Tunnel in the Sky
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 First Edition cover for Tunnel in the Sky |
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| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Scribner's |
| Released | 1955 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | The Star Beast |
| Followed by | Time for the Stars |
Tunnel in the Sky is a science fiction book written by Robert A. Heinlein and published in 1955 by Scribner's as one of the Heinlein juveniles. The story describes a group of students sent on a survival test to an uninhabited planet. The themes of the work include the difficulties of growing up and the nature of man as a social animal.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
A Malthusian catastrophe has been averted only by the invention of teleportation, called the "Ramsbotham jump," which is used to send Earth's excess population to colonize other planets. However, the costs of operating the Ramsbotham "gates" mean that the colonies are isolated from Earth until they can build up a sufficient trade surplus to pay for two-way travel. Because modern equipment requires too much maintenance, more primitive expedients are used, for example, horses instead of tractors (which can't reproduce themselves).
Rod Walker is an urban teenage high school student with dreams of becoming a professional colonist. One of his classes is Advanced Survival; its final test involves being dropped into an unfamiliar, hostile alien environment for between two and ten days. Those who live, pass the course. During this period, students are left to their own devices (though teaming up with one other person is allowed). However, there is no communication with or help from Earth.
After ten days pass without retrieval, Rod realizes he is stranded on an uninhabited planet. The survivors begin banding together. Rod becomes a leader of a small group of students from his own and other classes that were training in the same area. He is instrumental in establishing a stable community, which eventually grows to around 75 people.
The social development of this village of educated Westerners deprived of the trappings of technology is tracked, followed by its abrupt dissolution when contact with Earth is finally reestablished several years later. The culture shock experienced by the colonists becomes a metaphor for the pain and uncertainty of becoming an adult. Rod Walker, developing by necessity from a typical teenager into the hard-headed leader of a sovereign state, is the sole holdout. His older sister and his survival instructor (whom she married) visit and finally convince him to change his mind and return to Earth. The final scene shows him years later, preparing to lead a colonization party to another planet.
[edit] Themes
As in Lord of the Flies, which had been published a year earlier, isolation reveals the true natures of the students as individuals, but it also demonstrates some of the constants of human existence as a social animal. Some of the students fall victim to their own foolishness, and others turn out to be thugs. The numerous political crises of the fledgling colony illustrate the need for legitimacy in a government appropriate for the society it administers. The book's rejection of unearned authority meshes with the libertarian character of Heinlein's works. In both its romanticization of the pioneer and its glorification of Homo sapiens as the toughest player in the Darwinian game, it presages themes developed further in books like Time Enough for Love and Starship Troopers.
Unusually for science fiction at the time (but typically of Heinlein), the novel portrays several competent and intelligent female characters, including an African woman.[1] Furthermore, it is heavily implied that the lead character is non-white himself.
[edit] External links
- Tunnel in the Sky publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
[edit] References
- ^ James, Edward and Farah Mendlesohn (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-01657-6 p. 245.
