History Literature / TunnelintheSky

''Tunnel in the Sky'' is a 1955 juvenile SciFi novel written by Creator/RobertAHeinlein.

** Subverted by Matson during the final inspection. Students are expected to be prepared for any reasonable survival circumstances, in particular not bringing [[ExposedToTheElements cold weather gear]] is an automatic failure despite Matson knowing they wouldn't need it. A few students go overboard and bring pressurized [[HazmatSuit space suits]] and Matson fails them as well: the test is a ''test'', not a DeathTrap, and students wouldn't be thrown at vacuum or toxic environments without being informed.
* DeadGuyJunior: Jimmy's son [[spoiler: is named after Grant.]]

* EarthAllAlong: Subverted. When the recall never comes, Rod conjectures that the students are actually on Earth, and part of the test is figuring out that fact and making their way to safety. This is not actually the case.

* JustAKid: [[spoiler: When the rescue finally comes, the adults treat the surviving students like they're still children, ignoring that they survived an alien world and formed a civilized, self-governed, and thriving colony there]].
* KillerRabbit: [[spoiler: Dopy joes are rabbit-sized carnivores with an over-sized head that are slow and clumsy. Except during the dry season when swarms of them become the planet's apex predator. An army of dopy joes chases all other animals, including the massive "lions", to the shores of a dead sea were they must feast well, given the millions of bones]].

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Matson's rant on humanity's unpredictable and aggressive nature mentions that "it goes double for the female".
* NamingYourColonyWorld: Early on, Rod watches colonists depart for new New Canaan. [[spoiler: The world they were stranded on was dubbed Tangaroa after a Polynesian goddess]].

* 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 nova affected the space around the planet, it flat out stated that the wormholes 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.]]
* SocietyMarchesOn: Zigzagged. On the one hand, women make up their own (separate) military units and make up half the survival-course students in the story; on the other, sexual mores are such that a bunch of teenagers, isolated from their parents and all forms of authority, take precious time out from the business of survival to stage their own ''marriage ceremonies'' before daring to fool around. When Rod gets home, his parents' attitude is that of people who fully expect him to let them pick his friends for him. When his military sister opts to get married, it's taken for granted that she ''has'' to leave the corps.

** Against the ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''. The selfish, aggressive, students are effectively the savage kids from ''Flies'' and they only manage to get themselves killed. Meanwhile the cooperative ones are willing to help each other out and manage to build a functioning society.
** During the mayoral election a number of items are chosen to serve as anonymous ballots: pebbles, twigs, and leaves. Waxie, running on his "scientific breeding" platform needs an item to serve as his ballot. Jimmy offers a solution: the fragmented shards of a failed clay pot. Which he announces to the colony as "I'll get chunks of it and the crackpots are votes for Waxie".

* TrainingAccident: The test was only supposed to be a week and a half. Early after the recall fails to appear, they consider if its meant to be late and the test is secretly longer. Eventually, it becomes obvious that the recall isn't coming and they're stranded.
* TribalFacePaint: [[spoiler: A news crew arrives at the colony after contact with Earth is reestablished. Rod catches one of them spraying paint on his face as part of their "civilized kids brought to savagery" story]].

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

Rod Walker is a high school student taking an elective survival course, a requirement for anybody with ambitions in exploring other worlds. The final exam consists of being teleported to an alien world to survive there for up to a week and a half, a dangerous test but one expected to be overcome by the students. He prepares himself by following the advise of his famous survival teacher and his mercenary sister, and takes only knives and light gear for the test. Rod arrives on the planet and spends a few rough days wandering around, uncertain of what may be lurking around him, when he's jumped by another student and left unarmored and half naked.

Rod manages to survive as a savage until he gets the jump on another student, Jack. After the hostile meeting and an awkward meal, they agree to team up together. And shortly after, Jack explains that their recall never came. Realizing that something has gone wrong, they decide they need to find other stranded students and band together to survive, perhaps for the rest of their lives, on the unfamiliar world.

* SocietyMarchesOn:

* SpiritualAntithesis: ''Tunnel in the Sky'' was written in response to Creator/WilliamGolding's ''LordOfTheFlies''. Heinlein disagreed with the viewpoint that savagery and barbarianism were humanity's natural impulse in the absence of civilization. Ironically, Golding had written ''Flies'' for a similar rebuttal: having disagreed with ''Literature/TheCoralIsland'', were stranded young white men are living peacefully until native savages threatened them.

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

** During the mayoral election a number of items are chosen to serve as anonymous ballets: pebbles, twigs, and leaves. Waxie, running on his "scientific breeding" platform needs an item to serve as his ballet. Jimmy offers a solution: the fragmented shards of a failed clay pot. Which he announces to the colony as "I'll get chunks of it and the crackpots are votes for Waxie".

** Against the ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''. The selfish, aggressive, students are effectively the savage kids from ''Flies'' and they only manage to get themselves killed. Meanwhile the cooperative ones are willing to help each other out manage to build a functioning society.

* BadassTeacher: Deacon Matson. One-eyed, reduced fingers, decorated veteran of some of the first expeditions, including an award for being the sole survivor, who thinks that students being allowed any weapon is for sissies and would test them unarmed if he could.
** The real reason for preferring unarmed testing is that it makes the testing SAFER. If you're unarmed, you ''will'' run from anything that looks like it might be dangerous, rather than trying to fight it off. Helen tells a story about meeting a creature after losing her gun on her test that she couldn't possibly have killed and survived only because she ran.

** The final word of advice given to students is to beware of "stobor". They're very cautious around the unfamiliar native animals until they finally identify what stobor actually are: [[spoiler: "dopy joes", normally dim-witted and lethargic creatures who have an annual TheSwarm season. However, after the rescue, Rod finds out that there never were any "stobor" it was specifically vague warning to frighten the kids into being cautious, deliberate and pure Paranoia Fuel]].
*** [[spoiler: It's also revealed that very nearly ''every'' life-bearing planet has some animal that turns out to be a monster of legend under the right circumstances. It's actually a subversion because the instructors didn't know what it was, but they knew it was there someplace and the only way to not find out the hard way was paranoia.]]

* 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 nova affected the space around the planet, it flat out stated that the wormholes 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

** Averted in that, logically, not all planets are in fact earth-like. Early on, Rod sees a dignitary from a race of chlorine breathers arrive on 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.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: Most of the native animals and plants are given Terrestrial names for simple identification. For a time, recovering from a near-delirious daze, Rod convinces himself that they never left earth and that the lion-like creatures ''were'' lions. The primary exceptions would be the "grand opera" and the "dopy joes".

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Rod contemplates the flow of people through the Ramsbotham Gate to another planet and decides to calculate how long it would take the current population of the earth to go through, accounting for deaths and births along the way. He uses a slide rule.
* TeenageWasteland: Type 1, the kids are stranded on an alien world because the recall to earth never came.

* TribalFacePaint: [[spoiler: A news crew arrives at the colony after contact with earth is reestablished. Rod catches one of them spraying paint on his face as part of their "civilized kids brought to savagery" story]].

* SpiritualAntithesis: ''Tunnel in the Sky'' was written in response to WilliamGolding's ''LordOfTheFlies''. Heinlein disagreed with the viewpoint that savagery and barbarianism were humanity's natural impulse in the absence of civilization. Ironically, Golding had written ''Flies'' for a similar rebuttal: having disagreed with ''Literature/TheCoralIsland'', were stranded young white men are living peacefully until native savages threatened them.

Rod Walker is a high school student taking an elective survival course, a requirement for anybody with ambitions in exploring other worlds. The final exam consists of being teleported to an alien world to survive there for a week and a half, a dangerous test but one expected to be overcome by the students. He prepares himself by following the advise of his famous survival teacher and his mercenary sister, and takes only knives and light gear for the test. Rod arrives on the planet and spends a few rough days wandering around, uncertain of what may be lurking around him, when he's jumped by another student and left unarmored and half naked.

* Ambiguously Brown: [[spoiler: Rod Walker, and by extension the Walker family]].

* CallASmeerpARabbit: A few of the native animals are given Terrestrial names for simplistic identification. For a time, recovering from a near-delirious daze, Rod convinces himself that they never left earth and that the lion-like creatures ''were'' lions.

** The final word of advice given to students is to beware of "stobor". They're very cautious around the unfamiliar native animals until they finally identify what stobor actually are: [[spoiler: "Dopey Joes", normally dim-witted and lethargic creatures who have an annual TheSwarm season. However, after the rescue, Rod finds out that there never were any "stobor" it was specifically vague warning to frighten the kids into being cautious, deliberate and pure Paranoia Fuel]].

* SpiritualAntithesis: ''Tunnel in the Sky'' was written in response to WilliamGolding's ''LordOfTheFlies''. Heinlein disagreed with the viewpoint that savagery and barbarianism were humanity's natural impulse in the absence of civilization. Ironically, Golding had written ''Flies'' for a similiar rebuttal: having disagreed with ''TheCoralIsland'', were stranded young white men are living peacefully until native savages threatened them.

* TakeThat: Against the ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies''. The selfish, aggressive, students are effectively the savage kids from ''Flies'' and they only manage to get themselves killed. Meanwhile the cooperative ones are willing to help each other out manage to build a functioning society.

! This novel provides examples of:

* YearInsideHourOutside: The same technology that allows for instantaneous interstellar travel enables people to create zones where time moves relatively faster or slower than the outside world.

* ICallHerVera: Rod follows in his sister's footsteps and names his Bowie knife. Helen's is [[Theatre/MacBeth Lady Theatre/{{Macbeth}}]] but Rod shows a lack of creativity and names his Colonel Bowie.

''Tunnel in the Sky'' is a 1955 juvenile SciFi novel written by RobertAHeinlein.

* CoolGate: Ramsbotham Gates.
* CrazyPrepared:

* 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.
* ICallHerVera: Rod follows in his sister's footsteps and names his Bowie knife. Helen's is [[Theatre/MacBeth Lady MacBeth]] but Rod shows a lack of creativity and names his Colonel Bowie.

* ParanoiaFuel: [[invoked]]

* {{Robinsonade}}: They were intentionally marooned as part of a high school wilderness survival course. However, due to a small technological "hiccup," they were actually marooned for much longer than expected.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Rod contemplates the flow of people through the Ramsbotham Gate to another planet and decides to calculate how long it would take the current population of the earth to go through, accounting for deaths and births along the way. He uses a slide rule.

** Rod averts the trope with his sister's advice: he takes only a knife, a vest pack, and rations. Even Matson questions if why he didn't arrive with popular camping equipment and outdoor gadgets like other students.
** Subverted by Deacon Matson during the final inspection. Students are expected to be prepared for any reasonable survival circumstances, in particular not bringing [[ExposedToTheElements cold weather gear]] is an automatic failure despite Matson knowing they wouldn't need it. A few students go overboard and bring pressurized [[HazmatSuit space suits]] and Matson fails them as well: the test is a ''test'', not a DeathTrap, and students wouldn't be thrown at vacuum or toxic environments without being informed.

* GenderNeutralWriting: Rod meets Jack, and doesn't realize her name is short for "Jacqueline" until someone else tells him she's a girl. Up until then there had been no explicit reference to Jack's gender.
* ICallHerVera: Rod follows in his sister's footsteps and names his Bowie knife. Helen's is [[Theatre/MacBeth Lady MacBeth]], Rod shows a lack of creativity and names his Colonel Bowie.

** The reason Helen recommends that Rod takes only a knife: a gun's power will give Rod a false sense of courage and safety and possibly get him killed. A knife is only so much better then being unarmed and his vunerability will make him paranoid enough to avoid conflicts and survive.
** The final word of advice given to students is to beware of "stobor". They're very cautious around the unfamiliar native animals until they finally identify what stobor actually are: [[spoiler: "Dopey Joes", normally dim-witted and lethargic creatures who have an annual TheSwarm season. However, after the rescue, Rod finds out that there never were any "stobor" it was pure specifically vague warning to frighten the kids into being cautious]].

* SweetPollyOliver: Jack, her body armor disguises her feminine form and she learns that Rod has no interesting in teaming up with girls, at least early on.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Rod contemplates the flow of people through the Ramsbotham Gate to another planet, decides to calculate how long it would take the current population of the earth to go through, accounting for deaths and births along the way. He uses a slide rule.

* TrainingAccident: The test was only supposed to be a week and a half. Early after the recall fails to appear, they consider if its meant to be late and the test is actually two weeks or more. Eventually, it becomes obvious that the recall isn't coming and they're stranded.

* YearInsideHourOutside: the same technology that allows for instantaneous interstellar travel enables people to create zones where time moves relatively faster or slower than the outside world.