It was just a test . . .

But something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. What was to have been a standard ten-day survival test had suddenly become an indefinite life-or-death nightmare.

Now they were stranded somewhere in the universe, beyond contact with Earth . . . at the other end of a tunnel in the sky. This small group of young men and women, divested of all civilized luxuries and laws, were being forced to forge a future of their own . . . a strange future in a strange land where sometimes not even the fittest could survive!

RABCK to catsalive

Thanks for my lovely full post-baggy.

In an age when rocket ships are museum pieces and interplanetary travel is carried out by means of the Ramsbotham Jump, Rod Walker is one of a group of students sent individually on a strenuous survival test to a distant planet. Retrieval arrangements go wrong and the young people are left to face the alarming challenge of an unknown world...

Rod Walker is the hero of the piece but he doesn't come across as very bright so I'm not sure I'd want him as my leader. It's a very simplistic view of group survival. I enjoyed the story anyway.

This bit amused me: "...the phenomenal population pressure of the Australasian Republic... After the removal of the remnants of the former Australian population to New Zealand, pursuant to the Peiping Peace Treaty, the first amazing effort of the new government was the creation of the great inland sea..." The power & population growth of China remains phenomenal.

Sent to Oedde, winner of the Aug/Sep International RABCK Sweep

Thank you, catsalive! It's so cool to receive books from Australia, I love it :)
This one looks very interesting, and the journal entries here confirm that impression. I'm not sure when I will get around to reading it but when I do, I will write another journal entry about it and pass it on afterwards so it can continue its journey.

I read this during my stay in Shanghai these past two weeks. Although it took me a while to get into the story, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I finished it. It's not something I usually pick up for myself but it was interesting to read something by a classical science fiction author. Thanks again for sending this my way!

Because I want to keep this book traveling and I don't want to take it back to Germany, I'm releasing it in the Yangpu district now, where I hope it will be found by someone who is interested in reading it and will let us bookcrossers know about their find in journal entry.