I read this story probably more than 30 years ago. I think it was a novel or at least a novella. I guess it could have been a (long) short story.
The protagonist is trying to get into some sort of elite interplanetary military or exploration unit and as a final test he and other trainees are dropped off on a hostile planet on which they are to survive for a few days. It’s a very dangerous test and there is a real prospect that trainees will die.
As he’s dropped off he’s given one warning by his trainer; to watch out for the “XXXX” [I can’t remember the name]. The trainer refuses to elaborate.
He quickly encounters hordes of an extremely dangerous lifeform. I think maybe they only come out at night. He realises they must be the XXXX he was warned about. He barely survives. All the trainees except himself and one other (natch) female trainee are killed.
The days and then weeks go by. They realise there must be some sort of problem as they seem to have been forgotten.
Eventually they are picked up. He makes some remark to the trainer about the XXXX. His trainer reveals that:’
He didn’t actually have any knowledge of what dangers the planet held. He just always said “watch out for the XXXX” as a generic remark when dropping off trainees for their survival test, to keep trainees on their toes. The trainer actually had no idea about the planet’s lifeforms.
Nailed it in one. The OP is mis-remembering a number of details, but it is definitely “Tunnel In the Sky.” Most of the members of the various classes in fact survived. They banded together and started a society that Rod Walker was rather proud of when they were finally rescued. It most assuredly wasn’t “All the trainees except himself and one other (natch) female trainee are killed.”
What’s better, the stobor actually change a few times during the book. The first night on the planet, he hears terrible screams all throughout the jungle, and is convinced that they’re from the stobor… except, come morning, it turns out that it’s just a harmless little frog-critter. Then, later on, they encounter formidable lion-like beasts, and collectively agree that those are the real stobors… but they’re not too hard to hunt, as long as you stay with your hunting pack, and there aren’t enough of them to be a real danger. Eventually, they discover that an innocuous little critter they had been calling a “dopey joe” swarms every year, forming a river of flesh that devour everything in their path, and agree that those are by far the second-most-dangerous animal on the planet (the first being, of course, Homo sapiens), and so the only thing that deserves the stobor name.
Thanks guys but I now officially have my hands over my eyes and will not be coming back to this thread because I have a hankering to re-read the book and I don’t want to spoil it any more than my recollection of it makes unavoidable.
Hmmm so having now re-read it I’m finding my recollection of it rather challenged. Clearly the stobor detail means that the story I remembered was indeed Tunnel in the Sky. The detail of him taking only knives where others took heaps of guns I also remember.
But I have a very strong recollection of the story being mostly about him being on his own whereas Rod Walker’s story is very largely about the tribulations of the group. I also have a strong recollection of him “getting the girl” to a somewhat explicit extent. I think I might be conflating two stories somewhat.
as I’ve remarked on this Board before, any savvy mystery reader or suspicious SF fan will observe that “stobor” is “robots” spelled backwards. This will make them think “Aha! – the Stobor must be Robots built by the folks running the test as a challenge for the participants. And, since they’re robots, they won’t actually hurt the participants!” Except that that isn’t what they are. Heinlein faked us out. Caught in our own cleverness.
Except this is one of the first SF novels I read, so I wasn’t sufficiently savvy to figure that out in advance. By the time I was a jaded experienced SF reader, I already knew about this twist. So I was saved from falling into the trap by my own ignorance.
