6

I read this novel several decades ago (3 ? 4 ? maybe even 5...) and it was already considered as a "Great Classical Novel" by a "Great Classical Author", but I forgot which "Great Classical Author" and the title of the novel.

At the time of the life of the protagonist when the story starts, there is no time-travel. But there is already cryogenics : one can get "frozen" to "sleep" for decades and be "thawed" no older than one started.

For some reason I forgot the protagonist decides to "sleep frozen" for a few decades.

When he is "thawed", he finds out that things are not, for him, the way he expected. By looking in old archives, he understands what went wrong. As it happens, time-travel now exists, but it is experimental and IIRC illegal. Still, he manages to travel back to his original time. There he does something that in fact had already happened in the future he has lived in after his first "thawing" (there is no time-paradox). Having done it, since time-travel does not exist in his own time, he has to get "frozen" again but when he is "thawed" for the second time, things are OK for him.

2
  • 3
    Heinlein's The Door into Summer can be borrowed (for free but registration required) from the Internet Archive. The (probably shorter) version which ran as a 3-part serial in F&SF is freely available (no registration needed) from the Archive: part 1, part 2, part 3.
    – user14111
    Sep 30, 2022 at 2:42
  • Thanks for this info !
    – Alfred
    Sep 30, 2022 at 9:54

1 Answer 1

10

Robert Heinlein's The Door Into Summer

At the time of the life of the protagonist when the story starts, there is no time-travel. But there is already cryogenics : one can get "frozen" to "sleep" for decades and be "thawed" no older than one started. For some reason I forgot the protagonist decides to "sleep frozen" for a few decades.

The novel opens in 1970 with Daniel Boone Davis, an engineer and inventor, well into a long drinking binge. He has lost his company, Hired Girl, Inc., to his partner Miles Gentry and the company bookkeeper, Belle Darkin. She had been Dan's fiancée, deceiving him into giving her enough voting stock to allow her and Miles to seize control. Dan's only friend in the world is his cat, "Pete" (short for Petronius the Arbiter), a feisty tomcat who hates going outdoors in the snow.

Hired Girl, Inc. manufactures robot vacuum cleaners, but Dan had been developing a new line of all-purpose household robots, Flexible Frank, when Miles announces his intention to sell the company (and Flexible Frank) to Mannix Enterprises in which Miles would become a vice president. Wishing to stay independent, Dan opposes the takeover, but is outvoted and then fired as Chief Engineer. Left with a large financial settlement, and his remaining Hired Girl stock, he elects to take "cold sleep" (suspended animation), hoping to wake up thirty years later to a brighter future. The examining doctor at the cold sleep facility immediately sees that Dan has been drinking. He warns him to show up sober or not at all 24 hours later for the actual procedure.

When he is "thawed", he finds out that things are not, for him, the way he expected

Dan wakes up in the year 2000 with no money to his name and no idea how to find the people he once knew. What little money Belle let him keep went with the collapse of Mannix in 1987. 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.

As it happens, time-travel now exists, but it is experimental and IIRC illegal. Still, he manages to travel back to his original time. There he does something that in fact had already happened in the future he has lived in after his first "thawing" (there is no time-paradox).

In Boulder, he befriends Dr. Twitchell, a once-brilliant scientist reduced to drinking away his frustrations. Eventually, Twitchell admits to having created a time machine of sorts. With the machine powered up, Dan goads Twitchell into sending him back to 1970, some months before his confrontation with Miles and Belle. He materializes in a Denver naturist retreat in front of a couple, John and Jenny Sutton, whom he befriends.

Having done it, since time-travel does not exist in his own time, he has to get "frozen" again but when he is "thawed" for the second time, things are OK for him.

With Pete in his arms, he sleeps for the second time until 2001. He greets Ricky, now twenty-one, when she awakes. They leave for Brawley to retrieve her possessions from storage, and then are married in Yuma. Setting himself up as an independent inventor, he uses Ricky's Hired Girl stock to make changes at Geary, settling back to watch the healthy competition with Aladdin.

As far as being a Great Classic Novel, Door into Summer was voted as one of the top 50 SF novels of all times in three different Locus surveys

8
  • If accepted, it will be a dupe of scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175073/…
    – FuzzyBoots
    Sep 30, 2022 at 2:48
  • And was this published as a "great classic novel"?
    – Valorum
    Sep 30, 2022 at 7:07
  • @Valorum When I read it, in the 70's or later, it was already considered as a "great classic novel". I did not say anything about its original publication time... I was born, but coud not read yet at that time...
    – Alfred
    Sep 30, 2022 at 9:45
  • @FuzzyBoots You are right. However, while I was typing my question, I was constantly checking the box above the one I was typing into, to see whether the answer might appear there, but it did not. So I asked my question, but I did suspect it would be a dupe, but how to find the first one if the system did not find it for me ?
    – Alfred
    Sep 30, 2022 at 9:48
  • @Andrew Definitely the right answer ! Thanks a lot !!!!!
    – Alfred
    Sep 30, 2022 at 9:51

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.