Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Тунел под света

Rate this book
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

44 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1955

19 people are currently reading
569 people want to read

About the author

Frederik Pohl

1,151 books1,056 followers
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
202 (26%)
4 stars
324 (41%)
3 stars
205 (26%)
2 stars
39 (5%)
1 star
3 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
Profile Image for Algernon.
1,838 reviews1,163 followers
March 1, 2022
In the middle of reading Replay by Ken Grimwood, I become obsessed with tracking down a short story I read 30 years ago in a science-fiction almanac. Couldn't remember the title, as I read it initially in Romanian translation, but a search with "time loop" as the key word came up a winner. So here it is:

On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming.

original illustration by EMSH

What follows is his routine day of breakfast, going to work, job stress, lunch, going home in the evening. But something is slightly out of whack: little details that don't ring true, like unknown brands of cigarettes and drinks, people missing from work, gadgets not working properly in the house.

Things only get weirder from here, as the next day:
On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming.

I will stop here, in order to avoid spoilers and let you discovers for yourself what happens. The comparison with Groundhog Day and Replay is inevitable, and I think the main difference is that Frederick Pohl wrote a science story, focused on facts and logic while the other two are more speculative in content, "what if" fantasies that put the accent on morality plays and character introspection. Pohl also introduces a strong social commentary element, in the advertising mishaps that are central to the plot.

This short story made a strong impression on my 16 years old fresh mind, but re-reading it now, it is a little too short and underdeveloped. The author had a good idea, put it fast on paper wrapped in a thriller form, then went to tackle the next interesting idea. I'm not really complaining, but it's not quite in my top ten or Hugo material.
Profile Image for Karl.
3,258 reviews372 followers
February 6, 2018
Frederik Pohl's first published work, written in 1937, is a poem called, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna". This short story "Tunnel Under The World" first appeared in 'Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine', January of 1955.

"Tunnel Under The World" anticipates the movie "The Truman Show" by a half-century, with a bit of 'Groundhog Day' peppered into the mix. Perhaps now we know where movie makers get some of their ideas.

Born in New York City, Pohl grew up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. His father was often unemployed, and his family moved frequently, with Pohl attending school only intermittently until he was eight. In his memoir "The Way the Future Was" (1978), Pohl recalls the homeless and destitute people he encountered as a child, and some critics have speculated that such experiences have profoundly influenced his fiction.

In the story, Guy Burckhardt wakes up screaming, but can't remember the nightmare that caused his fright. Slowly over the next couple of days he comes to realize he's been reliving the same day over and over. And things only get stranger and more frightening for him from there.

The story is free in both e-format, Youtube, Project Gutenberg, and various audio formats all over the interweb and is quite easy to find. I purchased this paperback version of the story, which is also available in hardcover format for about fifteen bucks (The cover is the original Galaxy magazine cover), so if interested, it's easy to find.
Profile Image for Adrian.
685 reviews278 followers
July 29, 2024
Ad Hoc Read July 2024

This is another novella that was cheap on Kindle, so I decided as he is one of favourite SF authors that 78p was well worth it. And I wasn’t disappointed. (I may actually have this in one of my Frederick Pohl collections in paperback, but they’re all packed in boxes ready for The Move. but I wont know for a while)

It’s a great short story, very reminiscent of the golden age and quite dystopian. Guy Burckhardt has a re-occurring nightmare that he cannot completely remember. Over the next few days bits of the dream come to him, and also other strange things start to happen, that he cannot explain. Surely yesterday was June 15th, and what is that strange truck blasting adverts outside his door. As he starts to investigate these strange occurrences, things get weirder and weirder.
Profile Image for Barbara Krasnoff.
Author 40 books22 followers
August 28, 2010
I recently reread this story by Frederik Pohl, which is one of the classics of 1950s science fiction. It is the tale of a supposedly ordinary man in a small town who one day realizes that he is living the same day over and over again.But whereas a lesser author would have left it at that, Pohl unfolds layers of increasingly horrific revelations that makes the story riveting. But at the core, this is a satire of the advertising culture that dominated the 1950s U.S., making it a completely satisfactory piece.
Profile Image for Ed Erwin.
1,188 reviews128 followers
April 11, 2020
A great, classic SF story that may have inspired several quite good films. ( among others.)

The original film version, though is not one of those good films. I could tell you the whole story of the film without spoiling the story, since it diverges quite a bit. Well, actually I can't tell you, because I'm not enough of a masochist to watch the entire 56 minutes of "Il tunnel Sotto il Mundo", and the bits I did see didn't make much sense. So I'll just quote from a review by Mark David Welsh.

An ordinary man seems to be living the same day over and over again. A spatial anomaly allows him to step outside of this time loop where he meets a man who claims that the world has ended and he is a visiting Martian who likes to drink human blood…. There’s a particularly odd scene towards the end of the film where Salviero is hanging around in the snowy woods with a bearded man in a bedsheet carrying a paint roller smeared with blood, and a dark brunette who he introduces as ‘The Prophetess’. Old beardy spends a good few minutes spouting vague philosophy before VoiceOver Woman takes over completely out of left field to explain the every day lives of the cave creatures of Mercury! ... But it’s all resolved when they get shot by a Nazi soldier who happens to be passing!
Profile Image for Jim.
Author 7 books2,089 followers
April 14, 2020
A surprisingly well crafted story from the Golden Age of SF, 1955 specifically, by one of the masters of the field. I won't say more about the plot since I don't want to spoil it, but it's well worth reading & FREE! You can find it on Gutenberg.org here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31979...
It's not too long & well worth reading for itself & its influence on later SF. It was a great pick by Ed for the April short story in the "Evolution of SF" group. The topic is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Profile Image for Patrick DiJusto.
Author 6 books62 followers
September 27, 2017
imagine the plot of the movie Groundhog's Day. even though this was written 20 years before Groundhog's Day. combine it with the plot of the scariest Twilight Zone you've ever seen. Even though this was written five years before Twilight Zone ever premiered. in Groundhog's Day there was no explanation as to why the days repeated. In this story there is an explanation and it's malevolent.
Profile Image for Janelle.
1,619 reviews344 followers
January 24, 2025
Burkhardt wakes up after an explosion in his bad dream and it’s June 15th again.
Profile Image for Richard.
324 reviews15 followers
July 10, 2016
This is a very fine example of the type of science fiction in which the idea is the main source of interest. The characters are really simply conduits for the development of that overarching concept. This story was published in "Galaxy" in 1954 and remains not only quite enjoyable but relevant and disturbing. The idea has been seen in various forms in some quite good science fiction films since but it would be quite wrong to give any spoilers which might lessen its initial impact.

Suffice it to say that I read this story when it first appeared and I never forgot it. What makes this particular edition especially useful is the supplementary material which accompanies it--a feature of all of the stories in "The Galaxy Project" series.

If you are subscribed to Kindle Unlimited then this and all of the stories in that series may be read free of charge.
Profile Image for Pawarut Jongsirirag.
699 reviews138 followers
May 19, 2021
คุณหลอกดาว !!

อ่านเรื่องย่อแล้ว นึกในใจเลยว่า เรื่องแนวชีวิตวนลูปนี่เล่นงานผมไม่ได้หรอก เป็นไซไฟที่พอเดาได้แน่นอน ผลออกมา พี่พาผมหักมุมเละเทะเลยครับ คิดไม่ถึงว่าจะสร้างตอนจบออกมาแบบนี้

เป็นเรื่องสั้นอีกเรื่องที่มีศักยภาพเต็มตัวในการกลายเป็นเรื่องยาว พล็อตดี จบดี เส้นทางการเดินเรื่องมีความเป็นไปได้มากมาย

ผมเลยเสียดาย ถ้า Pohl เขียนออกมาเป็นเรื่องยาวแล้วค่อยๆเผยปมความลับออกมาทีละนิดๆไปจนจบเรื่อง คงเป็น Scifi/Suspence เรื่องเยี่ยมแน่นอน แต่พอมันถูกเขียนออกมาเป็นเรื่องสั้น เลยจำเป็นต้องขายด้วยการเดินพล็อตอย่างเดียว รายละเอียดต่างๆเลยไม่ค่อยมีเท่าไหร่ ออกจะเร่งๆด��วยซ้ำเพื่อเดินเรื่องถึงตอนจบ เหมือนโยนเรื่องใส่หน้า ตู้มเดียวจบไปเลย

เอ๊ะ หรือผมจะลองอ่านซ้ำๆเเบบวนลูปตามเนื้อเรื่อง เเต��ขออย่างเดียว ไม่อยากเจอตอนจบเเบบเรื่องนี้นะครับ คิดเเล้วก็ขนลุกพิลึก
Profile Image for Elena B..
99 reviews57 followers
June 8, 2017
Pinching yourself is no way to see if you are dreaming.

This story is more than 60 years old but it almost reads as a contemporary work of science fiction .

I liked how it combined so many elements in such a short space. Pohl builds a lot of suspense and keeps the reader's curiosity all throughout the book - I couldn't guess the twists and the details at the end.

It wasn't just that things were wrong with the pattern of Burckhardt's life; it was that the wrong things were wrong. 
Profile Image for Devero.
5,008 reviews
April 9, 2022
Un buon racconto lungo, o romanzo breve, che affronta una tematica classica dell'autore, ossia l'influenza della pubblicità sulla volontà della gente. C'è anche una riflessione su cosa sia in realtà la libertà individuale, e quanto la coscienza definisca l'indiviuo e lo differenzi dalla macchina. Ma il tutto si rivela un grande esperimento, e il racconto presenta una buona serie di colpi di scena inaspettati, almeno per l'epoca.
In particolare, dopo averlo letto, sono certo che questa storia è stata l'ispirazione per una delle mie storie preferite dei fantastici Quattro di John Byrne Fantastic Four (1961-1998) #236 che ancora oggi considero un capolavoro.
Quindi le 3 stelle le merita tutte, forse anche qualcosa in più.
Profile Image for Jon Ureña.
Author 3 books122 followers
February 9, 2018
A neat tale from the Fallout era of science fiction (meaning stories that could fit in a Fallout game), about the evils of . The prose is workmanlike, but the plot seems ahead of its time, dealing with . I didn't mind too much about the shoddiness of the science part of sci-fi. Computers still worked with vacuum tubes back then. It also has the Groundhog Day thing going on, which is always an interesting storytelling device.
Profile Image for Jamie.
1,433 reviews221 followers
April 23, 2018
Wonderful, very well written early classic SF tale, reminiscent of The Truman Show movie from 1998. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Philip K. Dick!
Profile Image for Joseph Inzirillo.
393 reviews34 followers
September 2, 2016
A short novella by Pohl. The fourth star is for the second twist. Did not see that second one coming at all. Well done sir.
Profile Image for SpookySoto.
1,175 reviews136 followers
April 27, 2024
Rating: 3.5/5 I liked it 😊
Format: Ebook
2024's ATY in 52 books: 45. A book that is not a novel
Random pick project April 2024

Very interesting, I wasn’t expecting that ending.

Profile Image for Sidharth Vardhan.
Author 23 books771 followers
August 7, 2016
Like in case of many HG Wells' books, the many themes of this book have since been heavily overused by movie makers which means there may not be a lot to learn in it. The 4 star ratings just show how perfectly the story is told retaining reader's curiosity by bringing in different sci-fi elements like:

1. The tunnel mentioned in title.
2. The dreams of explosion.
3. The frequent mention of advertising techniques.
4. The robots.
5. The fact that protagonist finds some of details in his house changed impossibly.
6. The fact that protagonist seems to be living the same day over and over again.

I was like how all this would connect in such short space but it is managed really well.
Profile Image for Norm Davis.
418 reviews5 followers
February 4, 2014
The Tunnel Under the World, by Fredrick Pohl, Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1955

Librovox Audio by the most excellent Phil Chenevert, Feedbooks epub, a cleaned up version of a Gutenberg project ebook. FREE, FREE, FREE

I'm a bit stumped by the title, “The Tunnel Under the World”. Don't know what I expected but it wasn't this story... which, by the way, is excellent. It's a 59 year old story but with a tweak here and there, then add a little polish, and you have a ready to go story or movie adaptation for 2014.

This is not a novel, maybe a novelette or long short story. It isn't obviously science fiction like most 6 decade old science fiction is/was. No blasters, ray guns, rocket ships, and the other hallucinations of what life would be like in 2015. In fact most the descriptions of daily life were probably very close to 1955. I mean, screw in fuses? Don't see those much anymore. And what would a 50's story be without cigarettes? This one hyped Chesterfield at one point.. which was a popular brand in the 50s.

After the first paragraph of chapter two I had to flip back to chapter one. At that point I easily realize I'm in . This really peaked my interest and is why I gave it 4 stars instead of the normal 3 for this era of science fiction story. I wanted to know what would happen next. But unlike things were decidedly different in this story. Another tweak to my curiosity.

By this time you know there is something terribly wrong. You're pretty attached to the protagonist, Guy Burckhardt who has pieced together pieces of the mystery but it still isn't making sense to him. At that point of the story figuring things out becomes paramount and why the pages are burning by.

By the end of the story you're certain it is a science fiction story. Even more so than you suspect. If you're like, me you might think the ending was similar to , except the 'reveal' isn't supernatural, rather science fiction.
Profile Image for Bodhi.
24 reviews6 followers
August 4, 2014
You owe it to yourself to read this story if you are curious about some of the early themes in Science Fiction writing. My review is probably biased by the fact that this was my first taste of SciFi from this era. The time was embodied by cigarette stands, cellophane dresses, Martians, and American values.

Without revealing much, I will say that the story is an ideal length. The action and reveals don't let up. Some of the ideas are kind of quaint in the 21st century, but there was a suspicion that everything about the modern American family was manufactured a little too perfectly. Every day is JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER except the corporations come out with one more type of cigarette or a new freezer to buy your wife, making you stay late at the office.

All of this provides the undercurrent for a reality that starts to show a false veneer for "Guy" one day. The story has some stylistic high-contrast, explosive pictures to boot. You might catch a whiff of 1984 in some scenes. Altogether, there are a number of twists and a great amount of suspense before you get to the end.

I'll bet you can't guess every detail of the author's conclusion, which makes you wonder... Is it realistic?
Profile Image for Rob.
8 reviews
November 30, 2013
Just read this fun story by Pohl through my East of the Web app. EotW features a number of Pohl's shorts. I'm glad to have found his work. Pohl's writing is fairly concise and his imagination is fantastic. A trending theme in the shorts I've read so far is the development of a character's (typically the main one) and the reader's discovery of the unusual circumstances that Pohl has placed that character in.

My only complaint is that the richness of the tale starts to pull me in and I want to learn more and then the story ends...
Profile Image for Scott Harris.
583 reviews9 followers
May 29, 2013
This story must have inspired the genre of perpetual same day experiences that have since become a relatively common plot scheme in Hollywood. Pohl's version however is richer and far more nuanced, with a sense of horror and mystery that takes time to unfold, and provides an emotional richness beyond the typical - what I would do today if I knew it would erased kindergarten version. Very rooted in the culture of the 1950s, it is equally a healthy dose of social commentary.
Profile Image for Saya.
571 reviews9 followers
May 4, 2016
Este es un claro ejemplo del tipo de historias que me apasionan: corta, concisa, con una idea simple en principio y compleja en el fondo, que te deja pensando en tantas posibilidades... De imprescindible lectura, su ritmo engancha hasta que la finalizas... Tras pasar por algunas sorpresas. Muy recomendable.
Profile Image for Jessica.
425 reviews
October 5, 2015
I really enjoyed this short story. It was quite interesting, and leaves you thinking. I definitely recommend it.
Profile Image for for-much-deliberation  ....
2,689 reviews
April 4, 2016
Now Guy Burckhardt will be forever waking up from that disastrous dream on June 15th... I love these sci-fi tales, they really stretch the imagination...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.