books:

	Tunnel in the Sky Robert A. Heinlein Pocket, 2005 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The final exam for Dr. Matson's Advanced Survival class was meant to be just that: only a test. But something has gone terribly wrong...and now Rod Walker and his fellow students are stranded somewhere unknown in the universe, beyond contact with Earth, at the other end of a tunnel in the sky. Stripped of all comforts, hoping for apassage home that may never appear, the castaways must band together or perish. For Rod and his fellow survivors, this is one test where failure is not an option....

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Beware of the stobor!

Tunnel in the Sky should be required reading for all kids. I haven't read it in a couple of decades so this review will serve as an indicator of what impressed me when I first read it and what has stuck with me over the oh-so-many years since.

It's final exams for a survival class and in typical Heinlein fashion, it is a practical exam. The class is to be dropped on a wilderness planet where they must survive until they are picked up. But something goes wrong and the kids are left there long after the pick up time.

I remember the main character's sister helping him choose the one weapon he was allowed to take with him. She was a Marine or something, which was a surprise to me since I had never read about women in such careers. Its commonplace now. Her advice to him was to foget guns and fancy tech. Take a knife. I thought, "What?!" But she explained the value and psychology of that choice and suddenly, it made sense. Later in the book, we see just how brilliant a choice it was.

When preparing for the test, the instructor gave the class one warning: Beware of the stobor. I was certain that I knew what the stobor were going to be. You're probably guessing it now, but we're both wrong. To this day I remember how I SHOULD have been right, but alas, I must live with that failure. Heinlein had a better answer, but I do think he was playing with us.

Tunnel in the Sky is a great book for young readers and a quick fun read for adults. I recommend it highly.

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One of Heinlein's Best

Long before Robert Heinlein turned his considerable talents to 500-page discussions of marriage and incest in the Howard Family, he had reached the peak of his powers with his so-called "juveniles." These were stories of regular, identifiable young people thrust into some of the most imaginative and exciting adventures in all of science fiction. Tunnel in the Sky is perhaps the best, and most memorable, of these works. You'll remember this book years after you read it, from the vivid portrayal of the protagonist's first night on a wild, alien planet, to the eminently satisfying end of this deeply engaging story. Heinlein makes you feel as if you were there for every moment of it.

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I wish I had read it when I was 12

Tunnel in the Sky is an easy, quick and entertaining read. Teenagers will learn a lot from this book and adults may learn a few things, too.

Whenever I read the classics of science fiction I have to remind myself that even though a lot of the ideas expressed seem commonplace now, they were new and often controversial when the stories were first published. The notion that a woman would be part of an elite fighting force was unheard of in the 1950's, but in Tunnel in the Sky, the protagonist's sister is not just part of one-- she's commands it. It has been my experience that Heinlein's female characters are, most of the time, intelligent and capable, while at the same time retaining their femininity, which isn't always found in science fiction. So, I would recommend this book to young girls especially.

The dialogue is dated (it would be nice if people actually spoke this way), but the concepts are not. An all around fun book to read.

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A very good read - but some problems

Tunnel in the Sky is one of Heinlein's Juvenile books and stars a teenager about graduate high school but with one last exam. The exam is for him to be put stranded on an unknown planet with an unknown terrain and be prepared for basically anything. There is also the possibility of death during the exam and this is the first problem with the book. The idea of putting high school students, as part of their HS courses, in such grave danger where some of them are indeed killed and many are very seriously wounded is crazy. What kind of future society would deliberately risk the lives and limbs of HS students like this? They also allow the students to take high powered guns, indeed any weapon they want, again unsupervised and alone on a far away planet. The other problem I have is that Heinlein basically moves the 1950's into some remote future (date unknown). This novel has 50's all over it, with the children using such phrases as "golly" and "fiddlesticks" and Cleaver type families. But these things aside, the book is great. Rod is a great leading character who makes mistakes and isn't a cardboard cutout, the supporting roles are also filled out nicely with good characters who behave like people. This book is a great read and any science fiction fan young or old will enjoy every thing it has to offer, despite being originally part of Heinlein's juvenile line-up. I highly recommend it.

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Sci-fi version of Lord of the Flies, only happier

I highly recommend this for teenagers -- and like all Heinlein, it has some good stuff in there for any thoughtful person. This is the sci-fi version of the darker Lord of the Flies (pulished one year earlier in 1954).


reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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