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

[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.