Review by Marian Powell   —   April 1, 2002

A seventeen year old boy is stranded alone on an unknown planet. He is excited, terrified and happy for he is here as a final exam. His career goal demands he take a class in survival. The final exam is to survive a few days in the wilderness of an unsettled planet. On his second day in the wilderness, suddenly, everything goes horribly wrong. He loses all his supplies and has to struggle to find food armed only with a knife. The days pass into weeks. The "tunnel in the sky" that brought him to the planet fails to reappear. There is no explanation and no way home. He realizes that he and his classmates are stranded. Now he faces the problem of finding his classmates who are somewhere on the planet. Then, when he finds them, the real problems of survival begin. They all arrived prepared for only a few days in the wilderness. Can they find ways to live a civilized life, meaning one that is above the level of bare existence? Can they determine what is a safe place to build a settlement? Can they grow crops, make clothing, make the items you need to live? Most importantly, can they learn to get along? Their ages range from 16 to 22. Can they work out a system of government themselves? Overriding all these questions is the problem of dangerous animals. His teacher had warned him to "Watch out for the stobor" but which predator is the mysterious stobor? Or is it a menace they haven't met yet?

This sounds like a lot to pack into one short novel but Heinlein keeps it at the level of an exciting and interesting adventure. In the 1940s and 50s, Robert Heinlein was a master writer of stories and novels. His style changed in the 1960s and that is why I have put his early works into Lost Books. I find that when Heinlein is mentioned, it's his late works that people remember. Those who have read Time Enough for Love or The Cat Who Walked Through Walls often aren't aware of his wonderful early works or that they are quite different in subject and style from these later works.

In particular, Heinlein wrote a whole series of short adventure novels aimed at young adults, beginning in 1947 with Rocket Ship Galileo and ending in 1963 with Podkayne of Mars. The others are Space Cadet, Red Planet, Farmer in the Sky, Between Planets, The Rolling Stones, Starman Jones, The Star Beast, Tunnel in the Sky, Time for the Stars, Citizen of the Galaxy and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. They are all excellent. I am reviewing Tunnel in the Sky simply because it's one I just reread and it's one of my favorites.

One reason to like Tunnel in the Sky is that it has three strong female characters. One is the hero's sister who is a soldier and gives him good sound advice on survival. The other two are classmates and it's refreshing that neither is a love interest and both are admired as skilled hunters. It's even more refreshing to read that Caroline is of Zulu ancestry. Nothing is made of that fact except the suggestion that she's such a good fighter and hunter because her ancestors were. One has to remember that this was written in 1955 and it was daring of Heinlein to not only have a mixed racial group but then to treat it as normal.

Because Tunnel is a teenaged adventure story, there isn't much more to say except that it is about maturation. Rod begins as a typical high school boy and ends as a man. This can be said about all of Heinlein's juveniles and all his early work. He wrote great adventure stories and always had a theme and always added interesting comments. The only real criticism you can make is simply that they were written in the Fifties. Sometimes that fact is a little painful and one simply has to make allowances for it. If you know someone who is ready to "graduate" from Harry Potter, Tunnel in the Sky and all the other early works of Heinlein are an excellent choice.

In the Sixties, Heinlein made a radical change, beginning with Stranger in a Strange Land. I find that people that like his later books don't like his early works and vice versa. I am typical. I love all of his early works. I dislike his later books, but I recommend anything he wrote before Stranger in a Strange Land.