History Literature / TunnelintheSky

* SciFiWritersHave/NoSenseOfVelocity: Rod and Jack notice a new star and conclude that they've just witnessed a nova. [[spoiler:At the book's end, it's revealed a nova is what interfered with the recall. It's implied that they saw the nova that prevented them from returning home when realistically it would be many, ''many'' years before one world saw the effects of a nova, least of all ''both''. One possible explanation is that the ''effect'' of the nova reached the space around the planet at nearly[[note]]They don't see the nova until after the recall is overdue[[/note]] the same time the light from it did, and it's flat-out stated that the portals are delicate at best, with many variables that all have to be just right. If looked at like this, the reason the cut-off happened when they saw the nova is because it altered local space.]]

* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted. Rod sees animals akin to antelopes and keeps his distance from them knowing that a herd with horns and hooves is dangerous.

* HumanPopsicle: A variant: Rod's terminally ill father (as well as his mother) will spend two weeks in a Ramsbotham field and return twenty years later in hopes that medical science can save him.

** The world they were stranded on was named Tangaroa after a Polynesian goddess, although they don't find this out until contact with Earth is reestablished, and they never got around to naming it themselves.

* AgeGapRomance: Because there's such a shortage of potential husbands, Helen doesn't care how old hers is as long as she can find one. [[spoiler:She does, marrying Rod's elderly instructor from college.]]
* AlienSky: Rod's theory that he was on EarthAllAlong is dashed when he finally sees the sky on a clear night and the stars are much different than they would be from earth.

** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] between Matson and Rod. Any planet used for the survival test would be Earth-like, and if it wasn't Earth-like the students would be informed about hazardous environmental conditions first. (That said, "Earth-like" covers a range of conditions -- the survival world will have breathable air, but might have a hostile climate, and students are expected to show up prepared accordingly.)
* AlwaysAChildToParent: This is Rod's experience when he returns home; despite having led a colony for years, when he finally gets back his parents expect him to move back in with them and are concerned about things like whether he will have to repeat the semester in high school and if the people with whom he spent years stranded are "desirable companionship for a young boy". This is exacerbated by the fact the his parents spent most of the time that he was gone in a YearOutsideHourInside device, and while they've had his situation explained to them it's hard for them to even grasp even the amount of time that has passed, let alone how much he's been matured by his experiences.

** The reason Helen recommends that Rod takes only a knife: a gun's power will give Rod a false sense of courage and safety, which would possibly get him killed. A knife is only so much better than being unarmed and his vulnerability will make him paranoid enough to avoid conflicts and survive. Helen knows from experience. She took a gun on her own survival test, and losing it saved her life; she ran from a native beast rather than fighting it and learned later that the creatures were virtually ImmuneToBullets. Having no gun immediately makes Rod more cautious when he arrives; he elects to crawl downwind, since that would give him the best chance of seeing anything that was hunting him.

* HiddenPurposeTest: Subverted. When the deadline passes and the students are never recalled, Rod hypothesizes that rather than survive for a set period of time and then be picked up, the ''real'' test is to figure out that they were on EarthAllAlong and make their way to safety; however, one look at the AlienSky tells him they are nowhere near earth.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Caroline goes barefoot to the test.

* BladeOnAStick: Literally, Rod makes the colony's first spear by lashing [[ICallItVera Colonel Bowie]] to a wooden shaft. In light of the [[spoiler: dopy joe invasion]], all of the other colonists follow suit.

* WhatAnIdiot: Jimmy asks if Rod was born stupid or studies it when he learns that Rod can't tell Jack is a girl. Rod accidentally brought the subject up, by making a number of rapid-fire comments referring to Jack as "he" and "boy". [[invoked]]

* GenderNeutralWriting: Rod meets Jack, and doesn't realize her name is short for "Jacqueline" until Jimmy tells him she's a girl. Up until then there had been no explicit reference to Jack's gender.

* HiddenPurposeTest: Subverted. When the deadline passes and the students are never recalled, Rod hypothesizes that the ''real'' test is to figure out that they were on EarthAllAlong and make their way to safety.

* YearOutsideHourInside: When Rod's father is diagnosed with an incurable disease he and his wife go into a Ramsbotham field where two weeks to them will equate to twenty years in the real world. They will stay in the field until a cure for the disease is found, [[spoiler: which turns out to have been discovered much sooner than the twenty years the doctors estimated it would take. Rod's parents exit the field just before he returns home from his time on the alien planet.]]

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Averted. After the colony is established for a couple of years, Rod has a confrontation with a problem citizen, Bruce, that ends in a physical altercation. Rod is badly beaten, but is surprised to learn that if anything, the incident has solidified his role as mayor -- the colonists follow him because he's a good leader, not due to any physical prowess.

* SassyBlackWoman: Caroline. Although apparent throughout the novel, her snarkiness really comes to the forefront when she [[SwitchingPOV becomes the PointOfView character]] as seen through her journal entries.