Tunnel in the Sky

[dreamshark]

Eww. The Jubal Harshaw of this book is Deacon Matson. He's annoying enough with the endless stream of epigrams and the world-weary condescending attitude. But at least he doesn't have that squicky harem swarming around him, which is a relief. Then young Rod mentions his sister and old Deacon's ears perk up. "I must meet your sister sometime," he rumbles, as poor Rod scampers up the ramp to his close encounter with gruesome death. Please tell me that Rod doesn't come back from his adventure to find the creaky old Deacon engaged to his sister!

Comments

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that. [/HAL9000]

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Her name's not "Dave". I'M Dave.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that one, but I think you're asking something unreasonable from a Robert Heinlein story.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

And the unreasonable request is... a Tedious Old Bore without at least one girlfriend young enough to be his granddaughter? C'mon, this is a JUVENILE!

[mle292.livejournal.com]

How was Heinlein to attract any women if he didn't include such things in his YA fiction?

Only peripherally related - As far as I can tell in real life, the huge age difference relationships often don't work out because both partners start off at the same level of emotional maturity, and eventually the younger one grows up.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

SNIRK!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I reread Tunnel In The Sky comparatively recently. It creaked a bit, but held up. I don't remember Deacon Matson specifically. The whole thing was very reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, published a year earlier, one of the spectrum of books that crunched humanity down to a minimalist society. Whether this was meant to presage a post-apocalyptic world, or Heinlein was being optimistic about the human race, I can't say.

Most people -- kids -- make rational decisions about survival and sex. The society has problems, but survives. Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes, and brave people are rewarded. For the most part.

Not the book Heinlein should be remembered for, but a better-than-average sensawonda juvenile in the 50s.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

It's funny - it starts out all "Lord of the Flies" with dark hints from the Deacon about how the most deadly animal is man and the early flurry of pointless violence. But then it changes gears into some merely cranky observations about the annoyances of letting committee-minded government majors get the upper hand in your summer camp. That's the point I'm at right now.

I dimly remember that by the end of the book the kids manage to put together a social structure that works pretty well, at least until the stobor show up.

Heinlein always seems to be affecting an air of cynicism about human institutions, but underneath that I think he's actually quite fond of hierarchical structure. To a fault, in fact.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I think people love to argue about RAH because he is all things to all people. Orgiastic! Misogynistic! Militarist! Socialist! Scientific! Spiritual! And so on and so on.

K.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure that didn't happen.

But if you haven't read Time For The Stars, you might have problems with the ending of that one.

[carbonel]

I can't tell you that -- but I always envisioned Matson as being around 35 years old. Remember that Rod is essentially an unreliable narrator, and one of those things he's unreliable about is how ancient Matson is.