Tunnel in the Sky: Difference between revisions

* [[Samus Is a Girl]] "Jack," facilitated by her [[24-Hour Armor]]. She wasn't sure that he would have teamed with her if he knew her actual sex.

* [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale/No Sense of Velocity|Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Velocity]]: At the start of the story, two teenagers notice a new visible star above the alien world they're stranded on, and conclude that they've just witnessed a nova. At the book's end, it's revealed a nova is what interfered with their [[Cool Gate]] back to Earth. If it's the same nova - which is strongly implied; indeed, the chapter where they see it is ''titled'' "The Nova", and it reads like a [[Chekhov's Gun]] - then the boys shouldn't have been able to see its light until years after it happened.

* {{spoiler|[[Stranger in a Familiar Land]]: Rod's parents became [[Human Popsicle]]s (by using a [[Year Inside, Hour Outside]] application of the Ramsbotham jump) not long after he left, because his father had an illness that was ''just'' outside the current medical state-of-the-art's ability to cure. When Rod finally comes home some years later, his parents can't quite wrap their heads around the fact that he's just short of being legally of age.}}

* [[Suddenly Ethnicity]]: Other characters admit they couldn't tell Rod from Caroline (a Zulu girl) from a distance. There was no indication earlier in the story that Rod was black. Since this was missed by the earlier cover illustrators, early editions give Rod a [[Race Lift]] on the covers.