History ReassignedToAntarctica / Literature

* In HarryTurtledove's ''RuledBritannia'', Lieutenant de Vega is constantly threatening his lazy servant with reassignment to Scotland until he gets some better blackmail.

* In RickCook's ''Literature/LimboSystem'', about a third of the people onboard were sent as punishment or exile of some kind.
* In MichaelFlynn's ''[[Literature/SpiralArm January Dancer]]'', Fa Li complained too often that the Rift was not watched closely enough and got sent there.

* In TomSharpe's ''Wilt on High'', the hapless security officer at the USAF base in Cambridgeshire (which Henry Wilt manages to reduce to inoperable paralysis) is eventually re-assigned from his plum posting in England to duty in Nome, Alaska.
* ''AmericaTheBook'' mentions that Ambassadorial duties tend to take the form of a) old friends or campaign backers of the President being assigned to nice places, and b) people who annoy the President being banished to some mosquito-infested backwater nobody cares about for a few years.

* ''VanityFair'': The Marquis of Steyne arranges to have Captain Crawley made governor of remote Coventry Island after Crawley catches his wife Becky in a compromising position with the Marquis.

* ''Rally Round the Flag, Boys!'' by Max Shulman begins with Guido di Maggio facing reassignment to Alaska, which he manages to avoid at the last moment by offering to conduct a public relations campaign for a Nike missile installation in Putnam's Landing, where he was born and raised and his fiancée is currently living. The civilian-hating Captain Walker Hoxie, however, is revolted at his being assigned to take command of said installation. [[spoiler:The public relations campaign ends in disaster, and Guido ends up sent to Alaska anyway.]]

* In ''{{Literature/Paranoia}}'', Adam Cassidy reads up on Golddust, an old and obsolete technology compared to wifi. He tells Nora, his manager, about a rumor he heard about how it is obsolete and how Sony isn't going to go with it. Later, he gets a good plan of action on how to use Golddust for military purposes. The head of the company, Goddard, approves of this plan. Nora, wanting to get rid of someone who showed her up in a board meeting in front of her boss, puts in to transfer to North Carolina. He is saved at the last minute by Goddard making him his personal assistant, as he was rather impressed by his notes in the meeting.

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* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Reynard is named the Baron of Maleperduys at the end of the first book, an underpopulated fief that's mostly a forest with dangerous Chimera living in it. It's also basically behind enemy lines. The gesture was meant as an very unsubtle insult by Nobel, and no one actually expects him to go there, let alone rule. ''He does''.

* Happens quite literally in Literature/The Supernaturalist when [[spoiler:Ellen Faustino survives. Her boss admits that the Un-spec Four project was going well before the Supernaturalists came and exposed it, and since everyone thinks she's dead, she's allowed to continue it. But since they need to be "sneakier" about it, she has to continue it]] in The South Pole.

* In GrahamMcNeill 's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''Storm of Iron'', Major Tedeski is an remote outpost [[BackStory after]] having been caught drunk on duty.

* In ''TheThornBirds'', Father Ralph has been assigned to a remote area of Australia for reasons he [[NoodleIncident initially refuses to reveal]] before finally admitting that he was disrespectful to a senior clergy.

* Inverted in ''CiaphasCain'': the titular character wants nothing more than a backwater assignment wher he won't get shot at, and does his best to arrange it via gambling, blackmail and charm. Unfortunately, even when he ''does'' manage to do so, it only serves to uncover the local genestealer cult/Chaos plot/Necron tomb, resulting in half a dozen life-threatening situations, another medal or two and the brass sending him out to the frontlines again. Or so he says, as it's implied several times he gets bored rather easily.

* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', Bernard Marx is initially threatened with being reassigned to Iceland for being a nonconformist, but he manages to avoid this by presenting some skeletons from his superior's closet just when he's about to do this. In the end, both Bernard and his friend and fellow individualist Helmholtz Watson face being sent to "an island" by their highest superior; it's standard procedure to send people who start to think too much and rock the boat to various islands where they can hang out with each other and not bother anyone else. It can even be seen as a good thing for those people, as they can get away from the oppressive society and among people like themselves.

* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', at the end Bernard Marx and his friend Helmholtz Watson are sent to Iceland and the Falkland islands respectively. Helmholtz even looks forward to living on the remote Falkland Islands, where he can become a serious writer.

* ''The House of Life'' in the KaneChronicles series by Rick Riordan has 365 nomes (That is, places that members can be assigned to) the first is Egypt, where it was founded. 365 is literally Antarctica, populated only by "a few cold magicians and some magic penguins."

** The ''{{Timeline 191}}'' series features recommendations along the lines of "heading up the Coast Guard in Nebraska" for officers who screw up badly enough. ([[DontExplainTheJoke Nebraska is landlocked]].)

* In LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' young Miles, who has already developed a reputation for treating his superiors as "cattle to be driven" graduates from the Imperial Academy and is assigned as weather officer to a brutal training camp nicknamed "Camp Permafrost" in order to teach him a lesson in subordination. He finds himself under the command of a [[GeneralRipper homicidal psychopath]] who was also ReassignedToAntarctica for suspected war crimes. Cue ReassignmentBackfire[[note]]in a [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zagged]] sort of way. It's really awful for his superior, but not hot for him either. He eventually recovers. The superior does ''not''[[/note]].
** It turns out that this, like so many things about the Vorkosigan family, is genetic. Miles's father Aral explains to Miles that he was once CO of Camp Permafrost for about six months "During the period when my career was, so to speak, in political eclipse." When Miles asked him about his experiences Aral admitted he was [[DrowningMySorrows drunk most of the time]].
*** In an earlier book we learned that Aral's first command after Camp Permafrost, the cruiser ''General Vorkraft'', was nicknamed "Vorkosigan's Leper Colony" because of all of the NewMeat, political unreliables, screwups and borderline psycho cases that were assigned to his command as punishment for him and for them. Not surprisingly this also resulted in an ReassignmentBackfire because Vorkosigan epitomizes AFatherToHisMen.
** Lt. Vormoncrief, as mentioned in the page quote, gets sent to the above-mentioned Camp Permafrost in ''A Civil Campaign''. Spreading phony murder accusations about an Imperial Auditor (who happens to be the Emperor's foster brother) because they got the girl you were after? Likely to really tick off the Emperor. ''Convincing'' people that the Emperor is too incompetent to keep peace in the capital, two weeks before his wedding? [[ReassignedToAntarctica Reassignment to Antarctica]], and lucky to be laundry officer when you get there.

*** In Ivan's case it is something of a subversion. Ivan and his wife are assigned to a minor consular post which they find was incompetently run, but not particularly worse and more or less comfortable. After Ivan streamlines the local system so it can run efficiently(and thus have no disturbances incompatible with his standards of sloth)he simply goes on vacation. When last we see him he is cuddling with his wife on the beach and sipping "girlie drinks".

* Chigago PD's Special Investigations (SI) department in ''TheDresdenFiles''. The division is nominally for handling "weird" stuff, some of which is actually magic. However, it also happens to be professional Siberia in CPD-politics-land. Dresden comments on this from time to time, mostly because these are some of the sharpest, and bravest (Loup-garu incident anyone?) agents in the police force, but they either pissed off their previous bosses, or some major politician. Probably both. Or Marcone.
** To be sure, they don't ''universally ''land themselves there by being grossly competent and by contributing to civil order and [[SarcasmMode such terrible things]], but the ones who stick around tend to be this. (The rest quit out. Or die.) It also helps that they have an honest-to-goodness [[AWizardDidIt Wizard]], [[BigDamnHeroes Harry]] [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch motherf***ing]] [[BadAss Dresden]].