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The Door into Summer | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $3.38
You Save: $9.57 (74%)
New (26) Used (23) Collectible (5) from $3.38
Rating:  97 reviews
Sales Rank: 168977
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0345413997
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345413994
ASIN: 0345413997
Publication Date: June 17, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: A MUST READ --- SHIPS DIRECT FROM OUR LOCAL WAREHOUSE
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Product Description
"Not only America's premier writer of speculative fiction, but the greatest writer of such fiction in the world. He remains today as a sort of trademark for all that is finest in American imaginative fiction."
--Stephen King
Electronics engineer Dan Davis has finally made the invention of a lifetime: a household robot with extraordinary abilities, destined to dramatically change the landscape of everyday routine. Then, with wild success just within reach, Dan's greedy partner and greedier fiancee trick him into taking the long sleep--suspended animation for thirty years. They never imagine that the future time in which Dan will awaken has mastered time travel, giving him a way to get back to them--and at them . . .
Once again, the author of Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers displays his genius. The Door in to Summer proves why Robert Heinlein's books have sold more than 50 million copies, winning countless awards, and earning him the title of Grand Master of Science Fiction.
"Heinlein . . . has the ability to see technologies just around the bend. That, combined with his outstanding skill as a writer and engineer-inventor, produces books that are often years ahead of their time."
--Philadelphia Inquirer
"One of the grandmasters of science fiction."
--The Wall Street Journal
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| Customer Reviews: Read 92 more reviews...
 Engineer as ideal man November 10, 2008
D. Bonar (U.S.A.)
From a personal standpoint I rate it a 5. I recall it fondly from childhood and have enjoyed rereading it multiple times since.
As fiction, a 3. Good story, clean writing, some nice phrases and ideas.
Mostly, it is a period piece now. A view to the gee-whiz feeling of the 50s that honest American engineering -- specifically not science -- could solve any problem.
 Time Travel, Love Affair, Romance, and an inquisitive Cat November 1, 2008
Dean G. Austin (Los Angeles, CA)
This novel is a blast to read. One that you will remember long after you put it down. I'm talking about years. I wish i could read it again for the first time. It's 2008 as i write this, the book's fifty years old, so i'm reading a book about the future but that future is now our past, which allows the reader to judge how accuate Heinlein was about his science fiction predictions. We humans aren't known for our futurism.
Science fiction writes are certainly better at spotting trends than bankers and economists, but they're not that great either. The Door Into Summer is a fabulous read, a great book. Cat lovers, stock brokers, presidents should all read it.
 Two different forms of time travel in one story! October 27, 2008
Norman Strojny (western desert of Utah)
"Door into Summer" is excellent, "hard" science fiction. I give it only four stars because Heinlein soon started writing at an incredibly high peak level of writing abilities. I read this novel in the 1950's or 1960's (Hey! You try to remember when you first read each of fifty plus books!) and it has held up very well over more than forty years.
Here, Heinlein suggests his version of CAD/CAM, ten or twenty years before the first CAD program. Not Bad! As for robots, we are running very far behind Heinlein's schedule! And, I could point at another dozen technical thoughts that were decades ahead of real science and technology.
Strongly advised for those who are new to Robert Heinlein's writing! This is a very absorbing tale and should have been made into a movie, long ago! Unfortunately the time-travel plot used here has been pirated by so many inferior writers that it would, now, get a "boring" rating.
Heinlein was a true master at time-travel science fiction! Read the book. Buy the book! Tell your librarian to buy the book! Give the book as a present to a teenager!
An entertaining, if short, mid-century SF novella July 12, 2008
David F. Nolan (Tucson, AZ United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am in the process of re-reading many of the SF books I first read in my youth, and The Door Into Summer is among the better ones. It's a short little book: only 154 pages of actual story text, and it reads more like an extended short story than a full-length novel. As others have pointed out, the book is hopelessly outdated in its visions of future technology, but that does not really detract from it all that much. Dan, the main character, is likable, the story is entertaining and moderately suspenseful, and if you like cats you'll be charmed by the descriptions of Dan's fearless feline companion, Pete.
The book's main weakness is that you, the reader, will pick up on clues about what's going on long before Dan does... which makes you wonder how smart he really is. And the ending feels a bit rushed - as if Heinlein suddenly had to wrap things up in a hurry. Otherwise, you'd think he'd flesh things out more, since the book is so short.
Great Sci-Fi and Cat Lovers' Book December 2, 2007
Brian Edmondson (Tulsa, OK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great book for science fiction lovers and cat lovers. It is a classic tale of time travel. It's also great to see a book where the hero is an engineer.
Since it was written in the 50s, there are some views of the future that seem dated, like the drafting maching. However, we do have something like it in AutoCad and ProE. It is just interesting to see what his ideas for the future would be and compare it to what actually is. Like with the drafting machine, he is not too far off.
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