Tunnel in the Sky
by Robert A. Heinlein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert A. HeinleinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-03-15
ISBN: 1416505512
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Pocket Books
Book Reviews of Tunnel in the Sky
Book Review: One of Heinlein's earlier treats!
Summary: 5 Stars
Heinlein novels can probably be easily classified into either his "juvenile" novels (Starship Troopers and earlier) and his more adult, more cerebral novels, like Stranger in a Strange Land and Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
This one would fit into the juvenile category, but be assured that there's plenty of action and adventure and character development for adult readers as well.
The main character of this story is Rod Walker, who is a high schooler about to take his final exam in Survival class, where the exam is to be placed on a strange planet for about a week or so and be forced to survive off the land and a few scant supplies they've brought with them. Passing the Survival course will enable Rod to apply for professions in the Outlands - those worlds different from Earth, where pioneering has gone back to almost early Industrial Age levels, due to the fact that complex machinery like aircraft, bulldozers and mechanical harvesters all require a highly complex and technologically advanced infrastructure to keep them running. Placed in the primitive Outlands, such machinery would be useless junk in no time. Horses and oxen, on the other hand, are worth their weight in gold.
Rod and his class are sent via a "Gate" to another planet (they are not told which one, in order that they cannot study up on native fauna and flora) and Rod quickly finds himself pursued by large, fearsome predators. As the time of departure comes and goes, Rod and the others soon realize that they have been stranded there, and could, in all probability, spend the rest of their lives there - moreover it might be many generations before contact is re-established with Earth. The survivors set about forming a colony, making laws, making government, doling out duties, etc. They quickly find that their greatest menace is not the native carnivorous animals, but the most dangerous and destructive species ever known - Homo Sapiens.
Though they all started as equals, a pecking order quickly establishes itself, and Rod finds himself the de facto leader of the colony. UNfortunately, he tires of the responsibility and allows himself to get voted out by a politicking rival. All the while, life ensues - people get married, people quarrel, people go off and have their own ideas, and so forth.
Heinlein uses this book as an illustration that Stone Age cultures, bereft of metallurgy, industry, and even workable agriculture, were far from "uncivilized" - they did the best they could with the tools they had. I enjoyed this book very much, and recommend it highly.
Summary of Tunnel in the Sky
It was just a test . . .But something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. What was to have been a standard ten-day survival test had suddenly become an indefinite life-or-death nightmare.
Now they were stranded somewhere in the universe, beyond contact with Earth . . . at the other end of a tunnel in the sky. This small group of young men and women, divested of all civilized luxuries and laws, were being forced to forge a future of their own . . . a strange future in a strange land where sometimes not even the fittest could survive!
". . . fascinating . . . ingenious . . . this a book in the grand tradition of high literature!"
-- The New York Times
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