Here a humorist, so funny that he helped save civilization, has become obsessed with Mark Twain and intends to die when Halley's Comet appears, just as Twain did. His former lover saves him by knocking the comet out of the Solar system, and so becomes the most hated woman in history. You just don't find this kind of plotting in any other writer. No one before Robinson explored the inner reaches of the heart in quite his way. Since freezing erases her memory of him, he longs for her to fall in love with him all over again.
More examples abound.
In the novel Mindkiller a man who is secretly trying to save the world, using his godlike control of human memory, wipes the protagonist's memory and, to get him out of the way of the conspiracy, turns him into the world's greatest burglar. Night of Power , a work of dazzling racial insight, marks the first time any writer suggested that militant blacks might take over New York City and secede from the United States. The heroes, who are superhuman because they live in zero gravity without orienting themselves to an arbitrary vertical, progress instantly to the next stage of evolution by inhaling the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. The ending of Stardance demonstrates the author's vast love for humanity. He generously allows anyone else to evolve to the next stage too, as soon as they learn to think just like the heroes.