Scan barcode
A review by oleksandr
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
3.0
This is a SF novel that won Nebula and was nominated for Hugo in 1969. Largely it is a product of its time, but there are messages relevant today as well.
Earth was destroyed by overpopulation but before that a number of faster than light colony ships were built from the hollowed asteroids and new colonies were seeded. It was impossible to give colonists neither machinery (which breaks too easily) nor knowledge how to make it (less plausible, but it is an important premise for the story). Now former colony ships with skeleton crews go from world to world and exchange pieces of information for colony’s produce.
Enter Mia Havero, 12 year old small black-haired girl, who lives on the ship. The ship’s society is quite small and rigid, it has too few people to have a market, so it is under a kind of communism, but without a significant suppression. The rejuvenation treatment allows people to live to a hundred. Fearing overpopulation, the strict eugenic system is installed, which women, who try to get more kids than their ‘share’ exiled from the ship (which is almost a death penalty). All children at age of 14 should pass a trial (also known as ‘the rite of passage) – to live for a month in a randomly selected colony world. ¾ of the book are about growing and getting ready for the trial.
It is one of the earliest young female protagonists in SF, and she is no blond sexy booby wonder. As several women suggest (including [a:Jo Walton|107170|Jo Walton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1353809579p2/107170.jpg]), it is a rare case of a believable female character written by a SF writer. The story is much better understood as and answer to [b:Podkayne of Mars|50839|Podkayne of Mars|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388228048l/50839._SY75_.jpg|2534895] and juveniles by [a:Robert A. Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]. It is written in a similar style with some similarities (a competent youngster, strong willed character, wise older figure) but with significant differences (no moral rightness, a (quite modest) sex scene in a juvenile book!).
While the final is pretty interesting and unexpected, reaching it goes for a little too long and quite a few questions remain unanswered.
Earth was destroyed by overpopulation but before that a number of faster than light colony ships were built from the hollowed asteroids and new colonies were seeded. It was impossible to give colonists neither machinery (which breaks too easily) nor knowledge how to make it (less plausible, but it is an important premise for the story). Now former colony ships with skeleton crews go from world to world and exchange pieces of information for colony’s produce.
Enter Mia Havero, 12 year old small black-haired girl, who lives on the ship. The ship’s society is quite small and rigid, it has too few people to have a market, so it is under a kind of communism, but without a significant suppression. The rejuvenation treatment allows people to live to a hundred. Fearing overpopulation, the strict eugenic system is installed, which women, who try to get more kids than their ‘share’ exiled from the ship (which is almost a death penalty). All children at age of 14 should pass a trial (also known as ‘the rite of passage) – to live for a month in a randomly selected colony world. ¾ of the book are about growing and getting ready for the trial.
It is one of the earliest young female protagonists in SF, and she is no blond sexy booby wonder. As several women suggest (including [a:Jo Walton|107170|Jo Walton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1353809579p2/107170.jpg]), it is a rare case of a believable female character written by a SF writer. The story is much better understood as and answer to [b:Podkayne of Mars|50839|Podkayne of Mars|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388228048l/50839._SY75_.jpg|2534895] and juveniles by [a:Robert A. Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]. It is written in a similar style with some similarities (a competent youngster, strong willed character, wise older figure) but with significant differences (no moral rightness, a (quite modest) sex scene in a juvenile book!).
While the final is pretty interesting and unexpected, reaching it goes for a little too long and quite a few questions remain unanswered.