowy day: “I guess he’s looking for the door into summer.” Heinlein wrote the complete novel (66 000 words) in only 13 days. No major rewrite was needed, with only some light editing that Heinlein did himself.

Though written quickly, it is clear that this has lost none of the usual Heinlein precision and style. It begins as one of those Heinlein stories that has an able and competent guy as its hero, although admittedly this one starts a bit down on his luck. However, generally engineer and inventor Daniel/Dan Boone Davis (there’s that name thing again!) is a Mr. Everyman who by dint of hard work, great ideas and skill manages to travel in time.

But to many readers who remember it, The Door into Summer is the one about cats and THAT relationship.



The novel begins in 1970 with Daniel, an engineer and inventor, in a bit of a slump. He has been scammed by his business partner, Miles Gentry, and his fiancée, Belle Darkin, so that he has lost his company, Hired Girl, Inc. Dan’s only friend in the world is his cat, Petronius the Arbiter or “Pete”, who hates going outdoors in the snow.

Left with a large financial settlement, and his remaining Hired Girl stock, he elects to take “cold sleep”, hoping to wake up thirty years later to a brighter future. First he mails his Hired Girl stock certificate to the one person he trusts, Miles’ stepdaughter Frederica “Ricky” Virginia Gentry. However when Dan confronts Miles and Belle, they inject him with an illegal “zombie” drug, and have him committed to cold sleep.

Dan wakes up in the year 2000, with no money to his name, and no idea how to find the people he once knew. He has lost Pete the cat, who fled Miles’ house after Dan was drugged, and has no idea how to find a now middle-aged Ricky.

Nevertheless, Dan begins rebuilding his life. He finds Flexible Frank in use everywhere, but now called “Eager Beaver” and made by a company called “Aladdin Auto-Engineering,” Clearly someone has taken Dan’s prototype and developed it. He is even more baffled to find that the patent is credited to a “D. B. Davis.”

A friend at Geary lets slip that he once saw time travel working, in a lab in Colorado. Heading to Boulder, Colorado, Dan meets Dr. Twitchell, a once-brilliant scientist who admits to having created a time machine of sorts. Dan persuades Twitchell into sending him back to 1970, some months before his confrontation with Miles and Belle to set things up for his future self.

Back in 1970 Dan creates “Drafting Dan”, which he then uses to design “Protean Pete”, the first version of Eager Beaver. He sets up a new corporation called “Aladdin Auto-Engineering,” returns to Los Angeles, and stakes out Miles’ house on the fateful night. Watching himself arrive, he lets events happen as before until Pete the cat emerges, then Dan takes his own car and uses it to remove all his engineering drawings from Miles’s garage.

Destroying all evidence of his own work, he goes and meets Ricky at her Girl Scout summer camp. Like before, Dan assigns his stock in Hired Girl to Ricky but then suggests that she takes cold sleep until she is 21 so they can meet again. Ricky asks Dan if he will marry her after their cold sleep and Dan agrees.

With Pete, he sleeps for the second time until 2001. He greets Ricky when she awakes. They are married in Yuma, thus completing the cycle. Setting himself up now as an independent inventor, he uses Ricky’s Hired Girl stock to make changes at Geary, and then settles back to watch the competition with his own company, Aladdin.





As Heinlein’s ‘engineering everyman’, our hero Dan has many of those traits that readers will love or hate. As the story is told from his perspective, Dan is meant to be likable, and I was surprised by how quickly I got to like this self-depreciating inventor. Ultimately though, (and especially noticeable on this re-read) it must be said that Dan comes across as a rather bland and rather nondescript character. Though he fits into the Heinlein template admirably, and undeniably does the task in the story he is intended to do, there’s actually not a lot of depth there (something which James Blish, as William Atheling, pointed out when he reviewed the book in 1957. According to Heinlein’s letters, RAH wasn’t amused.)

Much of the time Daniel seems to be there to espouse the merits of independence and self-support. He is a character who makes his way through life, despite all the odds, by not relying on others and instead using creative thinking, intelligence and skill, all typical Heinlein traits (and often beloved of Astounding Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell.)

The influence of Heinlein’s wife Virginia in the writing is again apparent, as it was in Time for the Stars, but perhaps more so. This time, the female lead character has inherited her name, and her role is undeniably stronger than girls were in Heinlein’s last novel. Here we see the capable-girl character move more towards centre stage than of late, though RAH loses a point from me for calling her ‘Ricky’. It is noticeable that Ricky asks Dan to marry her and not the other way around, which would have no doubt raised the odd eyebrow in 1956.

In terms of the marrying of his friend’s younger stepdaughter, RAH was clearly pushing buttons, but over time the scandal of this has lessened. Today, admittedly from a position of nearly sixty years after the book’s publication, I see it more as a case of exploring possibilities, a case of ‘what-if?’ rather than anything deliberately scandalous. Alternatively I have heard it suggested (and can sympathise with) that this major plot revelation was, in part, a deliberate slight towards Miss Dalgleish, the editor with whom Heinlein had had such battles with in the past.

Mention of the juvenile novels brings me to what I guess is the other major question here: Is there a difference between this and his juvenile novels? Well, some, but frankly, not much. Instead of an alien friend (as in the juveniles: see Red Planet’s Martian Wilbur or The Space Beast’s Lummox) we have Pete, ever loyal but occasionally disdainful as cats can be. According to Patterson’s Introduction, at one point RAH did have Martians in the novel but, in one of the few revisions to this stream of consciousness, removed them to focus on the main plot.

The main difference is that our hero is an adult rather than a typical teenager, and as such has a more mature internal dialogue than the leads in the earlier novels. Having said that, the writing style is still typical Heinlein of this time, and RAH is still ahead of much of the other SF writing of this time. (Though things are clearly in a process of change – for comparison, see Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, 1953 and The Stars My Destination, 1956, which would suggest that other writers were catching up.) Interestingly, Heinlein wasn’t sure that the story would actually sell himself – even John W. Campbell, his usual stand-by editor of Astounding Science Fiction, rejected it, another reason for RAH’s deteriorating friendship with him. According to Patterson, “Heinlein didn’t think any SF magazine would pick up this story since there was so much boy-meets-girl and so little science-fiction gadgetry.”

This may be the reason for the book’s success, as I think that the rapid writing process of The Door into Summer has given it a focus and a pace that is addictive. What I noticed most on this re-read is that, unlike many of RAH’s later novels, there is no flab or padding here. The prose is generally tight and lean, with only the occasional drift into homily. It may be this that has kept Door into Summer so perennially popular.

Whilst the pace that is fast, it also helps that the ideas within are as strong as ever. It is unabashedly a romantic novel, and there is some more talk of sex and marriage, but as recent re-reads have shown, it is only a little less explicit that the comments Heinlein has been sneaking into his so-called juvenile novels.

Well, that and the introduction of a cat as a main character.

Though there are links, it is here that I have suddenly noticed how important some of Heinlein’s now-traditional motifs have become. What were elements in the background now become more centre stage. And, of course, some of those elements Heinlein will re-use in later novels – the use of historical names as his characters, food, cats, multigenerational relationships, for example.

Having said that the differences are relatively slight, I suspect that if I had to draw a line between where the juveniles become less important in RAH’s writing and his other work becomes more important, then it is here. The Door into Summer, whilst not markedly different from the earlier work, has an enthusiasm that seems a little lacking in his juveniles written at the same time. Whilst I feel that there’s nothing really new here, it is fun, if you can cope with the now-dated ‘wise-cracking guy and doll’ dialogue routine. (Again, this style of dialogue was very common at the time.)

In summary, then, The Door into Summer is not RAH’s best novel, in my opinion. (And please don’t ask me what I think it is – I’m not sure, other than whatever this is, this isn’t quite it.) But it’s also not his worst (again – still working on that one), and I can see why it has stayed in print in the UK pretty much since its publication. Whilst it’s not pushing the envelope as much as some of his writing, I can see it as a potted summary of all of Heinlein’s traits (strengths and weaknesses) up to this point in his writing career, and if you wanted one book to show his popularity at the time then this might be it.

For all its strengths and weaknesses, writing The Door into Summer is clearly a breath of fresh air for Robert, allowing him to break away from the restrictions created by writing for a juvenile market, and it further inspired him for greater changes to come.